ONION FLY.-LEEK OR SHALLOT FLY. 
79 
of tlie Shallot Fly Bouclie found its Maggots by thousands in night 
soil, and we need to know more clearly whether by applying manure 
that attracts the Fly we increase attack of Maggots to the bulb, or 
whether, on the other hand, such applications may serve as a decoy to 
draw off the maggots. 
In the course of last season I applied a thick dressing of what is 
known as “Indian” Bape-cake (that is, Mustard-cake), which smells 
almost intolerably whilst putrefying, and is in this stage very attractive 
to flies, and soon found it infested with Maggots, whilst the Onions 
did well. 
The very different amount of attack to Onions and to Leeks is also 
worth considering. Some kinds of Onion Fly feed indifferently on 
either plant, and there does not appear to be any reason why the 
Leeks should not suffer as much as the Onions, excepting the differ¬ 
ence in method of cultivation by which in earthing up the Leeks we 
protect the bulbs by a good solid coating of earth from the flies getting 
at them to lay their eggs. Two years’ trial of the effect of earthing 
up Onions have made me think that this plan would save much loss 
wherever the Onions are sowed in drills, so as to admit of earthing by 
the hoe; where they are sown broadcast of course the plan is not 
practicable. 
With regard to remedies for attack Mr. W. Taylor, Longleat, 
Warminster, mentions that last spring some of the Onions showed 
signs of flagging whilst still only about the diameter of a knitting- 
needle. Every Onion so affected was pulled up, carefully placed in a 
basket, and carried straight to the stoke-hole fire. The plants were 
treated in this manner every two or three days for three weeks, and 
the result was that there was no further damage during the summer, 
and the crop of Onions was the only good one in the neighbourhood. 
Mr. Taylor notes that one of his garden men followed the plan so 
far as to pull up all the faulty Onions in his garden, but he threw them 
down a short distance from the bed, and lost his entire crop. 
Mr. W. Ward, writing from The Gardens, Stoke Edith Park, 
Hereford, mentions that he has found quicklime and salt at the same 
rate of quantities to be of great service in keeping the “pests” away 
from Onions,—these used in the same way as pointed out for Carrots, 
see p. 12. 
Mr. Malcolm Dunn, of Dalkeith, mentions that when he saw the 
first signs of attack on Onions he had them dressed with dry soot and 
lime, taking care that it was applied close around the stems of the plants. 
Two or three careful applications put an end to the attacks, and the 
crops scarcely suffered. 
Mr. Grierson notices that on the first appearance of the Onion Fly 
on his crop at Torloisk, Isle of Mull, he had all the attacked Onions 
