198 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 15, 1894. 
miss visiting this place, which is close to the station. From both 
the owner and the gardener they will receive a most courteous 
welcome. An excellent library is provided for the young men, 
all botanical and the latest writings on horticulture are constantly 
procured for the edification of those employed in his gardens.— 
Bbknard Cowan, F.R.H.S. 
MASTERING THE ONION MAGGOT, 
For the two years previous to last season I tried to master the 
Onion maggot in two different ways. On taking charge of a 
Berkshire garden in September my predecessor told me he could 
not grow Onions, and the plot told me so also, as fully half of 
them were destroyed by the maggot. I resolved to try if I could 
master the enemy. I tried trenching and burying horse manure a 
foot deep, dressing with soot and lime when the plants and their 
enemy appeared, but it proved the master. I then tried cow 
manure, also used stable drainage, with little better effect. Last 
year I thought I would try petroleum. I put about a pint into 
three parts of a bushel of burnt garden refuse, and as it was 
showery weather I sowed this over two Onion beds, one of light 
the other of heavy soil, taking care to remove all affected plants. I 
put these—Onions and maggots—into some of the ashes to see 
the effect. My mixture killed the enemy, so I was the master at 
last. No more maggot appeared on the bed in the stiff soil after 
the first dressing, but I gave it another in about a month to make 
sure ; but in the lighter soil I found I had to give three more 
dressings before I could save the crop, and the Onions were small. 
After the second dressing on the stiff soil the plants went ahead as 
well as anyone could wish, and a better bed of Onions I do not 
think could be wished for. Some of the bulbs measured 14 inches 
round, and the smallest 8 inches at housing time. I then came to 
the conclusion that petroleum is the thing to keep the Onion 
maggot down. I hope some of my fellow men will benefit by my 
experience.—A. Goodall, Northaw. 
When entering about nine years ago on the garden under my 
management it had a very bad reputation for Onion growing, and 
certainly the crop harvested in the autumn of the first year was 
anything but encouraging, as from a large breadth we only gathered 
a few stones of inferior quality bulbs, the maggot taking the other 
plants. Since that time till now we have gathered abundant crops 
of excellent quality^ having large quantities for market after 
supplying home requirements. 
The method of fcultivation adopted is to sow as early as pos¬ 
sible, in January if practicable, covering the seeds with the residue 
from a garden smother, in which all sorts of rubbish have been 
reduced to a powder. This we carefully keep dry till required. 
We sow the seed thinly, and never single the plants, as we find 
it is an unnecessary operation. 
This autumn we took advantage of the fine dry weather at the 
end of November to sow a few rows of Onions on the 30th as an 
experiment. We first saw them above ground when the snow 
suddenly disappeared on February 2nd, and they now (March 5th) 
look promising, although they have had no protection, and are in 
an exposed position.! 
We have not found spraying or dressing of any sort necessary 
so far. Whether it is that the potash in the smother residue 
used in covering is distasteful to the fly, or the non-thinning acting 
as a preventive to its successfully depositing the eggs, or if it 
is partly due to both is a hard nut to crack, but the results have 
up to now been most satisfactory.—F ifer. 
I HAVE been much interested in recent articles which have 
appeared in the Journal on the Onion maggot and how to prevent 
it. One writer advises sowing in boxes or frames and planting 
out. My experience with that method was disastrous, fully 
75 per cent, of the plants being attacked after planting out, and, 
of course, destroyed. That was in the year 1891. In the follow¬ 
ing year the land was prepared in the usual way, and the seed 
sown where the crop had to stand. During the summer I followed 
the orthodox plan of dusting with lime and soot at frequent 
intervals. The crop was better but still unsatisfactory. Last year 
the land was again prepared as usual and sown the first week in 
March, the season being a favourable one for germination. The 
plants came up well, and were all thinned by the first week in 
June to about 6 inches apart. After this they grew rapidly, 
when, the first week in July, on looking over them I discovered 
eggs deposited on, I should say, fully one-fourth of the plants. 
The eggs were like those deposited on flesh meat by our friend the 
blue-bottle, only perhaps a trifle smaller. I at once had the plants 
watered through a rose with liquid from the cow-byre, reduced to 
half its full strength. This application was renewed Itwice after¬ 
wards at intervals of a week, and I was much pleased to harvest 
oae of the best crop of Onions I have seen in the north.— 
G. CRAia, Richmond. _ 
I AM raising all my Onions in boxes. It seems at first sight 
rather an extravagant method; but last year those raised in this 
way were so superior and so little affected by maggot as compared 
with those sown in drills in the open, that I am sure the former 
method will be cheapest in the end. I transplanted the seedlings 
from the boxes directly to the open ground. This saved much 
labour. The ground is now ready for the reception of the plants ; 
it was double dug in October, and a few days ago a thick dressing 
of cow manure was worked into the top spit. In addition a 
sprinkling of superphosphate will be raked in when the plants are 
set next month. One of the most efficient and at the same time 
the cheapest of manures for Onions is slag flour. A slight dressing 
of sulphate of ammonia put on after the slag has been hoed in 
quickens growth in a wonderful manner. These two agents ought 
not to be applied together, else a great loss of ammonia will 
ensue.— R. P. Brotherston, 
I HAVE been much interested in the “ Appeal” by “ W. S, E.” 
on page 159, and in the various replies thereto on pages 178 and 
179, particularly in that of “ J. H. W.,” who well describes what 
is, I am assured, a most effectual method of “ mastering ” the pest. 
I was the more interested in the contribution by “ W. S. E.” 
(though it gives no information whatever), as I believe I was the 
lecturer he referred to, and unfairly so, as by his allusion to the 
“ Professor,” and his long names for new diseases, he leaves it he 
inferred that I was guilty of shrouding my subject in a haze of 
similarly long names difficult to be understood. Such, however, is 
entirely contrary to fact, as in my lectures I am always careful to 
avoid long and difficult words, and to make myself as plain and 
easily to be understood as possible. I am frequently being com¬ 
plimented upon the plainness of my language, and actually was so 
at the close of the lecture, at which your correspondent asked the 
very foolish question he refers to in his “ Appeal.” When the 
question was asked, I realised at once, as also did others present, 
that the object in asking it was to raise a laugh, if possible, at my 
expense. As you are aware, Mr. Editor, my experience as a culti¬ 
vator goes back over a long period, and for many years, by adopting 
the practices I now recommend, I was able to produce good crops of 
Onions scarcely injured by the maggot. 
I stated at the lecture referred to that I have, during the past 
autumn, visited many hundreds of gardens and allotments in which 
more than ninety per cent, of the Onion beds had been greatly 
injured by the pest, and the comparatively few good uninjured 
beds I met with were all either from February sowings, or had 
been transplanted from sowings in the autumn. I was careful to 
state that I did not believe there was any nostrum we could use— 
soot and lime, or anything else—by the sowing of which we could 
obtain immunity from the insect without good cultivation through¬ 
out, and I stated minutely what that good cultivation consisted 
of ; but your correspondent now says, “ We want to get a little 
farther.” I trust he will succeed in so doing ; certainly his own 
contribution fails to carry us “ any farther.” 
I will now, as briefly as I can, describe the method of cultiva¬ 
tion I recommended as from my own experience and observation 
being likely to lead to success. In October or November a good 
dressing of farmyard manure at the rate of not less than 25 tons 
per acre, should be spread over the land, then digging deeply, 
keeping a good open trench and placing the manure well at the 
bottom of it regularly as the work proceeds, also throwing up 
the surface soil open roughly for the winter. About the middle 
of February this land to be again dug or forked over, but not 
deeply enough to bring up the manure to the surface, selecting a dry 
day for the work. Immediately this digging or forking is done, 
spread freshly slaked lime over the ground, a hushel to each 
rod, and then at once tread the whole surface evenly and 
thoroughly, thus affixing the lime in the upper crust of the soil. 
Next sow thinly in shallow drills 9 inches apart. Tread in the 
seed by running the feet along each side of the drill, then rake 
the ground, but not taking off all small stones, as this causes early 
encrustation of the surface. 
As soon as the young plants can be seen go amongst them 
with a very small hand hoe, and lightly scratch over the soil just 
sufficiently to destroy the small weeds and to break the crust 
forming on the surface. Repeat this hoeing in about three weeks, 
and again at least twice more at similar intervals. Follow 
each of the successive hoeings with light dressings of soot. The 
soot coming in contact with the lime yields ammonia, the smell 
of which warns .ff the fly so long as the fumes continue. The 
