858 Report upon the 3Iarhet-Garden, and 
Crosse and Blackwell for this purpose. At each visit these 
onions were found to be remarkably free from weeds. Labourers 
usually engage to keep onions sown broadcast free from weeds for 
4/. per acre. They could not manage this at anything like this 
money this season. When the onions are small they use two 
small tools, nearly a foot and a half long, which are so useful 
and unlike any known in other districts, that sketches of them 
are given. That shown in Fig. 3 is a short-handled hoe, a 
miniature of the ordinary-shaped tool. The other, represented 
in Figs. 4 and 4a, is styled a " knife," having a very short, 
curved, sharp blade, admirably adapted for " knifing " the 
weeds out of onions, carrots, and other plants set thickly. 
Both are used by men and women, either stooping or kneeling 
down, and serve admirably to cut up the weeds. When the 
onions get high, the men fasten coverings of sacking over their 
boots, that they may not bruise the plants, and go delicately 
upon their hands and knees. Their trail is seen for some 
hours after they have gone over the onions, and it takes them 
some time to recover and get upright again. 
Pickling onions are a profitable crop if well farmed. In the 
course of their investigations in connection with this competi- 
tion, the Judges had proof that an average amount of over loOZ. 
per acre had been made for three years upon a very large 
acreage of onions. At the same time, the expenses of cultivation 
are enormous, and it requires exceptional skill and management 
to obtain such results, as well as judgment in making sale con- 
tracts. On No. 7 was a 7-acre piece of " Kissingen" wheat, put in 
about the middle of November, with 5 pecks of seed per acre, 
showing a strong and even plant, well forward, and looking like 
at least 6 quarters per acre. Part of this was after cabbage-plants, 
which had made 40/. per acre, having only occupied the ground 
about eight weeks, the seed having been sown in August, and 
