the bush-hazel is selected, if accessible, the bushes cut down 

 and the turf surface but little more than pared in spring with 

 the plow. In this condition it is usually allowed to remain a 

 season, exposed to the drying effects of the sun, when it is 

 most thoroughly harrowed and raked, and all the numerous 

 roots and waste are burnt, the land plowed to a moderate 

 depth, and the seed sowti either broadcast or in drills. 

 Should the early part of the season prove very wet, the crop 

 sowed broadcast is at times smothered under a rapid growth 

 of weeds, while with a favoring season as high as 800 bushels 

 to the acre have been harvested. 



After the harvesting of the crop which is to precede onions, 

 let the land have a fall plowing, and be thrown up into ridges, 

 which will not only help destroy noxious weeds and witch 

 grass as above stated, but will leave the land hght, in a con- 

 dition to be worked successfully early in the spring — a great 

 desideratum for a crop that usually requires the entire season 

 to mature it. 



THE MANURE. 



Onions require the very best of manure, in the m^ost tempt- 

 ing condition, and plenty of it at that. Peruvian guano, fish 

 guano, pig manure, barn manure, night-soil, kelp, muscle 

 mud, superphosphate of lime, wood ashes, and muck are, 

 either alone or in compost, all excellent food for the onion. 

 Old ground, to maintain it in first-rate condition, should re- 

 ceive from six to eight cords of manure to the acre ; while 

 new onion ground, to get it in first-rate condition, should re- 

 ceive from eight to ten cords of manure. When Peruvian 

 guano was held at about sixty dollars per ton, experienced 

 farmers believed that no purchased manure paid as well as 

 this on old beds, provided two applications were made, one 



