I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. A'd&tJSi 24, 1858. 325 ! 
Warrington Gooseberry from some of the "watery kinds. 
These things admitted, we have to deal with the 
j question of the consequences of their ravages, which 
are, indeed, serious considerations, and, did not nature 
impart a self-restoring power to both animals and 
vegetables, a great portion of the visible world would 
have been extinct before now. Of this we have abun¬ 
dant evidence in all parts of the garden. The Roses 
are spotted with a fungus ; the Geranium has its spot, 
and a queer customer too ; a disease, it is said, infests 
the CiiErMias. Potatoes we all know about. The 
Peai* has its blotches ; the Peach, its red spider, its 
green fly, &c.; but could I even think of all the other 
enemies of the vegetable world, the time would fail 
me to tell of them,—their name is, indeed, legion. 
Yet, with all this, I much fear that there may be 
readers of The Cottage Gardener who still under¬ 
rate the ravages of the insect world, or of fungi, and 
1 other evils. If so, it is no fault of this work, for it 
i has never ceased to caution those who dabble in gar- 
j dening from these breakers ahead. 
As to short growths ,— by which I mean under¬ 
growth, or the fact of a tree producing too little wood, 
| —those which tend to a perfect ripening of the wood, 
are a benefit: but there is a medium in such 
matters. Between grossness and extreme weakness, 
| there are many grades. Fruit trees on shallow and 
light soils, unless well surface-dressed, suffer exceed¬ 
ingly in such summers as the present; and, in fact, as 
to making wood, are apt to make small progress. But 
the ripening throughly the wood of gross trees is 
another affair, and becomes an immense benefit, the 
' latter placing the tree in a position to endure the 
reverses of succeeding years. And thus it is that 
nature restores the balance. 
Small fruit, and fruit casting, are other conse¬ 
quences of such droughty periods. And how can it be 
otherwise P As to the first, the system of the tree is 
short of the manufacturing material, and the gross 
production, in consequence, is less. And then there is 
such a thing as fruit cracking, induced by drought. 
The circumstance of trees casting their fruit through 
drought, is well known. Apples and Cherries are the 
first to declare it; but there are many others which do 
the same. 
All these evils point plainly to the immense benefits 
derivable from extra labour; for what profit is a half- 
withered garden P After purchasing proper fruit trees, 
and carefully training and pruning, as also building 
expensive walls, is it well to suffer the trees to fall into 
a ruinous condition for lack of labour ? 
Summers like this point plainly to the immense im¬ 
portance of surface-dressing; and this annually, or at 
least biennially. By encouraging a fresh layer of 
roots upwards, the tree is placed in a position to 
endure extremes, which are almost ruinous to ill-con¬ 
ditioned trees. The application of liquid manure, too, 
is most important, especially to those carrying heavy 
crops. At any rate, liberal waterings are absolutely 
necessary in dry and hot periods. The benefits deriv¬ 
able from planting in strong, or adhesive loams, too, 
becomes, in such seasons, obvious to the most casual 
observer ; for light and sandy soils, however well they 
may contribute to success in moist summers, fall off 
most seriously during hot and dry ones. 
R. Errington. 
THE ONION MAGGOT. 
Amongst the evils to which the various products of 
the garden are liable, that of the maggot in Onions is 
far from being the least. Attacking the plant just at a 
time when its progress ought to be most rapid, the dis¬ 
appointed cultivator sees his crop laid {Rostrate in a ! 
few days, in a manner next to total annihilation ; for 
the insidious pest attacks it from below, and cuts off 
the communication between the top and the root;—the 
plant droops to one side, in the fierep midsummer sun ; 
and, though it may not entirely die, only drags out a 
wretched existence afterwards : a small distorted 
bulb is the result of those that recover, while a great j 
many perish entirely. NFow, to altogether remedy this 
state of things is, I believe, impossible ; but certainly 
some preventives can be applied which may have con¬ 
siderable effect. 
In the first place, we may presume that the Onion,- 
like everything else, thrives better on some soils and 
situations than on others. Great quantities are grown 
on the light soils of Bedfordshire and Herts, the sub¬ 
soil being a sort of gravel, or, in some instances, chalk ; 
the surface soil on the latter is far from light; but, 
I believe, it is those mineral substances, which the soil 
holds in solution, that constitutes its merits for growing i 
particular crops. Certain it is, that Onions grow well \ 
in the loamy soils that border London on the north; 
and, though sometimes maggot may attack them, such 
attacks are far from serious in the general way. Periods 
of dry weather are much more to be dreaded, checking 
the growth and hastening a premature ripening of the 
bulb. But, as the soil in which the Onion thrives so i 
well is often found in near proximity with the chalk, we | 
may come to the conclusion that that substance is an 
essential element in its successful culture ; and as chalk 
and lime resemble each other, it becomes the cultivator 
to apply the one or the other to his Onion beds ; though 
this advice must be received with caution, as it will not 
always act with advantage on a soil diametrically 
opposed to it,—being, however, endowed with the pro¬ 
perty of destroying insect life to a certain degree, it 
may always be used with advantage where maggot is 
apprehended. Things of a like nature, as soot and 
wood ashes, may also be used, their caustic properties 
being, perhaps, still more obnoxious to the maggot than 
even quicklime. But one of the best substances I have 
known for destroying the larva? of insects, maggots, and 
other pests, was a sort of refuse lime, which had imbibed 
the impurities of gas at the manufactory of that article. 
This substance had more the appearance of green 
copperas than anything else, and certainly was the most 
offensive article I ever had to deal with; but when 
wire worm, grub, caterpillar, or other pest of that kind 
infected the ground, it was a certain remedy; and, 
applied in winter, I do not think it injured anything in 
the growing season ; on the contrary, it was beneficial. 
I should, therefore, advise its being tried on ground 
notoriously subject to the depredations of the maggot 
or similar evil. 
It would be well here to point out one or two of the 
causes which encourage the maggot in Onions, which ; 
will, perhaps, assist in solving the question of its de- | 
srruction. In most gardens it is advisable, and very 
highly so, to change the ground for each crop, so as to 
have that rotation so much insisted on. This is all i 
very well, though I have seen a plot of ground that, I 
was told, had been cropt with Onions for more than 
twenty years in succession, and still bore well. But 
this is not generally advisable in private gardens. 
In managing the rotation, care ought to be taken not to 
allow the Onion to follow any of the Cabbage tribe, 
which are said to be prolific in the breeding of all kinds 
of enemies to the vegetable creation. Old gardens too, 
that have received their meed of rank dung without 
much lime or other counter agent, also favour the 
production of these enemies to the cultivation. And, 
lastly, the destruction of small birds, which live on these 
little opponents to good crops, has had a bad effect in 
many places; for I have often remarked, that the Onion 
