ONION PESTS— ORANGE 



1475 



somewhat resembles the common house 

 fly. The eggs are laid on the ground 

 near the plant, or on the stem of the 

 plant. The larvae eat into the onion, 

 and if numerous may do a great deal of 

 damage. 



Practice rotation of crops and fall 

 plowing of the ground, with destruction 

 of weeds and all trash where the flies 

 may hibernate. At the first appearance 

 of the maggots, treat the onions with 

 carbolic acid emulsion. Apply thoroughly 

 and enough to soak into the ground 

 around the onions, as the solution must 

 touch the maggots in order to kill them. 

 Make the first two applications five days 

 apart, the others once a week for three 

 or four weeks. The carbolic acid emul- 

 sion is made as follows: In one gallon 

 of hot water dissolve one pound of soap; 

 add one pint of crude carbolic acid and 

 churn for ten minutes, or until a creamy 

 emulsion is produced. Then add this to 

 30 gallons of water and apply as directed 

 above. 



Onion Thrips 



Thrips tahaci Lindeman 



General Appearance 



The adult female is pale yellow in 

 color with an elongated dusky spot on 

 the dorsal surface of the middle thoracic 

 segment. The length of the body varies 

 from 1 to 1.2 mm. The eyes are brown, 

 while the antennae and legs are dusky. 

 The wings are faintly yellowish, their 

 fringes being dusky. The antennae are 

 seven jointed. The male larvae are 

 somewhat smaller than the female and 

 of a darker color and often with a green- 

 ish tint. The eyes are red. 



Food Plants 



The onion thrips is especially destruc- 

 tive to onions grown for seed. It dam- 

 ages the seed buds before the seeds have 

 hardened and in many instances causes 

 a complete failure of the seed crop. It 

 is also destructive to roses, carnations 

 and other flowers (wild and cultivated), 

 grasses, fruit blossoms and truck crops. 



Control 



Nicotine extracts or the Government 

 formula as recommended for pear thrips 

 are eflicient control methods for this 

 species. The thrips are most active on 



the outside of the buds early in the morn- 

 ing, so that is the best time for applying 

 a spray. The flour paste as recommended 

 for the bean thrips is also applicable to 

 this species. E. O. Essio 



Western Aemy Woem. See Beet Pests. 



Orange 



The orange that produces the familiar 

 fruit of commerce is closely allied to 

 the lemon, lime and citron. 



Though cultivated widely in most of 

 the warmer parts of the world, and ap- 

 parently in many completely naturalized, 

 the diffusion of the orange has taken 

 place in comparatively recent historical 

 periods. To ancient Mediterranean agri- 

 culture it was unknown; and though 

 later Greeks and Romans were familiar 

 with the citron as an exotic fruit, their 

 "median apple" appears to have been the 

 only form of the citrine genus with which 

 they were acquainted. 



The careful researches of Gallesio have 

 proved that India was the country from 

 which the orange spread to Western 

 Asia and eventually to Europe. Oranges 

 are at present found wild in the jungles 

 along the lower mountain slopes of Syl- 

 het, Kumaon, Sikim and other parts of 

 Northern India. The plants are gener- 

 ally thorny and present the other char- 

 acters of the bitter variety, but occa- 

 sionally wild oranges occur with the 

 sweet fruit. It is, however, doubtful 

 whether either sub-species is really indi- 

 genous to Hindustan, and De Candolle 

 is probably correct in regarding the 

 Burmese peninsula and Southern China 

 as the original home of the orange. 



See California Citrus Industry, under 

 California. 



Orangre in California 

 To the mission fathers we owe the first 

 introduction of many of the fruits and 

 vegetables into California. Among the 

 many fruits which they brought with 

 them four stood the test of over a cen- 

 tury and came down to modern times. 

 These are the Mission olive, the Mission 

 grape, the Mission fig and the Mission 

 orange. Recently all these except the 

 Mission olive have been replaced with 

 more desirable varieties. All were ex- 



