42 



CULINARY OE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



under the shade of trees has been recommended, 

 but not judiciously. As a bed ten feet by four 

 would produce a sufficient quantity for a small 

 family, it were better to prepare such a space 

 artificially, by removing the rich soil to the 

 depth of eighteen inches, and replacing it with 

 poor sandy or gravelly soiL We have grown 

 pickling onions upon a bed of loamy gravel laid 

 on the surface of the ordinary soil, to the thick- 

 ness of twelve inches. 



Diseases and insects. — The diseases and insects 

 to which the cultivated alliaceous plants are 

 liable, if not numerous, are sufficiently destruc- 

 tive. One of our greatest pests is 



The common onion-fly {Anthomyia ceparum, 

 Bouche). It is thus described by Mr Curtis, 

 one of our highest entomological authorities, in 

 the " Gardeners' Chronicle," 1841 :— "The male 

 is of an ashy colour, roughish, with black 

 bristles and hairs ; the eyes are contiguous and 

 reddish; the face silvery white; horns black; 

 there are three obscure lines down the trunk, 

 and a line of long blackish spots down the centre 

 of the body, more or less visible in diiferent 

 lights; the wings are transparent, slightly 

 irridesoent, tinged with ochre at the base ; the 

 nervurespalebrown; poisersoohreous; legs ashy 

 brown. The female is oohreous, or ashy grey, 

 clothed with black bristles and hairs ; the eyes 

 are reddish and remote, with a light chestnut 

 stripe between them, bifid and darkest at the 

 base ; face yellowish white." 



This insect attacks the plants in their young 

 state, and continues feeding on them during the 

 whole summer. Sometimes they attack the 

 crop generally, and cause a total failure; at 

 other times attacking them in patches only, the 

 effects being most observable in dry weather — 

 the leaves turning yellowish, becoming flaccid, 

 and the plant at last falling over and decaying. 

 On removing the outer coating or skin of the 

 plants destroyed, the cause will be discovered 

 in the presence of a small grub, which eats its 

 way into the very heart of the onion. This 

 grub is white, smooth, and shining, and of a 

 conical form, and nearly half an inch long. The 

 eggs are deposited on the leaves when in a very 

 young state, and close to the earth ; as soon as 

 the maggots are hatched, which takes place 

 about the time the plants are about the size of 

 a small quill, they bore their way through the 

 outer leaf, and penetrate the onion at its base. 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



Fig. 4. 



TUB ONION-FLV, OROB, AND- PUPA. 



feeding chiefly on the bottom part of the bulb, 

 causing it to separate from the roots, and occa- 

 sioning a mass of mouldiness, familiar to every 

 cultivator. These grubs, in general, attain their 

 full size in about fourteen days, sooner in dry 

 weather than in wet, and at that period descend 

 into the earth, to undergo their transformations, 

 when they become a reddish brown, indurated 

 pupa, of an oval form. Fig. 4 shows the grub; 

 fig. 5, the pupa; and fig. 6, the perfect insect. 



Another enemy has recently appeared in the 

 brassy onion-fly (Evmerus emeus). This fly was 

 discovered by Mr Curtis in 1842, and figured 

 and described by him in the " Gardeners' 

 Chronicle " for that year, (p. 2S2.) He detected 

 the maggots in a box containing some rotten 

 onions, which he found to be distinct from 

 Anthomyia ceparum, the common onion-fly. 

 " It is densely clothed with short hairs, thickly 

 and distinctly punctured, and of an olive green, 

 with brassy tinge ; the antennae are entirely 

 black, the seta naked ; the face is very hairy, 

 simply convex, and silvery white; eyes dark- 

 brown and slightly pubescent; rostrum very 

 short ; thorax with two whitish lines down the 

 back; scutel semiorbicular, the margin thin, 

 and somewhat denticulated and ciUated ; abdo- 

 men linear in the males, the segments coarctate 

 or constricted at the base — attenuated to the 

 apex in the female, with six grey lunulate 

 marks, three on each side, and nearly meeting 

 on the back; vrings transparent; the nervures 

 piceous, the apical transverse, one somewhat 

 bilobed ; poisers yellowish white ; legs rather 

 short and stout, especially the hinder, the thighs 

 being incrussated and serrated beneath with a 

 double row of minute teeth ; tibise bright rust 

 colour at the base, the hinder curved; tarsi 

 five-jointed and black, the hinder orange colour 

 on the inside; the claws are small, and the 

 suckers bilobed." 



Specimens of this fly have been taken in the 

 neighbourhood of London, flying about in June 

 and July. The female has not as yet been 

 observed depositing her eggs. The maggots do 

 not confine themselves to the onion alone, but 

 have been observed on cabbage-roots. 



These may be considered the chief enemies 

 to the onion tribe, attacking them all indiscri- 

 minately — the garlic, however, less than the 

 others. The latter does not as yet appear to 

 have spread, so as to be of the same importance 

 as the former. The means hitherto employed 

 for subduing these insects are these : Laying 

 soot over the beds, or incorporating it vrith the 

 soil ; applying salt in the same manner; water- 

 ing with lime-water, gas-tar, stale soap-suds, 

 soot-water, stale urine, old tobacco-water, &c. 

 It is evident, however, that it is not the smeU 

 which affects them — for few things can be more 

 offensive than rotten onions, on which both 

 these insects appear to luxuriate. 



Their power of reproduction is so great, that 

 unless they are destroyed the moment they are 

 discovered to have attacked the crop (which 

 wiU readily be known by the leaves drooping 

 and turning yellow), their total eradication be- 

 comes next to impossible. All other means 

 (except carefully pulling up every diseased 



