Last year I sowed my onion seed on the 23d of March; the next ten days were cold, rainy, dark, dismal days, with two or three freezes. Yet my onions came up all right and made a good crop.
As soon as the shoots make their appearance above the ground a good raking with a fine steel rake can be given. This will give them a good start and destroy the young weeds that will begin to make their appearance at the same time. After the onions start to grow, cultivation is the making of the crop, and the cleaner they are kept and the oftener the surface is stirred the better will be the crop.
As to varieties, the old Red Wethersfield and the Danvers Yellow are my favorites. The Yellow Strasburg is a good yellow variety, and there are quite a number of others that are good. In cultivating I keep the surface level, as they do better if kept in this way than if they are hilled up. Thin out so that the plants do not crowd each other—they should stand two or three inches apart—if you want large onions at maturity.
N. J. Shepherd.
Miller Co., Mo.
Royalist 3d, 4500.
Royalist 3rd 4500
Elmwood Stock Farm
PROPERTY OF COL. C. F. MILLS, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.
The bull Royalist 3d, 4500, here portrayed, stands at the head of the superb Jersey herd owned by Col. Charles F. Mills, Springfield, Illinois. He was bred by Mr. Samuel Stratton; dropped December 13, 1878; got by imp. Royalist 2906; dam imp. Nelly 6456. Royalist 2906 received the first prize over all Jersey in 1877; first prize and silver cup at St. Saviour's Show in 1877; first prize at the great St. Louis Fair as a three-year-old, and grand sweepstakes at St. Louis Fair in 1879 as the best Jersey bull of any age. Her sire, Duke (76), won first prize over the Island, Herd Book Parochial prize, and first Herd Book prize at Royal Jersey Show in 1875. Merry Boy (61), I. H. B., grandsire of Royalist 2906, won first prize at St. Mary's Show in 1874. Stockwell II (24), I. H. B., great-great-grandsire of Royalist 2906, won third prize over the Island and second Herd Book prize at the Royal Jersey Show, 1871; the bronze medal at the Channel Island Exhibition in 1871, and third prize at the Royal Jersey Show in 1872.
Nelly, the dam of Royalist 3d, 4500, has produced 21 pounds of butter in seven days since importation, and Mr. Stratton is authority for the statement that she received the special prize at the Farmers' Club, Island of Jersey, for the best butter cow, having made 16 pounds Jersey weight of 18 ounces to the pound, or 18 avoirdupois pounds, in seven days. Her sire, Lemon (170), is the grandsire of Mr. C. Easthope's celebrated Nancy Lee 7618 (test 95 lbs. 3½ oz. unsalted butter in 31 days), and Daisy of St. Peters 18175 (test 20 lbs. 5½ oz. unsalted butter in seven days).