the people generally, their wood pays its tribute to the maintenance of government, the dispensing of justice, and the diffusion of religious truth and influence through the nation.

We are told that the manufacturers of the United States, together with the mines and fisheries, produced in the United States in 1860, $1,900,000,000.

Of all the cotton and woollen factories, of furnaces, rolling mills, flour and grist mills, machine shops, furniture, implement and cooper-shops, of all the manufacturing establishments of every description, what proportion of the value invested and helping to produce this vast amount was wood, and paid its tax, first as real estate, then in incomes of proprietors?

We have spoken of dwellings, then of manufacturing establishments." We come now to commercial and mercantile houses. Of all the buildings used for banking and insurance purposes, for offices, for public halls, for theatres and museums, for all kinds of business, and for all kinds of storage, what per cent. of all the values of these buildings is wood, and, as asked before, pays a double tax? But when we come to one other point, we meet timber under a new aspect. In 1860 the ships of the United States had an aggregate tonnage of 5,539,812 tons, and were worth, at $40 per ton, $221,592,480. In 1860 there were a few iron steamers, but the great mass of American vessels were built wholly of wood. When we remember that it is through their instrumentality that those articles are brought which yield such a national income to the government, surely wood stands forth, demanding again the acknowledgment of its value and power which thoughtless men have never given to it.

But there is an interest growing up among us which is destined, in time, to control every other of a mere pecuniary kind; it is the railroad power and railroad contributions; and from a few facts connected with these (I have early alluded to one or two in part) may be seen how here, as well as elsewhere, wood pays its tribute to the United States treasury.

The report of the engineer of the State of New York on the railroads of that State, for 1864, is in my hand, with the latest and most reliable information. By it I find that to fence forty-nine miles of the Atlantic railroad in the lumber portion of that State cost $35,680 70, or $728 a mile. At the same rate the fences for the 51,114 miles, either operating or being constructed in 1862, would amount to $37,208,992, a value greater than the entire value of the New York Central railroad. Thirty-four railroads in the State of New York paid $2,311,213 for bridges, on an aggregate of 2,798 miles of roads, which is equivalent to $826 for each mile of road. Assuming one-half of that amount for wooden bridges, there would be required in the United States $42,817,144 for wooden railroad bridges.

The superstructure of the 2,798 miles of New York railroads cost $22,253 72; taking one-eighth for the cost of sleepers, gives about $1,000 per mile; for the railroads of 1862, it makes about $50,000,000 in this item.

Passenger and freight stations and buildings cost $1,519 for each mile of road; assume one-half for wood, $760 per mile; for the United States, $38,846,000. The wood value in the engine and car houses, &c, in the United States is $8,961,607. The wood value in the freight and passenger cars in 1862 was, in like manner, $67,810,480. We thus see, upon a very low estimation, that the probable amount of wood in the railroads built and building in the United States in 1862, was $215,664,223, amounting to neary one-fifth of all the expense-carth, stone, brick, and iron.

When we come to estimate the cost of keeping up these roads, we see again how much the income derived from this great interest is dependent upon wood. The repairing for 1864 of roadway and superstructure of the New York railways cost, not including iron, $4,747,523. What part of this was, strictly speaking, wood itself, it is difficult to answer. A vast amount was doubtless expended in ballasting the road; but when a sleeper is broken and decayed, the

more complete and perfect the roadway, the more time, labor and expense required to dig out a new bed to insert the sleeper, and to properly adjust, fasten, and ram it. If we assign one-third of the expense above for sleepers, and placing them properly, then this item for New York alone, in 1864, was $1,582,301, and for the United States $30,063,719. We also, in brief, make other estimates from the same table:

Repairs of railroad buildings for New York $750,000, for United States $14,250,000; repairs of railroad fences for New York $93,236, for United States $1,771,485; repairs of railroad cars for New York $2,000,000, for United States $38,000,000; fuel (wood) of railroad for New York $3,000,000, for United States $57,000,000.

If, then, these estimates hold true, and they are based upon all the railroads of New York, (thirty-four in number,) long and short, rich and poor, crowded and empty, we see that in the United States the lumber, timber, and wood used for railroad purposes alone (not to build a foot of new road, but only to keep up the road, stocks, and fires) require of wood $141,085,104. But we should never, as Palaissy declared, come to the end of the enumeration, and we will stop.

But I would ask, most respectfully, that every farmer and every intelligent man should ask his congressional senator and representative why we should not have, from this day forth, full tables respecting the timber, lumber, and wood of our country, compiled for the public benefit in the census? This is, I believe, the greatest interest of a pecuniary kind connected with our government; and all the facts connected with it should be sought out and set before the public.

Now is the time to act; we should regard and forestall the future. God has given us a great and goodly heritage-a grand and broad and luxuriant country; but it is our forests that have made this country so salubrious, so fertile. Shall we not preserve and cherish with care what remains, and plant on every quarter section destitute of trees, in all our land, its proper complement of forest, until from sea to sea it shall seem to all men "like the garden of the Lord ?"

I append a copy of the new law of Kansas, to which I have alluded, and which, I think, is the greatest step towards the production of American forests ever taken in this country, and one which places the entire nation under a debt of gratitude to that State and its legislature:

"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Kansas, That any person planting one acre or more of prairie land, within ten years after the passage of this act, with any kind of forest trees, and successfully growing and cultivating the same for three years, and every person planting, protecting, and cultivating for three years one-half mile or more of forest trees along any public highway, said trees to be planted so as to stand at the end of said three years not more than one rod apart, shall be entitled to receive for twenty-five years, commencing three years after said grove or line of trees has been planted, an annual bounty of two dollars per acre for each acie so planted, and two dollars for one-half mile for each mile so planted, to be paid out of the county treasury of the county in which said grove or line of trees may be situated; Provided, the bounty hereby given shall not be paid any longer than said grove or trees are cultivated and kept alive and in a growing condition.

"SEC. 2. That any person wishing to avail himself or herself of the provisions of section one of this act, shall, within three years after planting said grove or line of trees, file with the clerk of the county a correct plat of said grove or line of trees, showing on what section or sections of land said grove or line of trees is situated, attested by his oath, and the affidavit of at least one resident householder, setting forth all the facts in relation to the growth and cultivation of said grove or line of trees; whereupon the county clerk shall, if he find from all the evidence that section one of this act has been fully complied with, on or before the first Monday in October in each year, cause warrants to be issued upon the county treasurer of the proper county for the bunty above provided for, which order shall be received by the treasurer in payment of all c. unty taxes.

"SEC. 3. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its publication once in the Leavenworth Conservative.

"Approved February 16, 1866."

As remarked in the body of this article, I consider such an appropriation of money as the most productive of any that that State will ever spend, in increasing population, reclaiming waste lands, and raising all real estate in value by controlling climatic extremes and favoring the growth of all cultivated crops.

THE ONION;

ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND PRESERVATION.

BY ELISHA SLADE, SOMERSET, MASSACHUSETTS.*

FROM time immemorial the onion has been cultivated by man, and still grows wild in many portions of the world. For more than 4,000 years it has been used as an article of food by "all classes and conditions of men ;" and there are few that have not some savory remembrances of it as a constituent of those dishes that "none can cook as well as mother." The Israelites, 1,490 years before the Saviour's advent, murmured in the wilderness: "We remembered the fish we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlics."-Numbers xi, 5. Hasselquist says that "whoever has tasted the onions of Egypt must allow that none can be had better in any part of the universe. Here they are sweet; in other countries they are nauseous and strong. Here they are soft; whereas, in northern parts they are hard, and their coats are so compact that they are difficult of digestion. Hence they cannot in any place be eaten with less prejudice and more satisfaction than in Egypt."

It is unknown where, precisely, our cultivated onion originated. Some writers say that no species of the allium now found growing wild will produce the vegetable called the onion, even though cultivated ever so carefully. Others inform us that the species with fistular stalks and swelling bulbs, now found in Persia, would, if cultivated, produce this vegetable, and firmly assert that it is the original of all the varieties of onion now grown. Some declare that the onion was given to Adam as we now have it, and that it has not degenerated, and cannot degenerate in the least; while others say that if left to itself for a few years it would "fall from grace," and become like the wild species described. Be these theories as they may, the wild species of Persia is so nearly allied to our cultivated onion that some travellers cannot tell the difference.

In India the onion is highly esteemed for food, and used as an antidote to many diseases, even to a greater extent than in Europe; and most dwellers in our own country can remember it as an article of medicine, administered for their youthful ailments by a skillful mother or maiden aunt.

The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated it in large quantities, and at one time the Roman armies almost wholly subsisted on it. They also imported onions from abroad in great quantities. The island Cimolus was named Onion on account of the peculiar quality and the immense numbers raised there; and it is said that the Roman provinces of Spain, in the days of Scipio the Younger, produced annually $200,000 worth of this esculent.

Hannibal, who swore "eternal hate to Rome," and led the Carthaginian hosts through sultry Spain and across the snowy Alps, well knew that the health of his army demanded the onion, ever present, amid all the changes of heat and cold. And Aurelian, who led his armies across the burning sands of Arabia, conquering Palmyra, and leading its queen, Zenobia, captive to Rome, found that his army suffered terribly from scurvy, and was restored to health

* With additions from other sources, by A. B. Grosh of the Department of Agriculture

only when he found in the captured city well-watered gardens containing abundance of garlic and onions.

So great a quantity of this bulb was raised at the Alibi, in France, that the tithe of them is said to have yielded an annual revenue of one thousand crowns for its bishop.

Thus might we glean notice after notice from the pages of history of the high esteem and value accorded this vegetable down to the present day, when Spain, Portugal, and Tripoli yet keep up their ancient reputations for the quantities and qualities of their onions; while in this new world their culture seems everywhere increasing from Canada to Patagonia, and especially in these United States, since our soldiers proved their value in camp, in hospital, and on the march, all through our late civil war. Each one of our brave boys would indorse the statement of its worth made by a late writer, who estimates the amount of nourishing gluten contained in the onion at 25 or 30 per cent., and says: "It is not merely as a relish, therefore, that the Spaniard eats his onion with his humble crust of bread as he sits by the refreshing spring; it is because experience has long proved that, like the cheese of the English laborer, it helps to sustain his strength also, and adds (beyond what its bulk would suggest) to the amount of nourishment which his simple meal supplies."

But few will deny the importance of the onion as an article of diet, or in a sanitary point of view. Nor is it without commercial importance. An utter failure of the onion crop would create ccnsiderable panic in the vegetable market. It is rapidly increasing as an article of export, and will figure largely in the tables which show "how we feed the nations." It is stated on good authority that in the year 1860 the value of onions exported exceeded the value of exports of apples by more than $250,000. It is also estimated that in 1865 there were planted one-fourth more acres of onions than in any previous year, and that the average product per acre was 500 bushels. And yet the market seems by no means glutted; the appetite "grows with what it feeds upon," and, like a certain famous Oliver, asks for "more!" Let us, then, consider the ways and means to meet the demand, and make the supplying of it profitable.

GOOD SEED.

If compelled to purchase from unknown or unreliable dealers, test the germinating power of the seed before buying. After onion seed is two years old much of it is worthless. The following tests may be of service: 1, new seed is soft, and has a strong taste; 2, good seed sinks in water; 3, placed on cotton, kept soaking wet and in a warm place, good seed will germinate in a few days; 4, pour hot water on two sods, place seed between them, and put the whole under a stove or other warm position, and it will germinate in a few days; and, lastly, (as a test which will also hasten the preparation for planting, and cause an early springing of the crop,) pour boiling water on a mass of seed so as to cover it, pouring it off in a few seconds, when, if good, minute, hairlike sprouts will start from the heated mass, which may then be mixed with plaster or ashes, and immediately planted.

But it is better always to buy your seed from a reliable dealer, even at double price, if necessary, than to get poor or wrong seed as a gift, for the seeds of an inferior kind of onions may be fresh and good as mere seed. And it is best of all to raise your own seed thus:

Select a sufficient number of smooth, hard, ripe onions, of medium size, and of the kinds you desire. Keep them in a cool, dry place, where they will not freeze, though some planters say that freezing does not injure them. As soon as the soil can be worked in the spring, set them out in a rich, deeply-tilled, mellow soil, in rows two feet apart, and the bulbs one foot apart in the rows. Cover them nearly to the stalk, hoe frequently, and keep them free from weeds.

In no case allow more than two stalks of a bulb to bear seed, if you desire good, heavy seed. Tie the stalks to stakes or trellises when they become heavy and drooping. When the heads begin to open and the stalks to turn to a strawcolor, cut off the seed heads, and spread them on a loft floor or other warm and dry place, until the seed shells out easily-say in four to six weeks. Then shell and winnow it clean, and put it away in paper bags, closed with gum or paste, so as to exclude the air, and keep it in a dry place, secure from mice, until needed.

THE GROUND.

Any soil that can be made mellow, and will grow corn, will produce onions. It must be enriched with fine manure, and be deeply stirred, and kept clear of weeds. The best manures are the excrements of fowls and pigs; next, wellrotted or composted stable manure. But in all cases avoid manures containing seeds of weeds and grasses, as they are the great enemies of the crop. Hence some prefer liquid manure, and continue to raise onions year after year on the same plot or field. Apply the manure at the fall ploughing, if possible; if not, in the spring, after the deep ploughing; spread it and plough it in lightly, and mix it well with the soil, which should be thoroughly and finely pulverized, and the field or onion bed made as level as possible. Complete the preparation by breaking up all the clods, and removing the stones, if any, if you would have the full benefit of your labors. Some roll the land previous to planting, (and sandy or spongy soils may be benefited by it,) but it should be done very lightly, so as to leave all beneath the mere surface easily to be penetrated by the tender roots.

Warm soils will be benefited by sowing a few bushels of salt, or many of ashes, or both, to the acre, over the surface before planting.

PLANTING.

This is done by a machine where a large breadth is cultivated. It is unnecessary to describe these labor-savers, save to remark that the one most generally used in Massachusetts plants two rows at a time, and has small rollers attached for pressing down the seed. Those used in Connecticut are said to cost about four dollars each, and the seed is planted in rows about twelve inches apart, (and about six inches in the row, if the machine plants in hills, which is deemed better than in drills,) and covered with a hand rake, carefully drawn parallel with the rows, covering two rows at a time. The seed should be covered about half an inch deep, and from five to eight seeds put in a hill, if for home market, or for sale by the bushel; but ten to twelve seeds to a hill, if designed for a foreign market, or bunching on straw. From four to six pounds of seed are usually planted to the acre. Plant as early as the condition of the ground will allow.

N. B.-South of the State of New York onions are generally cultivated as a biennial. The seed is sown in drills from nine to twelve inches apart, three seeds to an inch in the drill, in beds conveniently wide, and carefully prepared by manuring and pulverization for the purpose. The small bulbs thus produced the first year are called "sets" in the middle States, and "buttons" further south. The second year these "sets" are set out in rows one foot apart, and five or six inches in the row. The "button" held between the fingers and the thumb is gently pressed into its place, so that it sets firmly in the ground, merely deep enough to allow the small fibrous roots to descend into the soil, and yet not cover the bulb above them. The "sets" should not, then, be disturbed until firmly rooted, and in all after cultivation care should be taken not to loosen them. Hence all weeding near the bulbs should be performed by hand.