AGRICULTURE 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THU I,EADI.VG AMERICAN WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
quires, it will be useless to waste time, seed and 
land in any hall-way work. 
When seed is put in the ground it should bo pre¬ 
pared as early as possible in the spring, as the onion 
requires for its perfection all the summer we have in 
this latitude. If planted early, too, it gets the start 
of the weeds —no small consideration, as all will 
admit who have had experience in the culture of the 
onion. Clean soil should be selected and a carrot 
or other root crop should precede that of onions. 
The onion growers of Connecticut and other 
places, who make a business of raising this vegeta¬ 
ble, and who know how useless it is to try to grow a 
ovop without heavy manuring and the most thorough 
culture, generally succeed in growing from 400 to 
700 bushels to the acre from the seed f but tlioso who 
give but little attention to the matter often fail to 
grow enough to pay for seed and labor. By plant¬ 
ing the seed in the ground in drills, (about three 
pounds to the acre.) so shallow that they are but 
just covered, and carefully weeding and thinning 
uut. so that the onions will lie about four inches 
apart in the rows, and the rows some twelve inches 
apart, a tolerable crop may be raised most seasons, 
if the grouud is naturally very rich, or has been 
manured. No apology for manuring will answer. 
If the season is very wet, they may show a disposi¬ 
tion to form (< scallions,” that is, grow up with a 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
experiences in detail. They were, however, 
the common experiences of the pioneer, ex¬ 
cept ho had no wife to share his struggles 
and sympathize therewith. He was ambitious, 
but consciously ignorant of ail laws and pro¬ 
cesses in agriculture. lie kept bis eyes open, 
lie talked with his neighbors. Did one of 
them prosper — did he grow better crops than 
the others —be was the man Job Tripp was 
after. He must contribute of his experience 
to Jon's patient effort to learn. Juc looked 
on when the plowing was being done, saw tbe 
seed sown, tbe corn planted, tbe grass cut. and 
the grain harvested. And ho imitated his 
neighbor, lie confessed, when necessary, 
that he was ignorant; he was conscious of it 
all the time, but he was bound to succeed, 
and he learned as fast as his impromptu 
teachers could go through the processes. It 
has been Jon W, Tripp's policy to obssTVS 
both cause and effect, and learn thereby. Ilo 
took agricultural papers and read them. 
He idealized their contents and sought to 
realize as fast as bis means would permit him. 
He did not adopt all improvements recom¬ 
mended. He could not —had not the capital. 
But he began to plan improvements. Much 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance- Its Conductor devotes his per- 
HODftl attention to the supervision of its various departments, 
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Guide on all the important Practical, Scientific and other 
Subjects intimately connected with the business of those whose 
interests it zealously advocates As a Family Journal it is 
eminently Instructive and Entertaining’—being so conducted 
that it can be safely taken to the Hearts and Homes of people Of 
intelligence, taste and discrimination. It embraces more Agri¬ 
cultural. Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary and 
News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beantiful 
Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering it the most 
complete Agricvlitral, Literary axi> Family Newspaper 
In America. 
try For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
NOTES AND INQUIRIES, 
Culture of tlie Onion. 
Several inquiries similar to the following, de¬ 
siring information about the culture of the onion, 
are before us: 
Los. Rural New-Yorker :—I would like to inquire of the 
Ritual, or its readers, how I can raise large onions from black 
seed, and what seed is best?— A. L. Hoxik, Wheatland. Mich. 
ft requires good culture and proper management 
to produce large onions from seed in one season. 
More than one half of those who try this fail, and 
many of the best gardeners in the country never 
attempt it, but accomplish the object desired—a large 
crop of line marketable onions—in a different and 
more certain way. This plan is to sow the seed the 
latter part of May or early in Juno. The plants 
are allowed to grow pretty thick during the sum¬ 
mer, until September, when they will be about the 
size of marbles, or less. They should then be taken 
up and spread out on the floor to dry, after which 
they should be stored away. The largest are prized 
for pickling, and may be disposed offer this purpose. 
The next spring these small onions should he 
planted out as early in the season as the ground can 
be prepared, in rows about ten inches apart and five 
inches in the rows. All that is needed afterwards 
is good clean culture — the ground must be kept 
mellow and all weeds destroyed — and every tuber 
will grow; and early in the fall a full crop of large 
onions may be gathered. 
Tills plan will bo thought by many to be very 
troublesome, requiring two seasons to accomplish 
what might he done in oue, with a great amount of 
extra and unnecessary labor. A trial, however, will 
modify this opinion. The seed-bed requires but 
little room, as the onions are small and may be 
grown thick, and the trouble of weeding is not very 
great, as there is but little ground to keep clean. 
L hailing the next spring is not as laborious as those 
who have not tried this method would imagine. A 
garden line should be stretched the length of the 
land to be planted, and the bulbs require but little 
covering, as the roots corne from the bottom and go 
down,even if barely set upon the soil. Nearly all the 
trouble of hand weeding, which is the most laborious 
part of onion growing by the old system, is avoided, 
for m a few weeks after planting the small onions 
pipe. These thimbles, with the conical extensions, 
h, may he changed to form pipes of various sizes. 
As the clay is, by the revolutions of the augur, 
forced out around the conical extension, k, it is pow¬ 
erfully compressed, whereby it is made more com¬ 
pact, and consequently less liable to break either in 
baking or in the handling before it is baked. This 
compressing also makes a stronger and better pipe. 
Thjs is one of the features of this invention. The 
mode of fastening the thimble, i, to the conical tube 
around the extension, 7c, is clearly shown in Fig. 4. 
A lip upon the thimble hooka over a spiral projec¬ 
tion on the end of the tube, which curves in the 
proper direction for the rotations of the augur to 
keep the thimble in place. The thimble is, of 
course, removed by simply turning it in the oppo¬ 
site direction. 
" A second improvement by this invention is the 
mode of regulating the speed of the. augurs, G, in 
relation to that of the shaft, D. The motion is com¬ 
municated from the shaft, to the augurs,- G. through 
the intervention of the shaft, J, and gearing, as 
shown, and the speed is varied by reversing the 
ends of the axle, k. This axle has rigidly secured 
to it the two gear wheels, m and n, of different 
sizes, and when it is desired to vary the motion by 
taking the wheel, m, out ol gear with the wheel, l , 
and substituting the wheei, », this is readily done 
by reversing the ends of the axle. A. Bringing a 
England as a turnip mauure, and, when pure, 
valuable for many crops. AN oi.n Norfolk 
Farmkr furnishes the following remarks on the 
subject to the Mark Lam Express , and we indorse 
fully all that is said of the durability of bone manure. 
Whether it is best to wait so long to receive the full 
benefit of tbe bones if it can he obtained by any 
means the first season applied, is a question worthy 
of discussion. 
li The object of my writing is to point out the inval¬ 
uable durability of cattle bones as a manure, and 
the deliberate manner in which they give out the 
phosphate and other nutritive properties they pos¬ 
sess. Sir R. Kane shows that one 'pound of bones 
possesses phosphate enough for 28 pounds of wheat. 
Now a wheat crop of five quarters to the acre weighs, 
at 60 pounds per bushel, 2,400 pounds. If we divide 
that by 28, it shows that about 86 pounds of bones 
contain phosphate enough to supply the whole crop. 
We know, however, that that quantity would not be 
sufficient; and the reason is, that bones dissolve so 
slowly that it takes years for them to give out all 
the fertilizing properties they possess. I can give 
you a striking example of tills, which was stated to 
me by the party with whom it. occurred. lie was 
then holding a large farm at llindringham, in Nor¬ 
folk. On one occasion he had purchased a much 
larger quantity of bone dust than he could use at 
the usual rate of dressing for wheat, Hu therefore 
told his steward to increase the quantity, which he 
did with a vengeance; for he doubled it. This went 
on for some hours; hut the master, learning what 
was going on. put a stop to it; for at that rate he 
would not have had enough to dress a part of the 
wheat land at all. 
“A splendid crop succeeded, and there the matter 
rested for a time; but eleven years after, the same 
field was with wheat for the third time in the regu¬ 
lar four-course husbandry. Mr. C. was riding over 
the farm with his brother-in-law, and came to this 
field. ‘‘Now,” said he to him. •• we will go through 
this wheat, and if you see any difference in any part 
ot the field, tell me.” They passed along the head¬ 
land. and all at once the brother-in-law stopped. 
"‘How is this?" said he; “why. this wheat is taller 
It is easy to see how cheaply and surely an indif¬ 
ferent flock will appreciate under such manage¬ 
ment. If farmers who choose to go into the wool 
business have not capital to invest in full-blood 
ewes at present prices, it. will be found easy, in some 
localities, to purchase well formed native ewes, with 
good sound constitutions, cheap. Then there are 
good bucks in the West that can be bought or hired, 
and the work of building up a flock may commence 
at once. That this clas* of sheep, if the first selec¬ 
tions are judiciously made, and the breeding intelli¬ 
gently conducted, are profitable, my own experi¬ 
ence and tbe testimony oi many flock-masters with 
whom I have talked, confirm. It will be a good 
time to purchase such stock after shearing. 
sealed indeed to the careless eye, but ready to open 
and reveal its mysteries to tbe acute observer. The 
objects that may be taken in at a glance are so end¬ 
less in number and variety, and so full of beauty, 
that the mind is irresistibly turned from them to 
the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Great 
Artist. 
Many pursuits are tedious and wearisome, not 
only from the sameness of dull routine, but also 
from the want of pleasing surroundings and asso¬ 
ciations. This cannot be said of Agriculture; for 
while in its constant change ol programme it 
possesses variety enough to please the most im¬ 
patient, the delights of imagination and sense which 
are its accompaniments are the most exquisite of 
the works of Nature, and have been sung by poets 
in their most charming measures, and sighed for by 
the occupants of the city. How different are the 
thoughts suggested by the latter place. If, in the 
stunning and unceasing noise, a man can so far 
collect his senses as to think, he is continually 
reminded—often by sad experience—of the pride, 
the heartlessness, the avarice, and the selfishness of 
his fellow man. The massive temples of mammon 
which frown upon him. tbe brilliant display of mer¬ 
chandize, the bustling indifference of passers by, the 
endless roll of wheels in dull monotony over the 
pavements, and the glitter and tinsel of pageantry and 
procession, though they may gratify an idle curi¬ 
osity, yet they leave no divine impression of exalted 
pleasure, or inspire us with lofty aspirations. 
The sights and sounds of the country have a very 
soothing and tmnquilizing effect on the spirit. The 
sweet songs of the birds, the murmuring brook, and 
the plashing waterfall, strike a responsive chord in 
every breast, and. blending harmoniously, thrill us 
with sensations of pure and etherial ravishment. 
They oven melt the heart of the savage, attune his 
wanted. 
My friend Pekiam says, a large, white, early, 
long pod bean, that shall take the place of or prove 
a substitute for the Lima beau. Mr. Periam is a 
market gardener, and he knows. He plants the 
Early Rachel. Six Weeks, or Rob Roy, two feet and 
a half apart between the rows, for string beans. 
WESTERN EDITORIAL NOTES, 
AGRICULTURE—ITS INFLUENCE ON THE MIND. 
the night at the farm house of Jon W. Tripp. What 
1 asked for was granted. He had known me through 
another medium a long time, and was cordial in his 
hospitality. We were soon talking of different 
topics connected with Agricultural Economy. In¬ 
asmuch as Mr. Tripp is a representative man of a 
class of Western farmers, it will be instructive to 
the reader, perhaps, to look over the farm with us 
in the morning, after having heard something of his 
history as I did. 
Mr. T. came “in the early time” to this State 
HOW TO GET A GOOD FLOCK. OF FINE WOOL SHEEP. 
It is easily done, and cheaply. When in Du Page 
county, last fall, I visited Luther Bartlett, who 
told me his flock averaged something over five 
pounds of wool per head last season. I think he 
started a few years before with a flock that would 
not average three pounds. He had brought up his 
flock io the condition in which I found them, by 
judicious breeding—by purchasing or hiring and 
using the best Spanish Merino bucks. 
