70 



says that a light sprinkling, just enough to colour the soil, answers the purpose. As this 

 substance, however, can only be procured from a town where there are gas works, it may 

 be impossible to get it in many localities. A substitute for it may be readily made in the 

 following manner : "Take two quarts of soft soap and boil it in rain water until all is 

 dissolved, then turn in a pint of crude carbolic acid. When required for use take one 

 part of this mixture with fifty of water, and when mixed well together sprinkle directly 

 upon the plants." This carbolic wash has been found entirely successful in the case of 

 the Radish-maggot, which is very similar in its attack to the Onion-maggot. It is 

 recommended to sprinkle the beds every week, commencing two days after the seed is 

 sown, and before any of the young plants are up. 



Asa direct remedy when the onions in the kitchen garden are attacked, it is recom- 

 mended to pour boiling water upon the affected bulbs ; it is stated that this will kill the 

 maggots and not injure the plants. It is certainly worth trying in a few cases to begin 

 with, and then it may be continued, if found satisfactory. 



It is an important matter, also, to remove from the beds all the onions that are 

 attacked with as little delay as possible. They may be known at once by their leaves 

 fading and turning yellow. It will not answer, however, to merely pull them up by the 

 hand, as in most cases the leaves only will come away, leaving the infested bulb still in 

 the ground, but it will be found necessary to use a spud, or trowel, or some such instru- 

 ment, in order to take up the whole onion with its rotten mass full of maggots. This 

 should at once be put into a pail, from which the creatures cannot escape, and then care- 

 fully destroyed. By so doing the next brood of flies will be materially reduced and the 

 severity of attack diminished. One further point is not to grow onions two years in 

 succession on the same ground, and if a bed has been infested by the maggot to turn the 

 surface soil deeply under in the autumn and bury the pupa? deep enough to prevent, or 

 at any rate retard, their development in the spring. 



The Squash-bug (Coreus tristis, De Geer). 



Most persons who cultivate the squash in their gardens have probably noticed at 

 times several of the leaves to be strangely withered, and on investigating further have 

 found the cause to be a number of disgusting looking bugs gathered together on the 

 underside of the leaves. There is usually a large colony collected together, composed of 

 individuals of all sizes from the tiny newly-hatched bug to the old winged specimen half 

 an inch long, represented in Fig. 41. 



The life-history of the insect may be briefly related, as follows : — The full-grown 

 insects that have managed to escape the various perils to which their lives are exposed 

 during the summer, retire into winter quarters on the approach of cold weather, and 

 conceal themselves in various nooks and crevices. There they remain in a 

 torpid state all winter, and come forth when warm weather returns 

 in May. At this time of the year and also in the autumn, they may be 

 found in all sorts of unlikely places, but as soon as the squash plant has put 

 forth its first few leaves, the insects take shelter under them and lay their 

 eggs for the future crop of destroyers. The female deposits her eggs in 

 little patches on the underside of the leaves, to which they adhere, and per- 

 forms the work for the most part at night. This takes place late in June, 

 or even in July if the season is backward, but the eggs are soon hatched 

 and there issue from them the tiny little bugs. At first these are ash-coloured, with large 

 flattish antennae, and without any wings, but they grow rapidly and with each moult 

 become darker above and paler beneath ; at the same time they gradually change their 

 form from a round scale-like appearance to an oblong oval, with a triangular head. As 

 the eggs are laid at intervals, fresh broods keep coming out all summer, aifd thus 

 specimens of all ages and sizes are usually found crowded together on the same leaf. 

 They all have an excessively disagreeable smell, which is intensified when their bodies 

 are crushed. Like all true bugs they live by suction, each one being provided with a 

 long slender beak or sucker, with which it punctures the leaves and draws up the sap. 



