RAISING ONION-SEED. 45 



The best remedy for the maggot, in my experience, is a 

 hen and chickens. Allowing a couple of broods to an acre, 

 confine the hen in a small coop near the middle of the 

 piece, and give the chickens free exit. They will soon learn 

 to catch the fly while in the act of laying the egg which 

 produces the maggot. 



In New England the maggot has been slowly making his 

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

 crop, until his ravages have extended to Southern Massa- 

 chusetts. Very light soils appear to be most affected by his 

 ravages. In some seasons the injury done is insignificant. 



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. 



RAISING ONION-SEED. 



WHAT DOES all this investment of money, time, labor, and 

 watchfulness amount to if the seed is worthless, has 

 no vitality, is not true to name, or was grown from worthless 

 trash? Onion-seed should be raised from the very best 

 onions of the very best crop grown in the vicinity. The 

 best type sbould be first selected, which should be a medium- 

 sized onion of the right form, very hard and compact in 

 structure, with a close, thin, fine skin, and a very small neck. 

 Those selected for seed should be the earliest ripened of the 

 crop, provided such are fully ripened and not blighted. To 

 select the earliest onions, the seed-grower should visit the 

 field before the crop is pulled. 



Onion-seed is usually grown from the entire crop, be it 

 good, bad, or indifferent. A great step of improvement on 

 this is to purchase outright as good a crop as can be found ; 



