35 



proportion than usual are rotten, which is apt to be the case 

 after a very wet season or when the onion maggot has given 

 much trouble, to store largely for wdnter sales is attended with 

 great risk. I have known one enterprising cultivator to sink 

 several thousand dollars in a single season by storing heavily 

 under such circumstances. 



SMUT, RUST AND MAGGOT. 



The onion crop is sometimes severely injured by a disease 

 resembling mildew. The tops of the leaves die, and the 

 whole plant is more or less covered by this white blast. 

 From the effects of it the onions almost cease their growth, 

 and the crop finally obtained is small in size. This disease 

 in some sections is known by the name of "rust.'* It is 

 more frequent in extraordinary wet seasons, and is more com- 

 mon on old beds than new. The best remedy yet knowTi for 

 old beds is to carefully remove from the bed and destroy at 

 the close of the season all diseased bulbs, as they will be 

 likely to spread the disease by giving it a lodgment in the 

 soil, then ru» the plow a little deeper, and thus mix in a little 

 new soil. 



The onion maggot is hatched from the eggs of a fly, which 

 are deposited in the plant (not the seed) very near the sur- 

 face of the ground. Its presence may be detected in the 

 crop when very young by the sudden turning yellow and fall- 

 ing- over of the plant, when, if the attempt is made to pull, it 

 will usually break off near the surface, and on squeezing sev- 

 eral small maggots will present themselves. Some writers 

 state that the fly deposits its eggs only at an early period in 

 the growth of the plant. It is true that some seasons the in- 

 jury is most marked previous to the bottoming of the onion, 

 but I have seen beds injured at every stage of their growth, 



