THE CULTIVATOR. 
335 
1852. 
days, become hatched; the larvae immediately penetrat¬ 
ing between the leaves to the bulb, upon which it preys 
unseen; but the effects soon become visible, for the 
leaves turn yellow, fall prostrate on the ground, and 
quickly wither away. In the course of about two weeks 
they arrive to maturity, and change to the pupa state, 
and in from fifteen to twenty days more come out the 
perfect fly, fully prepared to accomplish their depreda¬ 
tions, by depositing their eggs upon the more healthy 
plants. As many as from one to five of the larvae are 
frequently to be met with on a single plant. 
The perfect insect is about half the size of the common 
house fly, with a few thinly scattered hairs covering the 
surface of the body. It is of. an ash grey color, the 
males being distinguished by a series of dark stripes 
upon the back. The head is marked with a brownish 
spot upon its apex. The wings are exceedingly transpa¬ 
rent, exhibiting beautiful iridescent reflections from their 
surfaces, and the shoulders of which are of an ochery- 
brown color, and the veins of a brownish yellow. 
This fly may not unfrequently be met with in the 
spring of the year, basking in the sunshine about the 
windows of the neighboring dwellings. And from the 
circumstance of finding the larvae in the greatest profu¬ 
sion, committing their depredations in the middle and 
latter parts of August, we are inclined to believe that 
they pass through several generations in a season, and 
that it probably makes use of the seeds of the plant on 
which to deposit the egg for the larvae of the eusuing 
spring; if this be so, by steeping the seeds in brine, be¬ 
fore sowing, we should suppose would be the proper re¬ 
medy ; if otherwise, the process will not materially effect 
their germination. They appear to show a distinct pre¬ 
dilection for the white onion, in preference to that of any 
other color. 
This insect is exceedingly difficult to destroy. Strew¬ 
ing the earth with ashes has proved of little avail; pow- 
dered charcoal answers a much better purpose, and is the 
one most generally in use, but it should only be thrown 
over about two-thirds of the bed, so as to leave a portion 
of the plants for them to resort to on being brought to 
the perfect state, and driven from their original resting 
place. When they have been converted to the larva 
state and commenced their depredations, these plants 
should be pulled up and consumed with fire. 
It has been recommended to prepare the beds as early 
in the spring as convenient, and suffer them to remain 
eight or ten. days, for the noxious plants to vegetate, 
then to cover them with straw to the depth of ten inches, 
and burn them over; after which plant the seeds imme¬ 
diately. This process, it is stated, has proved perfectly 
successful in driving away the insects and procuring good 
crops, and in addition, has furnished a capital top dress¬ 
ing to the soil. Onion beds prepared from the hearths 
upon which charcoal has been burned, have likewise been 
mentioned as producing the perfect vegetable entirely 
free from the attack of worms. 
Should this charcoal method here mentioned, be uni- 
versally adopted, we have little doubt but that this insect 
will in a short time become greatly reduced in numbers, 
and afford a much better chance for a more healthful 
crop of the onion plants hereafter. J. Eights. Albany . 
Sept. 1, 1852, 
Thorn Hedges. 
Eds. Cultivator —As our wood-lands are getting 
short of wood for fences, it is time for us to be looking 
out for something more durable. I have thought about 
thorn hedges, and I may give your readers some infor¬ 
mation on the rearing and planting of these hedges. 
The seed is gathered from the thorn in autumn, and 
mixed up with dry earth; through the winter, (this is 
the manner in Scotland,) and in the spring, they sow 
them broadcast in beds; the first year part of them come 
up and grow through the summer, when they are trans¬ 
planted in the spring in the nursery; and for two suc¬ 
ceeding years they still come in the beds. They then 
let them grow two or three years before they plant out 
into hedges, when the nurseryman puts them into bunch¬ 
es of one hundred each, and cuts the small tops and roots 
off, and they are ready for planting. There are various 
ways, sometimes on level ground, but the common way 
is in ditches. We will take that way. Say the fence is 
to be made along side of a road—the men employed to 
be provided with a spade, a shovel, and pick or mattock 
—the latter being necessary when the ground is hard 
and stony. The first thing to be done is to set up two 
sticks, one at each end of the ditch; then set in two or 
three more in a straight line, and stretch the line along 
the stakes; then with the shovel, (the shovel is such as 
those they call the Irish shovels, only a little larger, and 
the handle no longer than a spade handle,) the line be¬ 
ing stretched along the stakes, he turns his face to the 
road, and cuts along the line with his shovel, sloping 
back considerably ; then turns back and cuts the other 
way, at about a foot from the other line; next he cuts 
across the sod and turns it over, but keeps it back about 
four inches from the lip of the ditch, so that it forms an 
offset called the water table. They then shovel some of 
the best soil from where they took out the sod, and level 
it all off ready for the thorns. Then take a bunch of 
thorns and lay them on a level, with the roots into the 
ditch, with their tops scarcely out of the edge of the sod, 
so that they will not be hanging by the roots when the frost 
moulders away the earth. They are laid about three 
inches apart. This done, they shovel out of the bottom 
of the ditch on top of the thorns, until the ditch be two 
feet, and sometimes more, deep. They then clap all 
along the face of the ditch, to make it solid and compact . 
It is then finished with exception of the fence. The fence 
is made by driving stakes on the top of the ditch, four 
to the rod, and nailing on two boards, three or four 
inches broad. 
I have been a long time in this country, and have had 
an opportunity of trying experiments, and I find that, 
thorns from the old country do not thrive well here. 
Whether it isowing to the climate, or the snow lying so 
deep on them in the winter, I do not know. 
I am now about to make some inquiry among your 
many readers, as to how the thorn in this country would 
do. I have read your Cultivator several years, and I 
do not remember to have seen anything with respect to 
that, except the Osage Orange hedges, and that yet re¬ 
mains to be proved. Will you please inform, through 
the columns of the Cultivator, whether any one has 
made the experiment, and how they have succeeded, 
and how they were planted? Robert Shiell. Ham¬ 
mond, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., May 5. 1852. 
