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AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 

 Celery and Parsnip Fly. [Tephritis onopordinis) 



Celery was very much injured throughout the season of 

 1898 by the attack of the fly known as Tephritis onopoi'dinis."^ 

 Very soon after the plants had been pricked out spots were 

 seen on the leaves, and light green maggots or larvae were 

 found within the parenchyma. Maggots were found actively 

 working as late as the 27th, of November, and in many 

 cases the plants were materially injured, and the blanched 

 stalks small and badly shaped. The maggots caused much 

 more harm than usual because the weather was very dry, and 

 the leaves could not grow away from them. The great heat 

 seemed to favour the generation of the insects. 



Some good was effected in gardens by pinching the infected 

 leaves so as to kill the maggots. An application of very finely 

 powdered lime and soot, mixed in the proportion of one 

 bushel of lime to two bushels of soot, was efficacious ; and 

 spraying with paraffin emulsion appeared beneficial. Dress- 

 ing with nitrate of soda was also of some use, as it forced 

 the leaf growth out of the way of the maggots. Agricultural 

 scilt was also of considerable value. 



In many gardens and market gardens parsnips were 

 almost as much infested as celery plants, but their foliage is 

 'Usually stronger, and the leaves are far thicker and larger, so 

 that their juices are not exhausted in the same degree, and 

 the effect is not nearly so great upon the development of the 

 roots. Many parsnip beds, however, had a most unsightly 



* Copies of an illustrated leaflet on the Celery Fly may be obtained on application 

 .'• (> the Secretary, Board of Agriculture, 4, Whitehall Place, London, S. W. 



