36 



and in one season about half of the crop was destroyed by 

 the maggot at the close of the season after the onions had 

 been pulled. Various remedies have been proposed, but of 

 these it may be said that they, are not practical on a large 

 scale. The idea on which most of these is based is that of 

 producing a scent so disagreeable as to drive away the fly ; 

 but old experimenters recall the capacity of the Canker-worm 

 moth and the Squash beetle to ignore the most repulsive 

 obstructions of this kind when stimulated by their instinct to 

 deposit their eggs. Pine sawdust, either clear, soaked in the 

 urine of cattle, or in the ammoniacal liquor from gasworks, 

 scattered over the bed just before the appearance of the 

 plants, at the rate of a bushel to ten square rods, guano 

 sprinkled along the rows and on the plants, twice during the 

 season, unleached ashes used in the same manner, — these have 

 given satisfactory results to some growers. Scalding water 

 poured from a common watering-pot through a hole the size 

 of a pipe stem, along the drills near the roots of the plants, 

 and repeated three or four times during a season, is said to 

 be efficacious. It is obvious that the practical value of such 

 a remedy must be confined to a very small area of land. 



In New England the maggot has been slowly making his 

 way North, adding greatly to the uncertainty of the crop, 

 until his ravages have extended to Southern Massachusetts. 

 Very light soils appear to be most affected by his ravages. In 

 some seasons the injury done is insignificant, and on the 

 whole the area planted in Massachusetts has not been mate- 

 rially reduced. 



He will one year confine his ravages mostly to one portion 

 of a township, and the next season reverse matters ; while 

 some tracts are almost never injured, on others he appears to 

 settle down as a permanent resident. 



