438 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
ONION-FLY. EGGS. MAGOOT. 
slightly above the surface of the ground, as shown in the accom¬ 
panying cut, Fig. 1, some of them being dropped along the thin 
edge of the sheath or white membranous collar, which is formed 
by the base of the lower leaf, clasping around the stalk, and others 
arc crowded into the crevices between the bases of the leaves, 
slightly above where they issue from this sheath. From two to 
six or more eggs are usually placed on particular plants here and 
there through the bed. They are perceptible to the eye, being 
white and smooth, four-hundredths of an inch (0.04) long, and a 
fourth as thick, and of an oval form, as seen in Fig. 4, where they 
are represented of their natural size, and in tlic lowei figure 
magnified. 
A few years since, a person from the northern section of our 
State calling upon me, informed me as a most important discovery 
that a Mr. Somebody in that vicinity had made, that these grubs 
came from germs or eggs contained in the seed, and that by merely 
wetting the seed a moment in boiling water, the vitality of these 
o'erms would be destroyed, and the crop grown from the seed thus 
treated would be perfectly free from this insect. And in the 
Country Gentleman (June 25th, 1855, p. 408), a correspondent 
advances this same theory. Why will persons venture in the pub¬ 
lic prints to state mere surmises and conjectures as being authentic 
and well ascertained facts ? “ If the light that is in thee be dark¬ 
ness, how great is that darkness 1 I he seed is the part, of all 
others, with which this insect has the least to do. 
The minute worm or maggot which hatches from each egg, 
works its way downward inside of the sheath, its track being 
marked by a slender discolored streak, till it reaches the root, on 
which it feeds till it is wholly consumed, only the thin outer skin 
remaining. A small young onion furnishes only a small portion 
of the nourishment which one maggot requires, and commonly 
there are several maggots, big and little, feeding together upon 
the same onion. Therefore, when it is consumed, if there is 
another onion growing in contact with the first, or nearly so, they 
readily discover and invade it. But if no onion is growing near 
the first, when it is consumed they are obliged to go forth on an 
exploring expedition, scattering themselves in different directions, 
and each one crawling around in the ground, until he chances to 
come to another onion, or to one of the rootlets, which will servo 
to guide him to the bulb from which it issues. Thus, when the 
