1-8G9. 1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
127 
for onions; ohl vegetable gardens are perhaps the best, 
except where cabbages have been grown, which arc the 
worst of all crops to precede onions. Heavy or rather 
clayey, moist, not wet, loam generally produces the 
largest onions. If coarse manure is to be used, spread 
on twenty to thirty loads to the acre late in the fall, say 
ahont the middle of November, and plow it in not very 
deep ; or use one ton offish guano, spread on after plow- 
ing and harrow it in. If raw fish is put on in the spring, 
the onions will continue to grow until too late to ripen. 
In the spring, as soon as the ground will work, plow 
fonr inches deep, and spread on a good dressing of fine 
compost or 300 lbs. Peruvian guano or superphosphate 
or lime, and harrow it in well ; back harrow and harrow 
again, and if not smooth enough, dress with rakes. When 
not manured in the fall, fine hog-pen or stable manure, 
free from grass and weed seeds, should be plowed in in the 
spring and the guano or other fertilizers harrowed in. 
Every farmer and gardener should have a reel and line, 
and a marking rake. They will save a great many steps 
in laving out; besides, the straight and uniform rows 
enable the workmen to accomplish a great deal more 
iu cultivating and weeding with the new implements. 
The Heel, (fig. 1) may be made of wood, though iron 
(which may be bought) is preferable. When made of 
wood it consists of a square frame with projecting top and 
bottom pieces with holes through the centres to insert a 
stake. It is turned 
by one of the sides 
extending through 
the top piece 
for a handle. The 
other bide should 
extend a couple of 
inches through the 
bottom piece, to hold 
the line when run 
off. In the figure the 
handle is shown as 
inserted separately, 
which is Dot neces- 
sary ; the projec- 
tion above referred 
to is not shown. A 
shorter stake will do 
for the other end of 
the line. Common 
three-stranded cord, 
abeut a quarter of 
an inch thick, is the 
most suitable for the 
Hue. To construct 
a Marking Rake, 
make the head 3 
feet 10 inches long 
by 2 inches square. 
Fig. 1.— peel AND line. Bore four %-inch 
hales 14 inches apart, commencing 2 inches from the 
ends ; one hole in the centre ; and holes at 12, lo : 16&aad 
IS inches each side of it. Make four teeth G inches long, 
an inch thick, and round them at the points. Secure them 
with a pin or key at the tops so they can be easily 
changed and adjusted to the different widths. The handle 
of the marker should be six feet long, split, and spread 
so as to, form braces where it is fastened to the head. 
Another form of marker is shown at fig. 2, in which the 
teeth arc not movable ; they are 
fixed at the desired distances, 
on both sides of the bead. The 
land bcingprepared for sowing, 
stick down the stake, run off the 
line, and lay it where it is de- 
sired to commence. Adjust tho 
marking rake to 14 inches, 
draw the outside tootli carefnllj 
by the line, and follow back 
and forth in the last mark until 
completed. After the ground 
Is marked off it should lie a 
little while for the surface to 
dry before commencing to sow 
the seed. It covers much bet- 
ter, and the dirt will not stick 
t» the wheel of the seed sower. 
The best onion growers now 
do not use seed sowers with 
a roller attached. It packs Fi 
the earth so hard that it bakes after a heavy rain and 
very much impedes the growth of the ynuug plant, and 
it is not so easy in weeding to break the crust formed 
where rolled down fiat as when the seed is covered by 
rakes or a light drag. It is of the utmost importance to 
get good seed— not only good, strong-growing seed, but 
seed that has been raised from good-sized, well-ripened 
onions. Imported seed cannot be trusted. The Second 
Early Red Onion is the best for a general crop. Sow four 
to aix pound* to the acre— pay about thruo seeds to an 
inch or five seeds to two inches; cover half an inch. 
As soon as the onions are up so they can be seen the 
length of the rows, run Comstock's Onion Wcedcr (fig. 3\ 
through them, with the rakes adjusted so as not to throw 
the earth upon the young plants, and repeat often enough 
to prevent the growth of weeds. This will keep the 
ground perfectly clean between the rows. When they 
arc just out of the double, or when the first weeds begin 
Fig. 2.— DRILL MARKER. 
to show, after cultivating, the ground should be raked 
lightly, diagonally across the rows with a common wooden 
bay rake. This will break the crust, destroy the weeds 
in the rows, and give the young plants a good start. 
Early in June, when the onions are 4 or 5 inches high, 
sow about three bushels to the acre of not very coarse 
salt broadcast over them. After the second weeding, 
spread on a good dressing of wood ashes. They re- 
quire three or fonr weeding* in the rows; but if pains 
were taken in marking to keep the rows straight and 
uniform, the Onion Wecder will run so close to them 
that there will be but few weeds to remove by hand. 
When the tops have fallen and nearly dried down, draw 
four rows together with a wooden rake, raking two rows 
at a time toward the other two rows. Pull forks are 
sometimes used, but in careless bands they pierce a good 
many onions. They may remain as raked together 
several days, or until sufficiently cured to strip; cut the 
tops about an inch from the onions. If they are stripped 
while the tops are partly green they do not keep so well. 
After stripping, remove them to an outbuilding on a dry 
day, with a north-west wind, and spread over the floor, 
not more than a foot thick; turn them occasionally. 
To keep onions in quantity through the winter : just 
before they are likely to freeze, and when perfectly dry, 
spread them IS inches thick on a tight floor in a barn or 
outbuilding which is underpinned so as to keep the cold 
air from freezing them too severely next the floor. Leave 
a space of 2 feet next the walls of the building on all 
sides; spread a sheet eutirely over them, fill the space 
with fine hay, (rowen is the best.) and tread it firmly ; then 
cover the whole about two feet thick with the same, 
and the onions will ordinarily keep well. They should 
never be disturbed while frozen, but as soon as the 
frost is completely out in the spring, take off the cover- 
ing and spread them all over the room, opening the doors 
and windows to give air in pleasant weather. If they 
are not well covered and the thermometer should fall to 
15 degrees below zero, some or them may freeze to death, 
and be soft when thawed. 
White onions are tho wo r st to keep, on account of 
their gathering moisture so readily. They should be 
kept spread quite thinly on a floor in the light and where 
the air can circulate freely. Just before winter sets in, 
spread a few inches of straw on a floor, and place the 
3.— comstock's onion* WEEDUrt. 
onions on it 4 or 5 inches thick ; let them freez3 a little, 
then cover them with straw and let them remain un- 
disturbed until spring; or put them into peach crates and 
cover with hay iu the barn, or pile the crates next the 
walls of a cool cellar.— Onions are generally one of the 
most profitable crops, often yielding 400 to GOO, some- 
times S00 bushels, to the acre. Onions are now worth 
$-1.50 to §1.00 per bushel. American seed, (and no other 
is safe to sow,) is in small supply and high. It looks as 
if onion raising would be profitable the coining aeasoii. 
Tim Bunker on Being Smart Next Week. 
" When arc you going to bring home my sled, 
Neighbor Frink," I asked one morning as I 
drove up to Jake's door. There was a fresh 
snow upon the ground, fallen upon an old, well- 
frozen coat, and the sledding was first-rate. 
""Well, I was calculating to bring it home 
next week, if that'll du," answered Jake, as lie 
stood in the door chewing the last mouthful of 
his breakfast. It was eight o'clock, then, and 
be hadn't seen a creature in his barn or pig-pen. 
" Next -week ! " I exclaimed. "You told me 
that ten days ago, and 3-011 haven't drawn a 
stick of wood since. I have got to draw ten 
cords of wood over to Shadtown, and I can't 
afford to lose this snow. If you can't bring that 
sled home this morning, I'll have to send for it." 
"Send away, then, Tim Bunker, and next 
time I'll borrow of some decent man that's ac- 
commodatin'," said Jake, as lie turned on his 
heel, and went into the house. 
You see, Jake had had that sled already two 
months, during the best part of the winter. He 
came over one morning, and told me that bis 
sled had broken down, and lie only wanted mine 
just for a day or two ; lie would use it carefully 
and bring it back next week. I let him have it, 
knowing then, as well as I did afterward, that 
I should have to go after it, whenever I wanted 
it. Jake has a meek, honest sort of face, par- 
ticularly when he wants any thing; and to look 
at him, 3*011 would think he was a deacon, if lie 
was a little better dressed. I expect Polly has 
gi'n him that look, for the world is indebted to 
her for pretty much all that Jake Frink has 
ever accomplished. Aunt Poll}' is smart right 
off to-day, especially in her tongue, and with 
that member and the broomstick she can make 
Jake smart almost any time. It's luck)* that 
Jake got such a helpmeet, for he is naturally 
inclined to be smart next week, and if it hadn't 
been for Aunt Polly, I don't believe the world 
would ever have heard of him. In spite of her, 
he has always been full of next-week jobs. I 
knew him when he was a boy going to school, 
and setting rabbit traps. He was quick enough 
to get a lesson, if he would only apply his mind 
to it — that was the trouble. He was always tho 
best scholar in his class next week; but to-day 
he liked tobacco, and' red-pepper, and cider, 
better than bis books. He did catch some rab- 
bits and minks, but it was always too much 
trouble to set traps, and he never had half so 
man}' as he meant to next week. He didn't visit 
his traps regularly, and a good deal of the game 
caught was lost or stolen, for want of Jake's at- 
tention. His string of skins generally came out 
slim in the spring, and he always felt bad about 
it, for he meant to catch more game than aruy 
boy in the school. He was so certain that he 
was the smartest scholar in the school that he 
never half studied. He was always at the head 
of his class next week, but near the tail end to- 
day. He left school early, and carried his habit 
of being smart next week into his business. 
Folks all wondered how he ever got married, or 
got to doing any thing for a living, or how his way 
of doing things supported his family. He would- 
n't have made out anything if Aunt Polly hadn't' 
been just as she was, to bring him right up to 
the scratch, with her sharp tongue, when things 
were getting behindhand. They find a great 
deal of fault with the women for having too long 
tongues, and talking too much. Aunt Polly's 
was the greatest blessing Jake had iu his house. 
Ho lias always been full of jobs next week, and 
none of them would ever have been finished if she 
