1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



343 



have grown acres, annually, for many years. I ^ The means hitherto employed for subduing these, 

 know one gentleman, of Marblehead, Mr. H.' are, laying soot over the beds, or incorporating 

 Ware, who last year grew ten acres, yielding,' it with the soil, applying salt in the same man- 

 fit for market, more than 4000 bushels. Messrs. ner, AVitering with lime-water, gas tar, stale soap- 

 Buxton, Huntington, Watson, Bushby, Osborn,' suds, soot water, stale urine and old tobacco wa- 

 and others, cultivated in like manner — all of ter. Their power of reproduction is so great, 

 which crops came under my observation. jthat unless they are destroyed the moment they 



J. W. Proctor, 

 South Danvers, May 21, 1859. 



N. B. I thank you for the just notice taken 

 of our annual publication. Mr. Secretary Dodge 

 is entitled to much credit for the compilation. 



Fvr the New England Fanner. 

 ONION CULTUEB, MAGGOT, &c. 



Onion Fly. — Anthomyia Ceparum, (greatly magnified.) 



are discovered to have attacked the crop, (which 

 is known by the drooping and yellow leaves,) 

 their total eradication becomes next to impossi- 

 ble ; all other means exce])t carefully pulling up 

 every diseased plant and burning it, can only be 

 regarded as exceedingly superficial in their ef- 

 fects. Deep trenching, and frequently turning 

 over the soil, are of great advantage, in the one 

 case, burying the pupa too deep for its again 

 reaching the surface, and in the other, disturbkig 

 it during its transformation, and probably pre- 

 venting that change from taking place. 



Sowing onions year after year, on the same 

 ground, is a very certain way of multiplying 

 these insects, and might be carried to the extent 

 of literally stocking the ground with them. In- 

 sects peculiar to any plant, seldom attack the 

 crop during the first year, after being planted in 

 land not previously occupied with the same kind 

 of crop, because the soil has not yet become fur- 

 nished with the pupa of the insect peculiar to the 

 plant ; hence some advantage arises from sowing 

 onions after celery, and vice versa, cabbages after 

 potatoes, &c. 



Spirits of tar is of great use, if applied in suf 



"The male of this fly is of an ashy color, roughish, with black 

 bristles and hairs ; the eyes are contiguous and reddish, the face! ficient quantity tO the Soil immediately after the 

 silvery white ; horns black; there are faint lines down theL • ^pjv,nvVrl Thp follnwino- hn<s bppn nn- 



trunk, and a line of long blackish spots down the centre of the i '^^PP, '^ remov^Q. 1 ne lOUOWing nas Oeen ap- 

 body, more or less visible in different lights. Tie female fly is plied to an Onion Crop, even after the lUSect haS 

 of an ashy grey color, clothed with black bristles and hairs ; the: commenced his work : 

 eyes are reddish and remote, with a light chestnut stripe be-' 

 fcween them ; face, yellowish white." 



Mr. Editor: — This vegetable, worshipped by 



To 20 gallons of water, 1 peck unslacked lime, 

 h. peck soot, 2 gallons of urine, 1 pound soft soap 

 and 2 pounds hour of sulphur. After the above 



the ancient Egyptians, and the want of which was I mixture is settled, it is then sprinkled over the 

 so lamented by the Israelites in the wilderness,! bed through the nose of a watering pot. "Pow- 

 has within a few years, in many localities here,!dered charcoal has been used, but is not found 



been almost entirely destroyed by the maggot 

 or grub of the onion fly, so called by one of the 

 best entomological writers of England. He says, 

 •*T'he common onion fly, Anthomyia Ceparum, 

 attacks the plants in their young state, and con- 

 tinues feeding on them during the whole sum- 

 mer ; sometimes they attack the crop generally, 

 causing a total failure, at other times attacking 

 them in patches only, the eft'ects being most ob- 

 servable in dry weather, the leaves turning yel- 

 lowish, and the plants at last falling over and de- 

 caying. On removing the' outer coating or skin 



so efficacious as soot. Branconnet has shown 

 that a watery infusion of soot is eminently anti- 

 septic, preventing the rottenness to which the 

 onion is extremely liable when attacked by the 

 grub." J. M. Ives. 



Salem, June, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "WHITE SPSCKS IN BUTTER. 

 Mr. Editor : — 1 noticed in the iV. E. Farmer 

 last week, your theory about churning to prevent 

 of the plants destroyed, the cause will be discov-' white specks in butter. Havingdevoted my whole 

 ered in the presence of a small grub, which eats | time, for the last five years, in the manufacture 

 its way into the very heart of the onion. The | and sale of the Fyler churn, and spent much time 

 eggs of the fly are deposited on the leaves when, among the dairies of Vermont and northern ^lew 

 in a very young state, and close to the earth ; as i York, I venture to diff"er with you in theory on 

 soon as the maggots are hatched, which takes | that subject. You say as soon as the butter be- 

 place about the time the plants are the size of a gins to come, scrape carefully down all the cream 



email quill, they bore their way through the out- 

 er leaf and penetrate the onion at its base, feed- 

 ing chiefly on the bottom part of the bulb, caus- 

 ing it to separate from the root, and occasionally, 

 a mass of mouldiness familiar to every cultiva- 

 tor. 



These grubs generally attain their full size in 

 about fourteen days, they then descend into the 

 earth to undergo their transformation, when they 

 become a reddish brown pupa of an oval form. 



that is thrown to any part of the churn, and has 

 escaped its share of ehurning. I say never scrape 

 the cream down into the churn after it begins to 

 come ; if scraped at all, scrape 't into the cream 

 pot and save it for a new churning, and not into 

 the churn to form those very specks you wish to 

 avoid. Those white specks are usually caused by 

 uneven churning. 



The true principle of churning is, to have the 

 dasher of the churn so adapted to the inside of 



