The Portland daily press., 1868-02-08
GroMinyO Onionu

Our farmers may think it is rather carly to
talk about raising onions when the mercury
very obstinately stands at zero nights AID
mornings and very reluctantly rises above 1t
at any time, but it any one has given a note
to the bank to be paid in sixty days and grace,
the season for putting onion see1 into the
ground will soon arrive. Nothing makes six-
ty days pass away as quickly as such a note.
We trust, however, that our farmers are not
troubled with such an unnatural flight of
time. Many, and perhaps most of cur farm
ers, have become impatient, and have almost
ceased to make any attempts 10 grow onions
because the maggots destroy them soon alter
they have come up. In many localities these
p'sts have destroyed the crops, and no Won
der our farmers have been inpatient and rest
less under such visitations. But after all, it
is best to keep trying on a small, If not on @
large scale, for all insects have their times and
seasons and then pass away, and sometimes
the places that have known them, know them
no more.
We suppose those who grow en- ons, or at
tempt to, know how these maggots get into
the onions: If not, we win tell them. 1t is
curious fact in natural histLry that certain
plants have their peculiar pests, no matter
how offensive the efluvia rising from ths
plants may be, or how poisonous the leaves
may be- Even the tobacco plant has its worm
which delights in feeding upon its leaves. We
once knew an old gentleman who was very
fond of onions and took much pleasure and
pride in his garden. But the maggots would
destroy his onions, and he became quite
wrathy and determined to give them do.eI
which might des troy their lives. And to be
revenged upon the little rascals, he sowed
sulphur and birthstone with his onion seed
one year, but that seemed to increase the
number of his enemies, snd the next season
he gave them large doses of jalap hoping to
make them stomach-sick and stop them from
feeding on his favorite dish. But all to no
purpose. He declared the more he physiced
them the stronger and more rayencus
they grew. He might have reasonably sup
| posed that maggot that win live and grow
fat in an onion would not be likely to die OF
birthstone or jalap any more than tobacco
worm could be poisoned by rash doses. Such
creatures have very strong stomachs as our
elderly friend found out at last.
His great enquiry was to ascertain how
these little pests got into his young onions.
One summer we invited him into our garden
and demonstrated to him the secret. We had
sowed large bed of onions early in the spring
and covered all but one end of it with milli-
nett drawn over light frame deep enough
to give the plants fair chance to grow. The
part Of the bed uncovered was filled with
maggots and every onion entirely destroyed,
but in the covered part of the bed the onions
grew finely, and not one was touched by the
maggots. On the millinett there were score.
of light brown flies about hall or two-thirds as
large as q common house-1y. These insects
were not satisfied with what they had done,
but were struggling to get through the
meshes of the covering; for they had moro
eggs to deposit between the spears Of ea.h
onion and tried week or more to get
through the netting for that purpose. Our
friends eyes were opened and he commenced
the work Of killing these flies in good earnest
and with good relish. He was really war
like in his demonstrations. He owed a spite
to the mothers of these maggots that had de-
stroyed his onions Tor several seasons, and waa
fully determined to be revenged upon them.
In localities where the onions are thus de.
stroyed any one can observe these fies blslly
at work depositing their eggs soon after the
onions have come up. 1t is quite evident that
the maggots cannot be killed, and if any ono
is wise enough to invent something that will
keep these flies from the onion beds, he may
be sure of good crop Of onions. Perhaps
they have kad their day, and we advise oul
farmers and gardeners to sow the seed in the
early spring and trust to Him who has prom
ised harvest as well as seed time.
| AGRTCOIA