216 



ONION. 



ble after the frost is out of the ground : in this climate, if 

 the seed is not in the ground before the first of May, there 

 is but little chance for a crop. It must be covered slightly, 

 and stamped well over with the hoe to close it well, 1 

 would recommend, as most essential, to sow the seed spar- 

 ingly. Even the best gardeners are apt to put in too much 

 seed. The consequence is, that the young plants come 

 up so thick that they run up spiry and weak ; and, when 

 you come to thin them, you find great difliculty to pull up 

 so many without injuring those that you leave ; and the 

 worst injury is wiiat you do to the roots, which you tear 

 and loosen. Therefore have seed of your own raising, or 

 that you know is fresh, and sow sparingly." 



In tlie N. E. Fanner^ vol. iii. p. 265, are the observations 

 of I. Tucker, Esq. of Salem, Mass., who says, " The land 

 should be ploughed about four inches in depth, and har- 

 rowed so as to make it very fine ; the manure, which 

 should always be a rich compost, should be ploughed in 

 and thoroughly mixed; the land should then be rolled v/ith 

 a heavy roller, to form a close bottom for the bulbs to form 

 upon, and at the same time not so hard as to prevent the 

 small roots of the plant from penetrating. The best onions 

 and the largest crops are produced where the bulbs grow 

 almost entirely on the top of the ground. After the ground 

 has been rolled, and before the seeds are sown, the beds 

 should be raked with a sharp iron rake, to prepare a finely 

 pulverized drill for reception of the seed; and, after the 

 seeds are sown, the drill should be pressed with a board and 

 sufficient weight to bring the earth into close contact with 

 the seed. Care should be taken in selecting seed ; none 

 should be sown but such as wdll be sure to vegetate ; and 

 it would be well if no more seed were to be sown than 

 you would have plants to remain and grow in the drill. 

 It would be superfluous to add that, if you would have a 

 good crop of onions, you must not permit a crop of weeds 

 to grow in the same bed ; they will not grow well to- 

 gether." 



Mr. Adams Knight, of Newbury, Mass., received a premi- 

 um of twenty dollars for having raised, in 1822, the greatest 

 quantity of onions, being six hundred and fifty-one bushels 

 on one acre. " The soil is a rich, gravelly loam, with a grav- 

 el bottom : in 1821 it Vv^as cultivated with onions and cabba- 

 ges, and was manured with about five cords of barn manure, 

 and produced a good crop : after the crop was off the ground, 

 there were five cords of barn manure and two and a half 



