Amelioration qfo2ir edible Fruits. 245 



dust being destroyed as soon as the larvae are hatched. The 

 power of reproduction of these flies is so great, that, if the early 

 attacks of the insect are not checked by the destruction of the 

 young onions when the first attacks of the insect are perceived, 

 it will be next to useless to attempt any other subsequent 

 remedy. Burning the plants infested will be more advisable 

 than burying them ; because the latter will not cause the de- 

 struction of the insects. It will require but a very slight 

 acquaintance with an onion bed to detect the plants w^hich are 

 infested. 



Mr. Mackmurry states that any remedy, sufficiently powerful 

 to destroy the insect (that is, the larva enclosed within the 

 onion), must inevitably destroy the onion itself; and he suggests 

 that a careful selection of such soils and situations for the onion 

 crops should be made, as are most likely to resist the various 

 common incidents of season peculiar to this very variable cli- 

 mate, and containing such eligible food, and in such proportion, 

 as this bulbous esculent requires : and Mackray recommends 

 the sowing of onions in ground that has had strawberries four 

 or five years, and which may be repeated two or three years 

 successively. Macdonald suggests the transplanting of seedling 

 onions, first dipping the roots in a mixture of three parts of 

 earth and one part of soot, with a sufficient quantity of water to 

 make a puddle ; and Major advises the frequent watering of the 

 beds with a mixture composed of one gallon of soapsuds to 

 four quarts of gas water ; or, in place of the latter, two quarts of 

 gas tar : either will do, as the only use of this mixture is to 

 produce an offensive smell. 



These are the suggestions of practical writers. How far they 

 are beneficial, how far accidentally serviceable, or how far coun- 

 teracting the habits of the insect as above detailed, must be left 

 for future investigation. 



Art. II. Farther Suggestions relative to the Atnelioration of our 

 edible Fruits. By D. Beaton. 



To carry out the principles on which my former suggestions 

 (p. 203.) are founded, every possible precaution must be taken 

 to keep the rain, and even all kind of dampness, from the fruit, 

 after it is supposed to have acquired its full size. A spare glass 

 frame, placed against the tree, will be found a good preventive. 

 The fruit may hang on the tree till it falls of its own accord, or 

 till the appearance of frost. The seed derives a considerable 

 degree of nourishment from the fruit, for some time after it is 

 gathered ; therefore the fruit ought to be laid in some dry warm 



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