ONION. 
7 * 
^©ver with mould, and, when the plants come up, thin them, so that they 
may stand three or four inches from each other. The sooner this is done in 
the spring, after the earth has acquired a temperature favorable to vegetation, 
the better will be your crop. It only remains to keep the earth loose and 
clean about the roots, and, if the vegetation be too vigorous, to break down 
the tops, so as to determine the juices to the bulbs. In the other case you 
but employ the small and half-grown onion of the preceding fall instead of 
seed.” 
Mr. Hubbard, of Concord, Mass., in an article published in the N. E. 
."Farmer , vol. iii, p. 89, says, “ The soil ought to be a deep, black loam , that 
will crumble fine when the plow passes through it; such as is easily 
raked smooth and pulverized. A heavy clammy soil, that adheres together 
when both wet and dry—a dry, clayey, or a sandy soil, will not answer. I 
know of no vegetable that is so difficult to please with a soil, as the onion: 
though they will grow well, yet they will not ripen, but hold green through¬ 
out the fall, and many of them will be what are generally knowm by the 
name of scullions, with the neck stiff and green ; whereas those on suitable 
ground are ripe and dry by the first of September. Rotten stable-manure, 
made in the winter preceding the spring in which it is put on the land, is 
generally made use of, to be spread on the ground, and plowed in. I have 
a piece of land four rods square, on w r hich onions have been raised, I suppose, 
these eighty years ; and si^ce I have improved it, I have yearly spread upon 
it five cart-loads of manure, such as are usually drawn by one pair of oxen; 
and have raised from four to seven hundred bunches of onions upon it, at 
three and a half pounds to the bunch, of which about sixteen make a 
bushel.” 
Mr. Hubbard puts the seed into the ground as soon as the frost is out, and 
it is sufficiently dry to be worked ; frequently the latter part of March, but 
more frequently in the first days of April. He has always planted them in 
hills, which is the general practice in Concord. “My method of preparing 
the ground and planting the seed is, first, carry on the manure, and spread it 
as even as possible, when tl e ground is to be plowed deep; then let the 
plat be divided into beds, about three feet nine inches wide; to do which the 
easier way is to stretch a line across, lining one bed at a time; after this, 
let a man, with a shovel or a potato-hoe, make an alley through the whole 
piece, to separate the beds, about four inches deep, and sufficiently wide to 
admit a person to walk in it. Then let the lumps be beat fine, leveling the 
ground, and shaping the beds; which, after being raked smooth, must be 
divided into squares of eight or nine inches. This is best done by a line ; or 
it is sufficiently exact to draw a heavy rope backwards and forwards. Now 
let the seeds, six or seven in a hill, more or less, be dropped into the corners 
of the squares, and covered with mould, about half an inch deep, pressed 
cbwn with the hand.” 
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