218 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a second season's crop on fresh ground does not enable the fly 

 to be escaped from. When it does appear, about the best remedy 

 seems to be to render the plants, if possible, very obnoxious by 

 dressing them freely with a solution of quassia chips, petroleum, 

 and soft soap, which may be followed by a dressing of soot ; 

 and if such combination will not keep the fly at bay, then nothing 

 will. The laying of a thin dressing of fresh gas-lime between 

 the rows has been often advised, because the fumes are so 

 obnoxious, but it is rarely practised. It is very probable that 

 the Onion maggot is to-day the most troublesome pest — even more 

 so than is the Potato disease that afflicts vegetable growers — 

 and a perfect remedy suitable in all cases is much needed. The 

 sowing under glass and planting out merits all consideration. 

 The Onion mildew also, in some cases, proves to be exceedingly 

 troublesome. The best remedy for this seems to be found in the 

 Bordeaux mixture, which, so far, has been found the most 

 effective of anti-mildew compounds. That it may be needful to 

 include in the ordinary combination of sulphate of copper and 

 fresh lime a considerable mixture of molasses or soft-soap, to 

 render it glutinous or adhesive for a time, there can be no 

 doubt. In any case it is well worthy a trial on beds of young 

 Onions, especially in districts where the mildew gives much 

 trouble. It is not at all impossible but that a mixture of this 

 kind, by reason of its poisonous nature, might also prove to 

 be for the Onion maggot a powerful insecticide. Of necessity, 

 in a paper that must be of moderate length, some matters that 

 relate to Onions must be passed over. That is so with regard 

 to the Onion as a pickling ingredient, with respect to which very 

 much of interest may be said. Pickling Onions, however, are so 

 small, and, of course, necessarily so, that they are not to be seen 

 in competitive collections, and, indeed, no one offers prizes for 

 them. No one, in the face of the rage for big Onions, seems to 

 have courage to exhibit them. And yet they constitute the 

 material of one important industry, and are held in high esteem 

 in our domestic economy. But whilst, apart from this phase of 

 Onion use, we like them in a young state, as constituting an 

 excellent and savoury ingredient in salading, there are persons 

 yet who can even partake with evident zest of perfectly ripe bulbs. 

 The old estimate that a piece of bread and cheese, with an Onion 

 for condiment, constituted for many a poor man a hot dinner, 



