Crops for Pickling and Preserving. 
715 
rv, as it has only been deemed desirable lo indicate the 
mnection between the different croppings before proceeding to 
iscuss the various crops individually. 
Crcts for Brining and Pickling. 
Onions. — This is the most important crop grown for pickling 
urposes. Messrs. King grew 130 acres of onions this year, 
•hich will average from 10 to 12 tons per acre, it being a very 
roductive season. Light, friable soils with open subsoils are best 
uited to their growth, and the greatest care has to be taken in 
preparing the seed-beds. The previous treatment of land for 
growing this crop is by no means confined to the few months 
mmediately preceding the sowing, for it requires to be got 
horoughly into condition, both as regards manuring and clean- 
iness. Certain conditions are decidedly unfavourable to the 
jrowth of onions. Land which has been cropped with common 
ield-beans rarely produces good onions, for the latter are then 
iable to '* gloat " or puff, in which case they are useless for pickling, 
is the bulb is too soft. Besides this, onions so grown are much 
more liable to attacks of the onion-grub, as this insect appears to 
harbour in the straw, or haulm, during some period of its exist- 
ence, though it has not been actually traced. It not only 
appears more often on land on which beans have been grown, but 
when bean-straw is used as litter from which dung is made, and 
the dung is applied for onions, a" serious attack is almost certain 
to ensue. Therefore the cropping has to be arranged so that 
onions do not follow beans, either directly or after some years, 
and most onion-growers refrain altogether from cultivating 
i beans. 
Although heavy dressings of rotten dung are often applied a 
few months before onion-seed is sown, it is preferred to put on a 
■ considerable quantity in the preceding years, and thereby to get it 
. thoroughly incorporated with the soil, so that its rankness may 
i be dissipated through the medium of other crops. Last spring I 
i saw Messrs. King getting a piece of land on their new farm into 
condition for onions, but the onions will not be sown for at least 
another year or two. The land was in- wheat stubble which had 
I been autumn-cultivated and cleaned ; it had already received 
' 100 bushels of soot per acre ; 25 tons per acre of good London 
dung were at the time being applied, and after this there would 
be a dressing of 7 cwt. of dissolved bones. All these were being 
put on to produce a crop of swedes which would be fed off by 
big wether sheep, receiving as much cake as they could consume. 
A crop of peas will be sown in the following spring. If, after 
