9 



Wood ashes are generally used in connection with other ma- 

 nures at the rate of about 200 bushels to the acre. Wood 

 ashes should never be co)nbined with other manures, as it will 

 set the ammonia free, and thus deteriorate their quality. Use 

 ashes either by scattering it on the surface at the time of plant- 

 ing, or when the crop is about half gro^^'n. 



In the vicinity of large towns, of all manures obtained out- 

 side the barnyard, night-soil is the cheapest. The first farmer 

 who used it in this localitv', comparatively but a few years 

 ago, was universally jeered at by his comrades, but now near- 

 ly all of our annual crop of 50,000 bushels is fed principally 

 on this manure. 



The effect of kelp, (by this I mean the sea-manure which 

 is thro\\Ti up by the storms on very bold shores,) when used 

 as the principal manure, is to give a coarse onion, and a late 

 crop ; so late as oftentimes to be in quite a green state at the 

 close of the season, requiring extra labor and care to get it 

 in market condition. In seasons of great drought, however, 

 kelp serv^es an excellent end, in so retarding the crop that it 

 is not prematurely ripened. In the excessively dry season of 

 1864, crops along the sea-coast manured with kelp, in many 

 instances yielded double those manured with barnyard and 

 other manures. 



The manure is managed most conveniently by dropping it 

 on the land in quite small heaps, at reg^alar inter\'als, at con- 

 venient distance for spreading, I close this paragraph on ma- 

 nures by emphasizing the utihty of a tho?'ough fining of if, 



PLOWING. 



The farmer who brings up the sub-soil on his onion bed, 

 ^vill find he has made a mistake. Onions do not require deep 



