150 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
a great deal of cave for several years, but it 
yielded me very little increase. I then 
thought that perhaps this soil did not suit it, 
and as the surface soil where I had seen it 
grow before appeared to be sandy, (possibly 
the sub-soil was damp,) 1 transplanted the 
licorice to a soil which was both lighter and 
dryer, and it had also a dry sub-soil. But 
here also I was disappointed, for here the 
licorice increased still less than it did in the 
place where first set out. 
At length, after a number of years of un¬ 
successful trial, finding the licorice which I 
• raised in my garden cost me more than ten 
times as much as the cost of the imported 
article, I very reluctantly relinquished its 
cultivation altogether. 
Whether the climate did not agree with it, 
or whether the soil did not suit it, I do not 
know. But, however great a “ pest” the 
licorice may be in Italy, it did not seem to 
be very tenacious of its hold on my territo¬ 
ry. Very respectfully, Asa M. Holt. 
HOGS-SHEEP.-A BOY “HELPING HIM¬ 
SELF.” 
Lyons, N. V., March 14, 1856. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I saw an article in the Agriculturist for 
this month headed “ Boys help yourselves.” 
I am twelve years old) and am trying to do 
something for myself. Last fall we had a 
large quantity of soft corn, and father told 
me if I would buy some hogs he would sell 
me corn to fatten them. I thought I would 
try my luck, and Nov. 2d I bought three 
hogs, at five cents per lb. My account with 
the hog experiment stands thus : 
Dr. 
Nov. 2—To one hog, 185 lbs., at 5c...$9 25 
To one hog, 105 lbs., at 5c... 5 25 
To one hog, 103 lbs., at 5c... 5 15 
To 59 bush, soft corn, at 18 Jc. 1106 
To 12 bushels corn, at 25c... 3 00 
$33 71 
Cr. 
Dec. 20—By 1 hog, 288 lbs., sold at 7£c.$17 10 
By 1 hog, 148 lbs., at 7|c... 1110 
By 1 hog, 164 lbs., at 71c... 12 30 
$40 50 
Profit on three hogs_$6 79. 
Encouraged by the above experiment, I 
wish to try my hand with sheep. I would 
like three ewes, the best 1 can get. Will 
you favor me with your opinion as to which 
is the best 1 the Cotswold, the Leicesters or 
South Downs 1 Myron R-. 
We are glad to see our young correspon¬ 
dent “helpinghimself,” especially when he 
does so with his father’s approbation. We 
have some notions of our own about boys 
owning , and not owning, a few things on the 
farm, which we have put off saying for a 
great while. We’ll try to get to that sub¬ 
ject when our “ spring work” is over. 
About sheep, we think, everything con¬ 
sidered, South Downs would pay the best, 
as their mutton is more highly esteemed by 
epicures in the market. For the mere pur¬ 
pose of fattening, Myron R. can purchase 
grades of this breed for about the same 
price he would have to pay for common 
sheep. Grades of the Cotswold or Leices¬ 
ters would also do well; but the mutton of 
the pure breed is rather too fat for the table. 
Still, many people are no judges between 
very fat meat, like the Cotswold’s, &c., and 
the lean, tender, juicy, venson-like mutton 
of the South Downs ; the carcasses of the 
former often bring very high prices. They 
are very showy, with their full, round sides 
and quarters, and consequently command 
exhorbitant prices among the rich for dinner 
parties.— Ed. 
GROWING ONIONS. 
STATEMENT OF A. B. CHADSEY. 
To the Committee on Grain and Vegetable Crops of The 
Rhode-Island Society for the Encouragement of Do¬ 
mestic Industry. 
I herewith submit the following statement 
of a crop grown on forty-four rods of ground 
the past season. The soil is sandy loam in 
a high state of cultivation, surrounded at 
high tide with salt water and has been plant¬ 
ed to onions fourteen years in succession. 
The crop has always been divided between 
onions and carrots—two-thirds onions and 
one-third carrots, till the past season, when 
it was planted all to onions. On the 11th of 
April the piece was manured with twenty-one 
horse loads compost of fish manure—com¬ 
posted the previous year with menhaden fish, 
salt marsh sod, and beach sand. The compost 
lay in a heap through the winter, was dug 
over in the spring, and thoroughly mixed to¬ 
gether. The quantity of manure by meas¬ 
ure was three and a half cords; this was* 
plowed in with a Michigan plow twelve 
inches deep. I then spread on the furrow 
twenty-two bushels unleached ashes, and 
115 pounds ground bone, and bushed them in. 
On the 13th of April, the piece was planted 
with one pound and a quarter of onion seed, 
put in with a seed planter in drills twelve 
inches apart; and rolled down with a cast 
iron roller. The season being cold through 
April and May, the onions were quite back¬ 
ward, and not sufficiently large to hoe until 
about six weeks after planting. I use at the 
first and second hoeing a common stirrup 
hoe with long handle, after which I use a 
small hoe four inches long and one inch wide 
with a short handle, say ten or twelve inches 
long. With this we creep over the piece 
cutting up the weeds between the rows and 
pulling them out from among the onions with 
the fingers. This last operation is performed 
at each of the three hoeings after the first 
two with the stirrup hoe—the last or sixth 
hoeing is done with the long handled hoe. 
When the onion tops get their growth they 
fall to the ground, bending down at the neck. 
They then begin to shrink up, while the 
onion continues its growth even more rap¬ 
idly than before. When the tops become 
dry, or nearly so, the onions are pulled and 
laid in rows, and left to cure in the sun four 
or five days, when the tops are cut off with 
sheep shears or knives—the shears being 
preferable ; the onions are then stored in a 
dry airy building. 
Finding at the second hoeing that some of 
the onion seed had not come up, or had 
been cut off by worms, the deficiency was 
supplied with Sugar Beet and French Turnip 
Seed, and a row of Acorn Squashes, (a spe¬ 
cies of large West India squash,) planted 
round the edge of the piece. The following 
is the cost of cultivation, the quantity, and 
the value of the crop. 
EXPENSES. 
3* cords compost Fish Manure, at $ 2 *.$7 88 
22 bushels unleached Ashes, at 15c. 3 30 
115 lbs. ground Bone, at lc. 1 15 
Team and man carting and spreading manure... 2 50 
Bushing, rolling and planting. l 50 
lifts. Onion Seed, $1.25, other seed 20c. 145 
Hoeing, six times. 12 00 
Pulling Onions. 1 50 
Topping Onions.; 3 20 
Carting Irom field. 2 50 
Rent, land valued at $200 per acre, 44 rods at that 
rate, and 6 per cent. 3 30 
Total. $40 37 
Sept. 12 and 13th, harvested from the above de¬ 
scribed ground of 44 rods, 219 bushels red 
Onions, sold at 50c. $109 80 
Nov. 18th, 7 bushels Beets, at 30c., and 9 bushels 
French Turnips, at 40c. 5 70 
560 lbs. Acorn Squashes, at He. 8 40 
$123 60 
Expenses deducted. 40 37 
Leaves a profit of. $83 23 
A. B. CHADSEY. 
Wickford, R. I. Dec. 5th, 1855. 
DIFFERENCE IN CLIMATE. FRUITS, 4c., 
BETWEEN KENTUCKY AND NEW-Y0RK, 
NORTHERN OHIO, 4c. 
The Editor of the Louisville, (Ky.,) Com¬ 
mercial Review, speaking of this subject, 
and referring to the banks of the Hudson 
and the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, 
says : 
“We live under a different sky, and upon 
a different soil. W'e have longer and hotter 
summers than prevail there, and shorter and 
more open winters. We suffer less from in¬ 
tense cold than the dwellers in the regions 
tve have named, and more from sudden and 
extreme alternations of frost and thaw. The 
vegetatian of our April answers to that of 
their May. We have finished our annual 
feast of strawberries before their plants are 
white with bloom. "We send them in August 
the same kind of peaches which they pluck 
from their own trees in September. And 
later in the season, while we are picking our 
Autumn pears from the spurs and eating 
them in the open air, perhaps with summer 
garments on, they are enjoying theirs by coal 
fires, and perchance with the additional zest 
imparted by the music of sleigh bells in the 
streets. In October the deciduous trees in 
their forests are bare of leaves, while the 
maples, oaks, ashs and gums in ours, more 
than rivaling the setting sun, are just begin¬ 
ning to put on their most beautiful and most 
gorgeous liveries. In November, or earlier, 
their hybrid and perpetual roses are all care¬ 
fully laid away for the winter, while ours* 
are still in possession of bloom, 
“ The beauty and the glory of our lawns.” " 
We need not multiply examples in illus¬ 
tration of the climatic differences of the sev¬ 
eral regions we have named. These differ¬ 
ences are well understood, and their effects 
on vegetation and fruits are notorious. 
Grapes that ripen early in .the Ohio Valley, 
on the Hudson River do not mature at all 
without artificial aid. Apples that are a dull 
green or a brownish-yellow in orchards 
