128 Editors Letter- Box. 



We insert the following, in the hope that some of our readers may be able to 

 give the desired information. 



Where are the small, white onion-sets seen in our seed-houses late in winter 

 and early in spring, and which are so generally used by our marketmen for plant- 

 ing for early salad, &c., principally grown ? Can they be raised in New Eng- 

 land ? If so, what is the variety ? when and how should the seeds be sown ? 

 how should the crop be managed ? when should it be harvested ? and how are 

 the bulbs preserved during winter ? D. B. 



Querist, Hudson, N.Y. — Lilhtin hngiflorti/n hdiS Xhrtt or four flowers on 

 a stalk, if the bulb is strong. Lilium snperbuin has from one to forty. 



A. G. — If your agapanthus is too crowded for the pot, or if you wish to 

 propagate it. it should be divided : otherwise we would let it remain as it is. 



H., Boston. — The pretty little caterpillar which you send, and which has 

 been so unusually abundant and destructive to the pear, linden, horse-chestnut, 

 and white-ash trees, is an old acquantance, the larva of a moth, Orgyia leucostig- 

 ma. When they have done eating, they spin their cocoons on the leaves, or on 

 the branches or trunks of trees, or on fences. In about eleven days after chan- 

 ging to the chrysalis, the perfect insects come forth, and the female lays her eggs 

 on the top of the old cocoons, the greater part not being hatched until the fol- 

 lowing summer. These patches of from one to two hundred eggs, covered with 

 a leaf, and united to it and to each other by a silken fibre, may be found in win- 

 ter and early spring, and destroyed, which is the best remedy against the ravages 

 of the insects. In summer, the caterpillars may be shaken from the tree, and 

 crushed. 



B. S. — We have found the best way to clean strawberry-seed to be to mash 

 the strawberries in water, and pass as much as possible through a colander or 

 coarse sieve. The part of the pulp which passes througii will be very easily 

 separated from the seed by repeated washings in plenty of water, and pouring 

 off the upper part, the seed settling at the bottom. The part which fails to pass 

 through will be more difficult to free from pulp, and must be thoroughly rubbed 

 together with sharp sand, which will have the effect of cutting the pulp from the 

 seed, when they can be separated by washing, as before. See also Vol. IV., 

 p. 320, of this Journal. 



