ONION FLY. 161 



In one locality when the maggot appeared, paraffin oil was 

 mixed with water in the proportion of a pint to two gallons of 

 water, and with this the Onions that were planted in rows 

 were watered through the spout of the can without the rose. 

 It was noted that the paraffin should be used carefully in dry 

 weather, lest it should burn the plants. 



Another method of application was to mix a good glassful 

 of paraffin oil with about six gallons of water, and throw this 

 mixture carefully as a spray over the Onion-beds ; this cured 

 the maggot-attack after two or three applications. — (J. W.) 



In another locality the only means found serviceable for 

 prevention of maggot -attack was the use of sand saturated 

 with paraffin oil, and sprinkled amongst the Onions, this sand 

 being afterwards watered by means of a can with a rose. In 

 this case experiment was made as to the direct effect of paraffin 

 on Onion-maggots, and twenty-four hours after the application 

 of three drops of paraffin to the soil in a flower-pot containing 

 some young Onions and Onion-maggots, these maggots were 

 found, on examination through a magnifying glass, to be (with 

 the exception of two) all dead. — (G. M'K.) 



Soap-suds were noted as very useful ; it was found that there 

 was no trouble with the maggot where watering with soap-suds 

 was freely given on its first appearance ; the suds usually 

 destroyed the maggot in two or three applications, and also 

 nourished the Onions. — (P. L.) 



It is a good plan to pour the suds over the plant through 

 the rose of a watering-can, so as to make them disagreeable to 

 the fly, as well as efiective to the grub in the ground. 



The ammoniacal matter contained in house-slops make them 

 a valuable manure for Onions. They may be applied with 

 advantage to the growing plants, and, in cottage gardens, good 

 crops are taken off ground where these slops have been 

 thrown during the winter, and the bed dug and sowed in the 

 spring. 



Liquid manure from farm-yard tanks, diluted with water 

 till reduced to a safe strength, has been found useful ; also 

 the use of liquid drainings from pig-sties have been observed 

 to give good crops when all others in the neighbourhood have 

 failed by maggot-attack. — (J. K.) 



A heavy w^atering, to render the fertilising matter in the 

 soil available, is often of much service in running the growth 

 on healthily without check in dry seasons. 



Soot, charcoal dust, and pulverised gas-lime, have all been 

 found of good service in checking attack ; but probably the 

 use of ground clean from the Onion Fly to start with, and so 

 prepared that a healthy vigorous growth is likely to take place, 

 a watchful eye to remove infested plants as soon as they show, 



M 



