'S'^

Queries with Answers

.UPON.

Agricultural and Horticultural
Subjects.

By

Burnet Landreth,

Foreign Member of ike Agricultural Societies of Japan, Chile, Mexico, France,

Horticultural of London, Society of Arts, London,

Acclimatization of Brazil, L' Academic Royale de Suede,

Chevalier and Ojfficier du Merite Agricole de France.

PUBLISHED BY

DAVID LANDRETH & SONS,

Seed Fanners and Merchants,

Established 1784,^

PHILADELPHIA.

COPYRIGHT, 1895.

Philadelphia :

Press of MacCalla <& Company Incorporated,

237-9 dock street.

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HESE 999 QUESTIOJ^S

represent only a small portion of the Queries
which have been sent to the firm of the
author, and which have presented them-
selves to practical minds, dwelling upon -the
subjects of field work connected with agri-
culture and horticulture, more particularly in the special branch
of Vegetable Gardening.

Among farmers and gardeners not enough thought is given
to the why and wherefore, or cause and efi"ect, for, as a rule, they
go on year after year without profiting by the personal opportu-
nities afforded them of observation, or by the results of experi-
ments at scientific stations. Every year a new series of cultiva-
tors, both of farm and garden, spring into existence, few of them
profiting by, few indeed knowing anything about, the experiences
of their predecessors.

With rare exceptions the young farmer and gardener does
not take up his work from the scientific side, but strictly from
the laborer's side ; and he begins at the bottom, meeting the same
difficulties as did his father and too often not acquiring informa-
tion beyond what his father possessed.

This should not be ; agriculture should be taught in all our
public schools of country districts, as it has been taught for years
in Germany and Austria. It should be elevated as an art ; in
its higher estate it already is an art. No pursuit possesses a
greater scope for development ; the field is almost unoccupied by
leaders, scientific and practical.

Since this Book has gone to press, many more Queries
have been presented, and they, with others, will be compre-
hended in a second Volume, now being prepared, to be issued a
year hence, which will comprise over 1000 additional Queries.

The Author asks readers to send him at once, and any time
hereafter, additional questions that he may answer them, the
responses subsequently to be embodied in the second volume.

999 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

. . SELECTED FROM • .

Landreths' Inquiry Book,

Many of the inquiries made of the Seed Merchant by amateurs and
practical gardeners are very difficult to answer, as they arise from the
varied thought and experience of the inquirers, the outgrowth of
every physical diversity of soil, climate and condition, as well as from
the temperament and mood of the writers.

Out of the many thousands of queries made of us there may be
selected a few from our Inquiry Book which it may be practical to
repeat, with the responses made, as they may meet a need for similar
information for some of the readers of this volume. They might be
better grouped or classified, but are printed just as they have been
recorded.

Keaders of this book may not in all things agree with the answers
made ; that is their privilege, as many queries are subject to different
interpretations. The book is not published for the scientific, nor for
those who already know it all before they read it.

1. Query. What is the distinction between a fruit and a vegetable? pruit or
Answer. In a physiological sense a fruit is borne upon a flower stem vegetable.

and is a growth following the development of a flower, and, except under
abortive conditions or failing of pollination, containing within itself or
upon itself the seeds for the perpetuation of its species. Perhaps, to meet
a popular understanding, a ready definition of a fruit might be an edible
growth upon a tree or bush, containing seeds and having a sweet or sour
flavor.

2. Q. If a fruit is a consequential development of inflorescence and con- Nuts,
tains a seed, is a nut a fruit ?

A. A nut or hard-shelled seed, if contained within a pulpy envelope,
is, with its covering, a fruit under the previous definition ; but under the
usual understanding a fruit must be an accumulation of soft, pulpy
tissue. Some nuts — as the cocoanut, the walnut and the hickory — are

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Grains.

Culinary
Vegetables.

Bulbs.

Tubers.

Offsets.

Broccoli.

Cow Pea.

Wlieat.

enclosed in a thick tissue of growth, but the enveloping material is unpal-
atable and indigestible. In the case of nut-bearing plants of habits fixed
through original conditions or through selection based upon hereditary
development, the seed or nut is developed at the expense of the surround-
ing tissue.

3. Q. "What is a grain ?

A. A grain is a seed suitable for use by man for grinding or crushing to
meal for cattle feeding or human food.

4. Q. "What is a culinary vegetable ?

A. It is a plant producing, above or below ground, a development of
edible tissue, as the bulb of a turnip, the enlarged stalk of a kohl rabi,
the head of a cabbage, or the half-abortive or abnormally developed buds
of the cauliflower. A culinary vegetable generally requires cooking to
fit it for human food, but not always, as exampled in the radish, lettuce,
cress. A culinary vegetable in the exact sense cannot contain seeds, as
it is a product developed previous to inflorescence.

5. Q. "What is a bulb ?

A. It is an underground bud containing within itself a capacity for
reproducing its kind. It is generally globular in form and is composed
of scales or coats, one within another, familiar examples being the onion
and hyacinth.

6. Q. What is a tuber ?

A. A tuber is a solid, fleshy development from a root and containing
buds or eyes capable of producing its like ; a familiar example of the
tuber being the potato?

7. Q. "What are oflsets ?

A. They are young bulbs or bulblets formed on the sides of old bulbs.
These broken ofl" produce full-sized buds.

8. Q. "What is the distinction between broccoli and cauliflower?

A. Broccoli usually has a taller stem than cauliflower, leaves narrower
and stifler, generally undulating, ribs broad and leaf stalks long ; the
texture of the heads not so fine nor so white as cauliflower ; the flower
head of a stronger cabbage taste. Broccoli has an advantage over cauli-
flower in greater hardiness. It is less rapid in growth, and generally the
plants are carried over "Winter to develop in early Spring. Broccoli
should be better known and more largely cultivated in the northern sec-
tions of the Union.

9. Q. Is a Southern cow pea, a pea or a bean ?

A. It is a bean ; the outward and unscientific distinction between
peas and beans being that, as a rule, beans have fleshy edible pods, dis-
tinctly marked eyes, smooth surface and of a far greater variation of color
than peas.

10. Q. Have bearded wheats any advantage over beardless sorts ?

A. Bearded wheats possess a higher percentage of gluten than beard-
less variety, and as gluten is the essentially nutritive element, its percent-
age is a most important matter. The people of new wheat countries, aa

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. o

our Northwestern States, the new lands of the La Platte and Australia,
are generally tall and muscular, which physical condition is attributed to
the richer glutenous wheat grown on new lands.

11. Q. What advantage is there in the growing of early wheats over wheat,
late wheats ?

A, Early wheats are desirable as their habit more quickly removes
them from the danger of red rust.

12. Q. What is pollen ? PoUen.
A. It is the fertilizing agent of plants, consisting of a yellow powder

formed of cells of from ^^^ to j-^j^ of an inch in diameter, each containing
minute granules from y^^ij ^^ au^o^ of an inch in diameter. These minute
granules produced by the stamens must be brought in contact with the
pistil, and one or more pass into and through it till it reaches the base of
the pistil. The pollen reaches the pistil by various means, as by the vio-
lent bursting of the stamens, by currents of air and by insects. The
length of time over which the pollen of ordinary plants retains its vitality
varies from a few hours to many days, with a number of plants for many
months, and with a few plants for many years. The quantity of pollen
produced is enormous, the sulphur showers from pine forests consisting
of pollen. Some plants producing 250,000 grains to the single flower.

13. Q. "What vegetables will mix, if planted in proximity? °ti^n*"^*"
A. Only those of the same family, as for example, beans with beans.

It is impossible to mix beans with peas, or squashes with tomatoes. Some
vegetables looked upon as distinct, as for example, watermelon, can-
taloupe, squashes, cucumber, pumpkin and gourds, are all of one family,
and will mix one with the other.

14. Q. Will round-podded peas stand more cold, wet weather than Peas.
wrinkled peas ?

A. Yes. Wrinkled peas, which are soft, are seldom ripened with the
same completeness as round peas, which are hard, and they are more
likely to decay under the same soil conditions — decomposition setting in
earlier — in fact, they have less vitality and less physical vigor.

15. Q. What is a gourd ? Gourd.
A. Scientifically, it may be defined as a member of that family from

■which has sprung all the varieties of squashes and pumpkins, which
edible fruits are yet comprised in the same general classification with
many which are unedible. The edible varieties are those botanically
indicated as maxima, mochata and pepo ; the first having stalks round,
■without furrows, and with foliage large, broad, kidney-shaped, and
covered with hairs ; examples, Valparaiso, Hubbard, Mammoth. The
second with stalks slightly furrowed, swollen where they join the fruit,
leaves lobed or angular, deeply indented and bloated with air bubbles,
seeds hairy and covered with a silvery membrane ; examples, Canada
Crookneck, Yokohama. The third with stalks alender, fruit stems five-
sided and becoming woody, foliage deeply indented and hairy ; examples,
White Bush, Vegetable Marrow, Cococella, Tours. The unedible varie-

4 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

ties to which custom attaches the name of gourd have a hard, woody, dry
shell and a flavor so bitter as to render them unedible.

Potatoes. 16. Q. Is the Irish potato a native of Ireland ?

A. No ! It is a native American, improperly called Irish because the
Irish people cultivated it to such an extent at one time as to be the prin-
cipal article of food. No American should call it Irish. Its true name
is the potato, simply the potato, be it white, yellow or red, round or oblong.
The sweet potato is not a potato at all ; it is called so through an errone-
ous custom.

SweetPotato. 17. Q. If the sweet potato is not a potato, what is it ?

A. It belongs to the same race or family as the yam, which family is
not native to America, but is found in Africa and India.

-^ij,i 18. Q. Can good potatoes be developed from the wild sorts of Arizona

Potatoes. and Mexico ?

A. Yes, the writer developed several fine sorts after four years' culture
and selection, unfortunately losing them by frost during winter.

Potatoe ^^' ^" ^^^ long will it take to develop edible-sized potatoes from the

from the true seed ball ?

seed. A. About three years. Of course it is all a speculation, for nineteen

out of twenty of the seedlings are inferior to present standard sorts,
those of good form and quality being like prizes in a lottery ; but when
they are good they often pay handsomely.

Potatoes, Size 20. Q, Which size seed potatoes produce best results all things consid-

for Planting. Qred ?

A. Medium size cut into halves.

Cutting 21. Q. If my potatoes for planting are all large size, how small should

Potatoes. I cut them ?

A. None smaller than a black walnut.

Potato Skins. 23. Q. Why are the skins of my potatoes eaten and scaly ?

A. Sometimes from worms, which lime will drive off. Sometimes from
excessive moisture bursting the skins, which nature attempting to repair
results in scales.

Bermudas. 23. Q. Why are Bermuda potatoes always smoothskinned ?

A. Because grown on coral or lime soil, and because largely fertilized
with sea weed, the salt and lime both being obnoxious to insects.

Potato Seed. The potato, as ordinarily propagated, is not grown from the seed, but
from the tuber, a cutting of which resembles a graft or bud from a tree,
and perpetuates the good or bad qualities of the parent. The true seed,
which is borne in a seed-pod following the blossom, is very seldom seen,
is very difficult to gather, and consequently is very expensive. In ap-
pearance resembles a tomato seed of about one-tenth development ; the
potato belonging to the tomato family. The seed germinates very easily,
and the plants can be cultivated by any one, producing tubers the first
year about the size of buckshot ; these, planted the second year, double in
bulk, and after about three or four years, become of edible size. As en-
tirely new sorts are thus produced, the cultivation is very interesting and
often profitable. Per pkt. 30c.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 5

We here record our protest against the expression "Irish potatoes" as
applied to any of the many forms of round or kidney potatoes, the plant
being a native American, found growing wild from Arizona to Chili,

New varieties of potatoes are alone derived from the true seed, which is
obtained from the seed balls ; these seed balls are generally borne upon
late varieties. The development of new varieties of valuable qualities is
tiresome and disappointing, as often ten years of labor may not bring a
single truly valuable sort. It is, however, a matter of chance, and the
first experiment may develop a novelty of the highest merit.

24. Q. What is the product of cucumbers? Cucumbers.
A. For early use plant in hills 4x4 feet, on a warm border, when the

cherry is in bloom, and for a succession sow in drills at five feet, when the
apple is in bloom. For pickles plant middle of Summer.

In Florida and other Southern States, a fair average production per
acre of slicing cucumbers is two hundred crates, 8x14 x 20 inches. Some
growers claim average crops of 400 and 500 — even 800 crates have been
recorded, but these large yields are only occasionally heard of.

Fresh Southern cucumbers appear in Philadelphia the last of November,
and command $1 to $3 per dozen. Towards Christmas the price rises to
$2.50 per dozen, after which the price declines to $4 or $5 per box of
eighty-five to ninety fruit. By last of May the price goes down to $1
per dozen, after which shipments are unprofitable. As a rule the early
cucumbers from New Orleans bring better prices than those from Florida,
being better sorted and better packed.

A good crop of cucumbers, when gathered of pickling size, produces
from 100 to 175 bushels to the acre. A bushel contains about 300
pickles. Some cultivators have claimed to produce over 100,000 pickles
to the acre. The pickles should be slipped from the vine by the thumb
and finger without raising or disturbing the vine. The pickle houses
generally pay the farmers forty to fifty cents per bushel, they in turn sell
them at from twenty to thirty cents per 100.

Pickles properly prepared will keep five or six years. The method of
salting pickles, as pursued in New Jersey, is as follows : To a cask of 120
gallons capacity, take four quarts of salt and mix in two gallons of water.
Place the solution in the bottom of the cask and put in the green pickles
after washing. To each two bushels of pickles put into the cask add four
quarts of Salt, and continue until cask is full. Place the head of the cask,
with edges trimmed off to permit of a rise and fall, on the top of the
pickles, and on the top of the head or lid place a weight of twenty or
twenty -five pounds. If there should be any leakage of the liquor, replace
it by a solution of four quarts of salt to two gallons of water, keeping all
the pickles submerged. Salt should not be stinted. Pickle packers make
three sizes before pickling — large, medium and small.

25. Q. What is the form of a Long Green Turkey cucumber? Turkey

A. A Long Green Turkey cucumber is long, three square and at the stem Cw«»i"»'*«"'
end of a reduced diameter, the seed being found principally in the blossom

6

QUERIES AND ANSWERS,

Pickles.

Cucumber
Bug.

White Spine
Cucuuiber.

Slicing.
Fruiting.

Cucumber
Crops.

Greeniiouse
Cucunxber.

end. In an ordinary "Long Green" the diameter is about the same
throughout its length, and the seed found throughout a larger portion of
the fruit. The Long Green Turkey is a light producer of seed, and conse-
quently the seed is higher priced than other field varieties.

26. Q. "Which variety of cucumber will produce the most small fruits
for pickling ?

A. The Short Prolific and the Jersey pickle for commercial sales, but
for domestic use the Long Green Turkey furnishes the best formed pickles.

27. Q. How shall I secure myself against the attacks of the cucumber
or squash bug?

A. Start the plants in the house or under glass, the seeds planted in
square pieces of sod for readiness of removal to the field when the leaves
become half developed.

28. Q. What is a good White Spine cucumber ?

A. It is a leading sort both in the private and market garden, appreci-
ated by reason of its strong healthy habit of vine and consequent produc-
tiveness, of deep green symmetrical fruit. If of a good strain the fruits are
in length four or five times their diameter, and nearly of the same diameter
throughout their entire length, slightly three-sided and dotted with small
warts, from each of which springs an ivory-white thorn or spine, giving
the name of White Spine to the variety. With a few exceptions other
cucumbers bear brown or black spines.

From the extreme or blossom end of the white spine ten light-colored
lines run towards the stem end, these lines as the fruit becomes larger turn
bone white, sometimes a yellow white, and after the fruit becomes too old
for shipment the entire fruit becomes a bone white, tinged with a light
golden. .

As a shipping variety the White Spine is highly prized, as it so long
retains its green color, which, when it does change, alters not to a yellow,
but to a less objectionable white.

29. Q. Which varieties of cucumber are the best for slicing?
A. White Spine, Early Frame and Long Green.

30. Q. Why do some varieties of cucumbers produce more fruit than
others ?

A. Because of a more perfect formation of flowers, and a more profuse
distribution of pollen.

31. Q. Why do vine crops as cucumber and melons produce larger
crops after a dry summer than after a wet one ?

A. Because during the flowering period throughout a dry summer the
pollen is freely carried from the male flowers by winds and insects to the
female flowers, but during a wet season the pollen being made heavy by
moisture it remains on the male flowers where it originates.

•82. Q. In what way do English hothouse cucumbers diflfer from the
usual American outdoor sorts ?

A. The forcing-house varieties, as Rabley, Marquis of Lome, Telegraph,
are all more than twice as long as the longest field varieties, sometimes

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 7

four times as long. They contain very few seeds, and are quite free from
that property which to some people is so poisonous.

33. Q. How should I plant cantaloupes ? Cantaloupes.
Cantaloupes or citron melons, as they are termed in Jersey, do well

upon sod ground or upon land prepared for planting by plowing down a
crop of winter wheat or winter rye, the sod or grass aerating or lieeping
loose the soil.

The seed is planted at about corn-seeding time or when the apple is in
bloom, in hills about four and a half feet in each direction. Two shovels-
ful of well-rotted stable manure being trampled into each hill and covered
with earth. The large long melons, like the Reedland Qiant and Casaba,
are generally sold by the hundred ; melons of the ordinary form and size
are sold by the basket of one-half to five-eighths bushel capacity. Phila-
delphia commission merchants pay as a highest price $1.50 to $3.00 per
bushel. As an average price forty to fifty cents per bushel. Cantaloupe
melons are frequently a drug in the market.

34. Q. Why do some people use the word musk melon (corrupted to Mask Melon.
mush melon) cantaloupe, nutmeg and citron, as applied to the same fam-
ily of vine fruits ?

A. (1). Musk melons as originally known were long, large-fruited,
smooth-skinned, soft-fleshed, very aromatic and often of a sickening
sweetness.

(3). Cantaloupes as at first distinguished were large, rough and irreg-
ular in form, often deeply ribbed and covered more or less with warts, the
skin sometimes slightly netted, and at other times entirely without net-
ting. Cantaloupes like musk melons are frequently inclined to crack at
the ends.

(3). Citron melons are of a later introduction. In form, they vary from
flat and round to ovoid, slightly ribbed, generally netted, the flesh per-
fumed, the seed small.

The term nutmeg was originally applied to citron melons of oval form Nutmeg,
slightly larger at one end than the other, like the nutmeg of commerce.
Among the New Jersey market gardeners the expression, cantaloupe or
musk melon, is never used. They always speak of citrons.

35. Q. When should I plant watermelon seed ? Seeding.
A. When the black Walnut is in one-inch leaf, plant melons.

36. Q. How should I plant watermelons ? Watermelons
A. Watermelons do well upon sod ground or upon land prepared for their

reception by plowing down a crop of winter wheat or winter rye, the sod
or grain aerating or keeping loose the soil. When the apple is in bloom
the seed is planted in hills at ten feet apart in each direction. Two large
shovelfuls of well-rotted stable manure dug and trampled into each hill
and covered with earth.

The cultivator should be prepared with quite four pounds of seed to the
acre, that he may have a reserve for replanting in case of destruction of
his plants by insect depredations or beating rains.

8 QUERIES AXD ANSWERS.

One vine alone to the hill should be allowed to attain perfection ; with
four hundred and fifty hills to the acre, there should be nine hundred first-
class melons.

Philadelphia commission merchants pay for prime melons, as a highest
price, forty dollars ($40.00) per hundred. As an average price, ten dol-
lars ($10.00) per hundred. They cease to be profitable to the trucker
when bringing less than four dollars ($4.00) per hundred. First-class
melons are always in demand, but the market is frequently overstocked
with small fruit.

Much of the melon seed offered throughout the country is the product
of immature and deformed melons remaining in the field after all the
choice fruit has been selected.

Watermelon. 37. Q. What constitutes a good watermelon ?

A. If for shipping to market the requirements seem to be to obtain from
the acre the greatest number of mammoth melons of good carrying quality,
little regard being paid to texture of flesh, depth of color, or flavor, so that
the flesh is solid and red. A familiar example of a favorite shipping
watermelon of only third-class quality is the Kolb Gem.

If for private or family use, the mammoth melons are not desirable, the
requirements then being for those of fair weight, twenty to thirty pounds,
flesh solid from centre to rind, the unedible portion being not more than
one-half inch thick ; color of flesh red, flavor sugary and texture so granu-
lated or crystalline as to melt away like ice upon the tongue. A melon
producing fruit of fibrous sponge-like nature, no matter what its other
qualities maybe, cannot be a first-class melon.

The Long Light Icing, the Round Icing, Arkansas Traveler and the Boss
are decidedly the best for the private garden.

Arkansas The Arkansas Traveler and the Boss, both because of good size, of a dark

and healthy deep green rind, of good carrying quality, having a rind like wood.

The Boss while inside no others are so solid, so entirely edible, so deeply red, so
* crystalline in flesh, and altogether so excellent in quality, are recognized
as the best of all melons when grown on soils strong enough to properly
develop their variety.

Points of a 38. Q. What constitutes a good citron melon or cantaloupe ?

good Citron A. A good citron must in the first place produce a hardy vine without

aielon. which healthy fruit cannot be expected. The fruit in size may be small

like the Jenny Lind, medium like the Acme, or mammoth like the Reedland
Giant, Black Paris, or White French, but whatever its color, orange, sal-
mon, or green, it should be thick fleshed, juicy, sweet, melting and leaving
an agreeable flavor upon the palate. Some melons, apparently of good
flavor at first, prove after eating to be distasteful. For market purposes no
citron surpasses the Annie Arundel for productiveness, for good outside
appearances, and for edible qualities.

Foreign 39. Q. Can seeds of foreign citrons be distinguished from seeds of Ameri-

Cantalonpes. can-grown citrons ?

A. Yes the seeds of foreign sorts are inclined to turn up at one end,
like a sled, are generally larger and nearly always more yellow.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 9

40. Q. To save my Citron or Cantaloupes from thieves can I ripen them Ripening cit-
in the house ? ^^^'

A. Yes ; often better than in the field. Pull them when fully grown,
wash them, dry them, and place them on shelves in a dry, warm room ;
soon an aroma will fill the room superior to that ever before noticed in the
field.

41. Q. Why is it that my Montreal citrons, grown in Pennsylvania, do Flavor of
not have the same flavor as those grown in Canada? Melons.

A. Because of the distinct conditions of growth. At Montreal the seed
is sown in hotbeds, 20th to 30th of March. When the plants develop a
rough leaf they are potted and three or four times pinched back till about
the middle of May, when they are set out in specially prepared hotbeds,
three (3) plants to a sash. The glass is liept on till the vines fill the
entire bed, when both the sash and frame are removed. Very little water
is required, and when applied it is done without a rose, as it has been
found injurious to wet the leaves.

42. Q. What is the merit of the netting or webbing on citron melons? Netting on
A, Strong webbing preserves a melon from the disfiguring efi"ects of Citrons.

abrasion, thus fitting it to withstand transportation better than the melons
with smooth skins or only partial webbing. A strong netting often indi-
cates a good flavor, but it is not the rule, for some foreign smooth-
skinned melons are hard to excel.

43. Q. Shall I shorten the long shoots of my watermelon vines ? Pinching
A. Yes ; pinch them back, cut them early before they get long. Back.

44. Q. Why do the full-grown vines of my watermelons, squashes, Melon Bag.
and citrons get yellow and die off?

A. From injury by worms produced from the eggs of the squash bug
which earlier in the season ate the young seedlings.

45. Q. How should an Orange watermelon be cut to the best effect ? Orange

A. About an inch from each end slice off a slab so as to produce a flat Wat«»"™® *»"•
surface and set the melon on end. With a knife, held so that one
inch of the blade only can penetrate the rind, cut down the rind perpen-
dicularly in lines one inch apart from top to bottom and pull it off, leav-
ing standing the red flesh of the interior.

46. Q. What are the rules for determining when a watermelon is ripe? Picking
A. When a watermelon is ripe it has lost to a slight degree its lively Melons.

green tint, appearing a little dull in color. At the stem end the curled
wiry tendril has become quite dead. On the earth side the melon is well
bleached and has become hard and woody.

The expert watermelon picker, however, is not guided by these out-
ward signs, but relies upon the sound emitted from the melon when
gently thumped with the back of the nail of thumb or fingers. A green,
unripe melon responding with sonorous noise, while a ripe one, because
of the spongy nature of the interior, sounds dull and heavy. Practice
will soon make clear the difference in sound.

10

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Radish. 47. Q. Why do my radish roots become rough and scaly ?

A. "Want of lime to drive off worms and grubs.
Tomatoes. 43. Q. How and when should Tomato seed be planted ?

A. "When the apple is in bloom sow in hills three feet apart, on a warm
border, early in the Spring. For a later supply, sow a short time after-
wards in a more open situation. As the plants advance in growth sup-
port them by brushwood. To have the tomato very early it is necessary
to start the plants in a hotbed, or they may be reared in a flower-pot in a
window and subsequently transplanted.

Plants for an early crop should be raised under glass. For intermedi-
ate crop they may be raised on outside beds. For late crops the seed may
be planted in permanent position when the apple is in bloom. The aver-
age production of fruit per acre on cultivated and fertilized land is about
14,000 pounds, or say 250 bushels per acre, though 18,000 or 30,000
pounds have been raised.

Southern Florida tomatoes reach Philadelphia in February, and com-
mand $4 to $6 per bushel. By April the rate declines to $3 to $5, and
continues to decline till June, after which they fail to meet the cost of
transportation. Forty to eighty cents per bushel is an average price,
twenty-five to thirty-five cents per bushel for late crops. This crop ceases
to be profitable to the trucker unless he can realize sixteen cents per
bushel. They are very often a drug in the market. Tomato canning
houses buy the fruit by the ton at from $6 to $7. For seed purposes alone
we have washed out over 40,000 bushels of fruit iu a single season.
Bough Sorts. 49. Q, Why is it that the rough-fruited tomatoes. Early Jersey and
Richmond, are largely grown ?

A. Because of their double qualities of earliness and resistance against
transportation injuries.

By their earliness they are often more profitable than far better sorts
subsequently put into market, and by reason of their hollow cells they
will stand almost any amount of rough usage without bursting.

50. Q. Why do my tomatoes fail to produce either blossom or fruit ?
A. Possibly by reason of the land being too richly manured or too

much shaded.

51. Q. Why do my tomatoes rot?

A. Possibly because of a fungus growth for which no positive remedy
has been discovered. Some varieties are especially susceptible to it.
Spinach. ^2. Q. Describe the diflference between varieties of spinach ?

A. The Bloomsdale is the earliest to develop plants of cutting size. Its
leaves are entirely savoyed or bloated and it is accordingly the most
elastic, bearing transportation better than any other sort. It is quite erect
in habit, and in Spring shoots the earliest to seed. It is most valuable as
an Autumn variety, being hardier than other sorts. The seed is round.

Prickly spinach has thorny seeds and is the second to develop to mar-
ket size. The leaves are quite erect and elastic, somewhat similar to

UnCroitful
Vine.

Tomato Rot.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 11

Bloomsdale. It is an excellent variety. The seed is thorny, hence its
name.

Ever Ready is the darkest colored of all spinaches and slowest to shoot
to seed ; it is the best of the Long Standing sorts.

Flanders is the largest seeded of all the varieties. Leaves, spear-
shaped, on long, erect stems ; it can thus be gathered generally free
from sand ; it is the third in order of maturity. Round Savoy is
round seeded and round leaved, habit of growth not as erect as Blooms-
dale, and not so much savoyed, the fourth in order of development to
cutting size.

Viroflay, a mammoth-leaved variety, very showy, the fifth in order of
maturity. Long Standing, the latest of all spinach to arrive at a cut-
ting stage ; leaves round on the edges, exceedingly deep green, leathery,
inclined to lay flat on the earth, slow to shoot to seed, hence its name.

53. Q. When should cabbage seed be sown ? Cabbage.

A. There is not a month in the year nor a day in the month when cab-
bage is not being sown in some of the gardening sections of the country.
It is therefore impossible to name periods for sowing. That must be de-
termined by the practice of each section. In a general way, however, it
may be said that cabbage seed should be sown in February for an early
Summer crop, and April or May for an Autumn crop, and in September
and October for an early Spring crop. The seed is sown in rows of a
foot apart, and after the plants reach a height of three or four inches they
are pulled up and transplanted to permanent locations, where they are set
in rows at three or four feet and at intervals of one-and-a-half to two feet
in the row.

The question is of frequent occurrence : Why cannot private families
have head cabbage as early as market gardeners? Simply because of
imperfect culture and insufficient manuring. To produce a successful
crop of cabbage the soil must naturally or artificially contain potash,
phosphate, nitrogen. These are all found in good barnyard manure and
in some commercial fertilizers. If these resources are not available, the
potash can be had in kainit, the phosphoric acid in bone, or better, in
superphosphate ; the nitrogen in dried blood, meat or fish.

The market gardener feeds his cabbage crop without stint and with
the rankest food, frequently plows in the manure in the Autumn, turns it
up in the Spring and thoroughly incorporates it with the soil ; plants
early, cultivates deeply, not simply tickling the surface with the hand-
hoe, but uses the plow and horse-hoe ; that cannot always be done in
small family gardens, but the spade can be used, and that is the next best
thing. Use it freely, dig deeply, and the result will surprise, those who
have heretofore relied on the hoe alone.

Cabbages grown South for shipment in the Spring sometimes do not
head uniformly, the result of checking by cold. The damage very fre-
quently is not apparent till the heading season, when the crop appears to
be a mixture of many sorts, sqme plants shooting to seed ; fields of difier-

12

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Club Root,

Cabbage.

Wakefield
Cabbage.

ent ages and different soil producing varying results. We recommend
that an entire crop should not be planted at once, but set out at intervals
of ten daj's. Cabbages on heavy hammock land are more injured by cold
than on lighter soil.

Under good conditions and management about eighty per cent, of the
plants in a cabbage field should, on an average, produce marketable
heads, though sometimes ninety-five per cent, have been marketed. Mar-
ket gardeners in Pliiladelphia, on an average, realize a net profit of about
one cent per head. The pickle houses pay about $8 per ton delivered at
their factories.

54. Q. What is the cause of club root in my cabbage ?
A. A fungus growth superinduced by rank manure or by constantly

cropping the same land in cabbage.

55. Q. Why do only half my cabbage produce good heads?
A. Not planted early enough. Given time all cabbages will head,

unless mongrel sorts.

5G. Q. What are the qualities going to constitute a good Wakefield
cabbage ?

A. The head should be an obtuse or blunt-pointed cone, much the
greatest diameter at the base. The leaves should extend up and above
the apex of the head, to afford length for a perfect folding over and solid
formation. The leaves should be close set, smooth, broad, even edged,
and dark and leathery, and the leaf stem should be feathered to the joint.
The dark leathery quality of the leaves is indicative of hardiness.

The stalk of a well-grown plant should be short, so that the head
appears to almost rest upon the earth.

Early maturity and mammoth size are not found united in Wakefields
any more than in any other plants.

57. Q. What constitutes a good Summer cabbage ?

A. Heads half or three quarters flat, the stems short, heads broad, deep
and solid, leaves spoon-formed, color blue-green with marrow-like veins
and completely crossing each other as they fold down over the head,
which in the centre should be slightly rounded.
Late Cabbage 58. Q. What are the qualities constituting a good Late Flat Dutch
cabbage ?

A. This variety must be of a vigorous habit to develop the size most
desired, the leaves must be broad, of a metallic blue green color, slightly
fluted on the edge and folding clear over the centre of the head, which
should be broad, deep and flat. The color of the leaves often indicates the
order of maturity, the light-green plants being early, the deepest blue
being late. There are probably a dozen forms of Late Flat Dutch, known
by as many names — all cannot be the best, although some may be called
Premium, others Matchless, others Superb.

59. Q. Which is the best cabbage for late Autumn planting in the
Southern States for Spring markets?

A. The varieties best adapted are those of leathery leaves and dark-

Summer
Cabbage

Cabbage for
the South.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 13

colored foliage, as such are the hardiest. Among them may be named.
Select Early Jersey Wakefield, Early Market, Bloomsdale Early Dwarf
Flat Dutch. The success attained depends however much upon the
period of sowing the seed, the time of setting out, the condition
of the plants as set out, and the condition of the Winter, as some-
times the influence of fluctuations in temperatures develop an abnormal
tendency in plants to shoot to seed. It is a safe plan to sow seed and to
set out plants at difierent periods.

60. Q. Why do not cabbage head ? Cabbage
A. Any passably fair stock of cabbage will always head if grown under ^^^^^^S'

proper conditions as respects period of planting, period of setting out, fer-
tility of soil, and culture. The stock may be of many varieties, early and
late, flat and round, smooth and savoyed, but they will all form some sort
of heads if given time, provided they be not checked by some soil condi-
tion. Collards or kale will not head, nor hybrids of the same, nor mongrel
stocks of cabbage.

61. Q. How should peas be sown ? Peas.
A. Peas are among the first seeds that may be sown at close of Winter,

frequently being planted before sharp frosts are fully over. The drilling
of peas may be safely commenced when the peach is in bloom and con-
tinued at intervals up to within sixty days of frost for the early kinds, or
seventy days for the intermediate varieties, or eighty days for the later
sorts. Late sown peas are never as productive as those sown in the Spring,
and often are found to be subject to mildew. Landreths' Extra Early will
be found to be the best for August and September sowings, because of its
early ripening habit and its ability to resist mildew. The dwarf varieties
may be drilled at two feet if cultivated by horse power, or fifteen inches
if to be hoed by hand. The varieties of medium length should be drilled
not closer than three feet, and the tall-growing sorts at five feet apart.
The number of peas in a row may vary from ten to the foot in the case of
the very dwarf kinds, to eight to the foot of the medium tall varieties, and
six to the foot of the very tall kinds. Yield 100 to 300 bushels. At Phil-
adelphia the highest average price paid by commission merchants for
early peas is from $3.00 to $4.00 per bushel, and the highest price paid for
late varieties is $1.50 to $3.00 per bushel, while the price sometimes is as
low as fifty to thirty cents per bushel. Early peas are not grown profit-
ably at less than fifty cents per bushel, nor late peas at less than forty
cents per bushel. The pea thrives best in light, loamy soil ; the early and
dwarf sorts demand rich ground.

63. Q. Does the boring of peas and beans by the weevil affect the ger- Pea WeeviL
mination of the seed?

A. There will be a failure to sprout if the grub of the weevil devours the
germ, but if the germ, is not eaten the seed will sprout.

Under favorable conditions of soil, moisture and heat, bug-eaten peas
and beans, when the germ is not destroyed, will do about as well as un-
injured seed, but under unfavorable conditions, when the young plant

14

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Sowing Peas.

Beans.

Soil
Covering.

Beans, form
of Pods.

Planting
liima Beans.

Distance.

Bean,
Banners.

Runners.

Bean Rust.

depends largely for its support upon the store of food laid upon the seed,
any reduction in this store of food tends to make the plant weak and
puny.

63. Q. "When sowing peas in rows, how many seeds should be placed
to the foot ?

A. It is bad policy to save seed at the possible risk of a crop, for insects
or excessive rainfall or no rain whatever may prevent the development
of healthy plants. It is best to sow four seeds to the inch. The growing
plants to be afterward pulled out or cut out to two plants to the inch.

64. Q. What is the proper time to plant garden beans ?

A. Sow when the apple is in bloom, and repeat as frequently as neces-
sary till within fifty days of frost. In field culture sow in drills at two
and a half feet apart. In garden culture, when the cultivating is done
by hand, the rows may be at eighteen inches. The seed should be sown
in such quantity as under ordinary circumstances to warrant one bean
vine to every four inches. If closer than this their production will be im-
paired. On strong soil they do best at a greater distance. Yield about
75 to 80 bushels. Florida and Mobile beans reach Philadelphia from
November till March ; those shipments in January command from $5 to $7
per crate. Round-podded varieties are most in demand. Beans gener-
ally sell well, but by first of April decline to $3 to $5 per crate, and sub-
sequently fall lower by reason of injury in transportation.

65. Q. How deep should seeds be covered ?

A. As a rule seeds should not be covered over four (4) times their
diameter, and when the soil is heavy seldom to that depth,

66. Q. What is the advantage of a round or cylindrical-podded bean
over a flat-podded variety ?

A. The round is always more brittle, less stringy, and contains more
flesh under the same amount of cuticle.

67. Q. How shall I plant my Lima beans, on side or flat, eyes down or up ?
A. Eyes down.

68. Q. How far apart should Lima bean poles be set ?

A. Four by four feet if in a patch, or if in a single row then everj-- three
feet. Wire netting three to four feet high and supported by posts is
better.

69. Q. What is a runner among bush beans or peas?

A. It is a plant which develops a long vine, and as such stands out in
marked contrast among the other vines which are of uniform height.

70. Q, Are all tall growing vines of peas and bush beans runners ?

A. No. As often a vine situated over a lump of manure will run from
extra fertility — or deeply-rooted vines will continue in growth alter all
others have stopped.

71. Q. Why do wax- podded beans rust more than green-podded varie-
ties?

A. Rust, so called, is the result of a fungus growth, which seems to

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 15

flourish to a greater extent on wax-podded beans than on the old green-
podded and less juicy and less delicate forms.

73. Q. What is a string bean ? Bean.

A. It should be in its best estate a bean without a string, properly a
snap short, bat few sorts are perfectly stringless.

73. Q. How should sugar peas be prepared for cooking? SagarPeas.
A. Break off the ends, pull off the strings, and then break up the pods

into pieces half an inch long ; cook same as string beans.

74. Q. Can you explain why my spinach for two years back has been so Spinach.
sickly as to be of little value ?

A. It must be suffering from insects at the root or from one of the three
or four fungus growths known as spinach blight. If so, the only remedy
is a change of location of the spinach patch.

75. Q. Does the color of the leaves of beets indicate the color of the flesh Beets.

of the roots? Color of

A. No ; the leaves of Long Blood beet, as generally sold, is quite one-
third dashed with green. When selected entirely of deep red foliage, the
production of seed is so reduced as to be unprofitable.

76. Q. How many tons to the acre of sugar beets are grown on the beet Sugar Beets.
farms of Germany ?

A. Twenty to thirty tons.

77. Q. What percentage of sugar is obtained from the German sugar Beet Sugar.
beets?

A. Many years ago only five per cent, as the result of actual manufac-
ture ; now tea and sometimes fourteen tons of sugar from one hundred
tons of beets.

78. Q. What are Mangold Wurzels? Mangolds.
A. A family of beets bred to a large size for cattle feeding. The roots

are easily injured by Autumn frosts, and therefore must be taken up in
good time and properly protected. When first harvested they are acrid
and scour cattle, but after a few months become palatable and safe. The
approved types produce massive roots which, well elevated above the
surface, are harvested with the greatest ease and produce double the
weight of turnips to the acre, to which advantage may be added the high
nutritive value, the saccharine often being equal to six or seven per cent,
of the gross weight. The Mangold is a high feeder — potash and nitrogen
are needed to force the plant into vigorous growth ; stable manure will
do it, or kainit mixed with dried meat or fish. Drill when the cherry is
in bloom,

79. Q. What should be done with the weeds when pulled up ? Weeds.
A. They may be burned and the ashes used as manure. They may be

used in the formation of compost piles if their seeds are immature, or they
may be put in cattle yards to be trampled down.

80 Q. What is the best manure ? 3ianure.

A. "Landreths' Farm Notes" says stable manure is king, but it can-
not always be obtained in quantity, nor at the desired periods ; failing to

16

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Greeu
Manures.

Com.

Sugar Corn.

obtain it for present use, we recommend chemical manures, which, used
in seasons not too dry, may do equally well at less cost ; but if time per-
mits, green manures will be found the cheapest.

81. Q. How is green manuring practiced ?

A. Four crops of green manure can be turned down in seventeen
months, by seeding rye in October, corn in April, a second crop of corn
in July, and rye again in October, to be plowed under in April. This ro-
tation will surprise the experimenter, who will see his soil made fertile,
friable, and in general vigor far beyond its previous condition, all due to
the valuable component parts of the vegetable matter plowed under, and
to the absorption and retention of nitrogen by the soil consequent upon
the extended covering of the surface. From the earliest agricultural rec-
ords green manuring has been practiced, and whole districts of country
in Europe have been rendered fertile by such practice. A large district
in Germany, once a barren, is now most fertile, all due to the use of the
lupine, which plant, however, does not offer such good results under the
hot sun of the American climate.

82. Q. What is the history of Corn or Maize ?

A. This is a native of North and South America, having been found in
cultivation by the first European voyagers. Modern researches in Peru
and Mexico have given evidence that its culture extends far beyond any-
historic period. There is no foundation whatever for the statement that
Indian corn has been found in the wrappings of Egyptian mummies ;
such tales being pure fabrications. Seeds of wheat, sorghum and millet
have been discovered, but it is doubtful if any such seed ever vegetated.
Indian corn may be divided into six classes, viz.: Pop, Zea Everta ;
Flint, Zea Indurata; Dent, Zea Indentata; Soft, Zea Anylaca; Sweet,
Zea Saccharatum; Pod or Husk, Zea Vaginata; and each of these are
subdivided according to shape of the ear, number of rows upon each ear.

83. Q. Give directions for planting sugar corn.

A. Table corn cannot be planted successfully at an earlier date than
the ordinary field varieties, indeed it is more likely to decay under unfa-
vorable soil conditions than the hardier field varieties. As a rule, sugar
corn is not as vital as the field sorts, and therefore it is wise to plant
almost a double number of grains in the hill as compared with field corn.
When the cherry is in bloom, hills for the short varieties of three and
four feet in height, may be made three by three feet apart ; for the inter-
mediate varieties three by four feet ; and for the tall varieties, four by four
feet apart. In all cases allowing three stalks to stand to the hill. Repe-
titions of corn planting should be made every two weeks, and for the
quick-ripening varieties the planting may be continued until within sixty
days of frost. Seed should be provided at the rate of ten quarts to the
acre. We always provide that much, though often only planting six or
seven quarts. The plants thinned out to three inches apart. Of the me-
dium and large varieties of sugar corn seventy -five to eighty bushels, or
8000 to 9000 roasting ears can be had to the acre. The average price paid

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 17

by Philadelphia commission merchants is one dollar per bushel. The
highest price is about three dollars per bushel and the lowest price about
sixty cents per bushel. Green corn packed loosely in slatted bushel bas-
kets will, in early season, carry safely for forty hours. In larger packages
it may become injured by heating. Caution. — Seed corn in bulk should
be taken out of the bags as soon as received and spread out in a dry place.

84. Q. How many varieties of corn are there? Corn.
A. Indian corn as a family may be divided into six divisions : as — pop,

flint, dent, soft, sweet, and pod or primitive.

85. Q. I have a variety of corn, many stalks of which are bearing three seed Corn,
large ears, and I write to inquire, if I take my seed for next year from

the stalks bearing three ears will the next crop also bear three ears?

A. There is no assurance that corn grown from ears of which there
were three on a stalk will reproduce that same character. There is, how-
ever, a strong probability, and were it not for the disposition of heredity
in plants of all kinds, there would be no encouragement whatever for the
farmer to endeavor to improve by selection.

86. Q. Why is it that sugar corn is often weak in germinating force ? Com
A. Sugar corn is among the most delicate of all seeds to cure and keep^**^ ^'

in good condition. If kept over Winter in sacks it will often lose half its
vitality from heating or sweating. It should accordingly be kept spread storage.
out upon floors or trays in a dry cool place.

87. Q. How should a vegetable garden be laid out? Vegetable
A. The old style of garden, laid out in squares to be dug and culti- *'**" *'"'

vated exclusively by hand, is becoming a thing of the past. The vegeta-
ble garden is now laid out in parallel rows or drills, ranging from two to
three feet apart, and the cultivation in the greater part done by horse-
power. The seeds should be all sown in drills or rows so as to be adapted
to horse culture ; hand labor is the dearest of all and should be avoided.
The land, if circumstances will permit, should not be of a less length than
seventy -five yards, and may with advantage be extended to two hundred,
according to the quantity of vegetables required. Long lands where ani-
mal power is used are much to be preferred to short fields, as much time
is saved in turning ; for example, a plow team in a journey of eight hours,
plowing land seventy-eight yards long, spends four hours and thirty-nine
minutes on the headlands, whereas were the furrows two hundred and
seventy-four yards long, the time spent in turning would be but one hour
and nineteen minutes. The tillage of the garden should be with the most
approved labor-saving implements — wheel-hoes, for hand use, scarifiers and
cultivators for horse ; the seeds should be sown with hand-drills, and fer-
tilizers of the guano class applied with similar apparatus, and thus, with-
out interfering with the labor of the farm, be made to yield vegetables in
profusion, when if the spade and hoe be relied on they are produced in
stinted quantities.

The amateur gardener, and the expert as well, should make out a list
of the varieties of vegetables he desires to have, and then lay off on paper

18 QfTERIES AND ANSWERS.

a diagram of his garden, assigning certain rotes to eacJi sort. He can then
readily calculate the amount of seed he will require.

Tarnip. 88. Q. What is a Strap leaved turnip ?

A. A strap leaf is an entire leaf, differing from a cut leaf which is ser-
rated clear through to the midrib, while on strap leaves there are no in-
dentations, but the edges form an unbroken line like the margin of a
rabbit's ear.

Celery. 89. Q. Will a good type of celery ever produce pithy stalks ?

A. Yes, sometimes it will on light soils.

Most 90. Q. Which celery is the most profitable?

Profitable. A.. Opinions differ, but all unite in advocating the culture of the short

varieties, as they are more easily managed than the bulky sorts. The
red varieties are more hardy than the white and more effective.

Roots 91- Q- How can I keep my root crops of turnips and beets throughout

Keeping over the Winter?

Winter. ^ Crops of turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, salsify, potatoes, can all

be kept by pitting. Mounds as sometimes used are more exposed to frost
and require careful construction.

When pitting select a suitable spot protected by buildings or forest from
the severity of winds and where the drainage is good, an indispensable
prerequisite. Dig a trench sixteen inches wide and as many or more inches
in depth, the length as convenient or necessary, the trench divided into
sections with undisturbed earth partitions every ten feet, to arrest fermen-
tation occurring in any one division from passing further to the next.
In this trench deposit the topped roots to a quantity raising them almost
even with the surface and cover with the earth dug out of the trench,
banking it up to a height of twelve or fifteen inches. When frost may be
expected in severity cover the bank with long stable manure or trash.
Roots of all descriptions can thus be kept securely. They are accessible
at all times and may be removed as needed. In pits such as described,
the writer has kept beets and carrots for cattle feeding up to the first day
of July.

Horse-radish 93. Q. How should horse radish be planted ?

A. This plant, seldom producing seed, is propagated from sets cut from
old roots, and in market-garden culture nearly always planted as a succes-
sion to a Spring crop which by time of removal leaves the horse- radish well
established. The sets are planted in rows of about two feet by eighteen
inches, frequently among Spring cabbage. Holes are made with a long
planting stick, into which are dropped the horseradish sets to a depth that
the top will be three inches under the surface. It will only succeed in
highly fertilized land, and each year should be planted afresh. In garden
culture the sets are sometimes planted in the upper end of round drain tiles
sunk into the ground and filled with earth, the radish root being thus
directed straight downwards. Yield about 150 bushels to the acre. Sets,
per doz. 15c. ; per 100 50c. ; per 1000 $4.00.

fi.irden 93. Q. Will it pay me to engage a practical trucker to oversee my mar-

Mauager. ket-garden farms ?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 19

A. Yes, if the farm is often or more acres, Length of

94. Q. Do you recommend long or short rows for vegetable garden Kows.
culture?

A. Long lands, where animal power is used, are much to be preferred
to short fields, as much time is saved in turning ; for example, a plow
team in a journey of eight hours, plowing land seventy-eight yards long,
spends four hours and thirty-nine minutes on the headlands, whereas,
were" the furrows two hundred and seventy-four yards long, the time
spent iu turning would be but one hour and nineteen minutes.

95. Q. Is amateur or market gardening a business easily learned ? Gardening
A. To raise ordinary vegetables not much experience is necessary, but Experience.

a complete knowledge of the art of gardening can only be acquired by
much experience and quick perception.

96. Q. How should I make a lawn. Lawn.
A. The Landreth lawn grass mixture which we offer should not be

compared with the cheaper preparations advertised. Our prescription is
of the best chosen varieties, as respects color, texture and permanency,
and will be found clear of weed seeds. Any one who purchases cheap,
badly mixed lawn grass will soon realize that it was a poor investment,
as the error will stand out for years in glaring ugliness.

This prescription consists of 100 parts, divided in such proportion be-
tween those grasses which our observation has indicated as best for general
park effect, as respects color, density of herbage, vigor, quick recupera-
tion after mowing and permanency. The seeds used are all well cleaned,
and we believe them to be pure and of full vitality, and all persons using
them are certain to secure a stand, provided the land be properly prepared
and the seed sown at the proper time and at the right depth, and pro-
vided there be sufficient rainfall to germinate the seed. We cannot be
responsible for the errors of the inexperienced. A pound of seed will
sow a space 20 x 20 feet, or say 400 square feet. Sixty pounds will sow
an acre, but we recommend seventy or eighty pounds. Price per pound,
about 25 cents.

Much of the success of lawn making depends upon the preparation of
the ground. The land must be well plowed or dug and harrowed or
raked to secure thorough pulverization, and after being reduced to a per-
fectly even surface should be cleared of stumps, stones, roots and other
impediments. The soil should then be made firm with a heavy roller and
top-dressed with a good fertilizer, unless the laud had received an appli-
cation of seven to eight tons of very short well-rotted stable manure
before plowing. "We will here remark that stable manure is the best of
all fertilizers, but there being some difllculty iu obtaining it and objections
to its use on account of its offensive appearance and smell, we recommend
in Landreth lawn fertilizer a good grade of concentrated fertilizer. Six
to seven hundred pounds to the acre of such mixture should be applied.
The fertilizer should be lightly harrowed in upon the seedbed, as it will
be lost to the young plants if buried much beneath the surface. After

20 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

the harrowing the ground should be severely rolled, that the earth and
seed may be brought into close contact. Our lawn grass mixture should
be sown at the rate of sixty pounds to the acre and rolled down. Sowing
in September and October will be found most advantageous in latitudes
south of Philadelphia ; in more northerly locations Spring sowing Is most
successfully practiced, the work being done in April and May.

Annual seeds, natural to the soil, are certain to spring up before the
young grass becomes established, and an inexperienced person is likely to
conclude that the weeds spring from weed seed in the grass seed, but all
soils contain weed seeds, and upon tillage they are certain to vegetate.
The weeds as they become large enough may be cut down or pulled up ;
after the first year their growth will cease. Frequent rolling is advanta-
geous in producing a good lawn by solidifying the soil, harassing insects
and other vermin, and improving the level of the surface.

Students of agriculture will find the volume on the " Grasses of North
America," by Professor W. J. Beale, of much value in assisting them in
this interesting study.

On all lawns will regularly appear in greater or less numbers a lot of
interlopers, such as buttercups, plantains, dandelions, all from seeds
natural to the soil. These uninvited guests should always be dug out,
otherwise subsequent labor will be increased one hundredfold by their
seeding. Lawns may be advantageously dressed with stable manure in
December, the long strawy portions being removed in March.

On those portions of lawns as around the house, where an immediate
result in grass efiect is desired, sod may be used. Fair sod can generally
be had on roadsides, and if carefully taken up and when laid down accu-
rately jointed and solidified, and covered with half an inch of rich com-
post, it will at once start off and very soon be as much a fixture as the
adjoining trees and shrubs.

Lawn grass of good quality should produce a fair mat of herbage in
from seventy to ninety days.

Some parties offering lawn grass at a low price are using the so-called
Canada Blue Grass, which sometimes contains seeds of Canada Thistle, a
pest, and difficult to eradicate.

Some people, after seeding a piece of land with lawn grass expect
to see a green mat in two or three weeks, but in this they are unrea-
sonable, as the better varieties of grass are slow to produce effect, and
when an eSect is quickly developed it is at the expense of adaptability
and permanency. For instance, a fine mat of green color can be had in
two weeks from a heavy sowing of white clover, something very effective
and pleasing to the eye, but clover is not a grass and is not suitable for
lawns, failing to produce that velvet-like efi"ect, the result of the growth
of the erect leaves produced by the best grasses, which habit fits them to
quickly recover after mowing.

Manures or fertilizers for lawns may be of many combinations. We
recommend to those who prefer to do their own mixing a compound of

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 21

300 pounds of superphosphate, costing say $5 00

300 pounds dried meat, blood or fish, at 6 00

400 pounds refuse common salt, at 1 00

Or say per acre $12 00

The quantity of the two first may be doubled to advantage, or even
made stronger, as grass will stand almost any amount of fertilizer.

The common salt used as an alterative and solvent will be found,
through its affinity for moisture, to have a decided influence in keeping
up the emerald green condition so desirable on a perfect lawn. On grow-
ing grass not more than three bushels to the acre should be applied in a
season, and then best during a rain — never under a hot sun.

97. Q. What kind of grass should be sown on athletic grounds? Grass for
A. This prescription is also of 100 parts, but difl^ers from our park lawn Athletic

grass in the list of varieties, a proportion of such sorts being here added *'*'*'"°^®'
as to better stand the wear and tear of tramping consequent upon games
of tennis, cricket, lacrosse and baseball.

A pound will sow a space 20 x 20 feet, or say 400 square feet. Sixty
pounds will sow an acre, but we recommend seventy or eighty pounds.
Price per pound, S5 cents.

Old lawns much in decay had best be plowed up, leveled up and re-
sown, but often this course is not convenient, certainly not if the lawn
can be renovated by a system taking less time. In that case, when prompt
results are desirable, the old sod should be well combed by a harrow to
tear out the dried grass and easily extracted dead roots. This operation
also breaks the earth, putting it in a pulverized condition to receive seed,
which may be sown broadcast, and falling between the living grass, roots
into the friable and fresh soil, and is at once in position to germinate and
occupy the space. On many lawns cut with the lawn mower there ap-
pear many pests — the creeping veronica and the mouse-eared chickweed
being prominent — which crowd out desirable grasses and mar the appear-
ance of the sward. Under such circumstances it is advised to break up
the parts affected and sow with seed of the Sheep Fescue, which will admit
of such close cutting as to destroy all pestiferous plants. The seed of
Sheep Fescue costs about sixteen cents per pound.

98. Q. Is there a grass or mixture suitable for growth under trees? Grass under
A. Landreths' mixture of varieties produces a reliable stand under Trees.

dense shade of either pine or hard-wood trees in positions where all
other grasses may have failed. Sixty pounds should be sown to the acre
— or, say one pound on a space 20 x 20 feet, or in proportion for other di-
mensions. Price per pound, 25 cents.

99. Q. What is the best grass for a permanent pasture ? Permanent
A. The preparation of the laud for permanent pasture is a labor that ^as***^®*

must not be slighted, and though farm work cannot be reduced to the
nicety of lawn culture, we nevertheless direct attention to our directions
on lawn making, and would say that the nearer the directions are fol-

22 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

lowed the greater the probability of success. It must, however, be borne
in mind that a pasture sod cannot be obtained in one year.

The judicious selection of grass seed for the creation of a durable pasture
requires a knowledge obtained only by an intimate study of the habits of
varieties as respects quality of herbage and vigor of constitution. Except
in the Blue Grass sections of Kentucky and Tennessee, it is not sufficient
always to select the one grass indigenous to the district, for it may not pos-
sess the double quality desirable for green pasturage and hay, for hardiness
and permanence, which combination of qualities and character is best found
in a mixture of sorts. That prescription, to be thoroughly scientific,
should be adapted to the geological composition of the soil, be it slaty,
calcareous or alkaline, as well as the mechanical condition of the soil, be
it sandy, loamy or clayey. These conditions vary so much that no one
can attempt to be entirely exact in a recommendation for grasses to be
planted. We cannot more than undertake to prescribe for soils heavy, as
clay or deep loam ; medium, as light loam or peat ; liglit, as sand, slate or
gravel. "We are prepared to furnish single grasses, or two or three in a
mixture, to meet the requirements of any ordinary farm land for the pro-
duction of hay ; or, if permanent pasture is desired, we are prepared to
furnish mixtures for soils either heavy or light.

Hay Grasses. 100. Q. I should be pleased to have your views in regard to grasses for
hay and pasture for our Texas stock ?

A. Most artificial grasses fail to stand in warm climates ; even in tide-
water Virginia there is difficulty.

Natural grasses, when good ones can be found, are to be decidedly pre-
ferred. Attention is however invited to Orchard grass as a vigorous and
generally reliable sort.

Alfalfa is a grass resisting heat. When once established it is a heavy pro-
ducer, but does better as a grass to be mowed than pastured, as cattle eat
oflFa large portion of tlie crowns which stand up above the surface.

Red Top, 101, Q. What is the distinction between Herds grass or Red Top, and

***■ Rhode Island Bent ?

jjg^j A. Herds grass, growing very largely in New Jersey and the West, is

known botanically as Agrostis vulgaris. Rhode Island Bent, found grow-
ing naturally over the States of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massa-
chusetts, is known as Agrostis vulgaris minor. They are very similar in
nearly all particulars. The Rhode Island Bent, when kept mowed down
closely, makes a fine lawn effect ; no other variety of grass being more
highly prized, for lawn purposes, in the New England States.

Canada Blue 103. Q. What do you know about Canadian Blue grass?

Grass. A. Blue grass seed from Canada was sold in the Eastern markets forty

or fifty years ago in preference to the Kentuclty seed, because the latter
was fuzzy and not easily sown. But later on, by the use of improved
, machinery, the Kentucky seed was made as clean and free from fuzz as

the Canadian, aud is preferred to the latter as being purer and free from
any danger of Canada thistle, which is the worst pest which can establish
itself upon a farm.

QUERIES AXD ANSWERS. 23

103. Q. Why is it my new lawn sowed with lawn grass is full of weeds ? Lawn Grass.
A. From seeds of weeds, some of which may have been in the soil for

many years. Every experienced gardener know^s that in new lawns weeds
always seem to take possession of the land. They should be pulled up
or mowed off. If the seed of the lawn grass is vital, patience will reward
the gardener. The weeds are only annual and will die during Winter
whilst the grass will live.

104. Q. Why do some lawn grass mixtures develop an earlier effect Cheap Grass.
than others?

A. Those which produce the earliest effect aregenerally combinations of
the cheaper grasses, prominent among which is Herds grass.

105. Q. Should hay be cut before it is perfectly ripe? Hay.
A. Yes, because in the unripe forage there is considerable sugary

matter most valuable in cattle feeding, which as the plants ripen changes
first into starch and then into woody fibre.

106. Q. What is your experience with Scarlet clover? Scarlet
A. Our field experience with Scarlet or Crimson clover, as it is variously Clover.

called, dates back to 1871, when we first grew it as a field crop on our
Virginia farm. Many years before that we grew it experimentally in our
trial grounds. Its value is :

(1). For pasturage in Winter and early Spring. If not pastured too
closely it will afterwards make a crop for cutting for green feeding, later
on for hay, or still later for plowing under.

(2). For cutting green in Arpril and May as food for horses or cows ;
soiling as it is termed. It will be found fully four to five weeks earlier
than Ked clover, consequently it admits of very early cutting. The New
Jersey Experimental Station estimates that one acre in April and May
will feed ten cows for twenty days. In New Jersey fifteen tons of green
stuff has been cut to the acre. Its composition and digestibility is better
than Red clover, but of course animals must not be permitted to overfeed.

(3). For hay. In dry hay it gives a product of one to two tons to the
acre of a quality similar to Red clover. The stems, when the crop is in
bloom, vary from two to five feet long according to soil.

(4). For green manuring. This may be done in April or May and is its
chief merit because of its wonderful development by that date both above
and below ground. Like Red clover it roots to great depths, even as
much as six feet, and gathers the spread-out potash of the soil, drawing
it up and concentrating it near the surface, where subsequent and less
deeply-rooting crops can get it.

The New Jersey Experimental Station estimates its value in potash
and nitrogen at thirty dollars to the acre. Of course this is a laboratory
test and a book-maker's calculation, but the field experience of hundreds
of observant farmers seems to sustain the estimate as the result of plow-
ing it under. In Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, where it is best
known, the results have been phenomenal. It will not flourish on wet
land, but it will grow on poor, sandy soil or on thin, worn-out lands, but Soil.

24

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Seeding.

Cost.

Cutting
Grain.

Plant
Foliage.

Dodder.

of course naturally does better as the soil improves. Its effect is most
noticeable on worn-out fields and we specially recommend it to the own-
ers of such in cotton and tobacco sections.

North of the Potomac and the Ohio rivers it should be sown between
1st July and 15th August. South of that latitude it can be sown in Sep-
tember and October according to latitude. Fifteen pounds should be
broadcasted to the acre ; the laud well-plowed and harrowed before and
after seeding. It should be very lightly covered. It does not do well
sown with grain, as it cannot be cut green nor pastured when among
grain, while for plowing under it needs to be turned down before the
grain is ripe. It can be sown to great advantage in apple, pear and peach
orchards after the tillage has ceased. Its manurial effect upon peach
trees is very remarkable. It can also be broadcasted with buckwheat or
sown among fields of tomatoes, melons, corn and cabbage, or any crop
where the culture is over by the first of September, the clover to remain
after the named crops are removed. Growing more rapidly than Red
clover, it develops before Winter a mat-like covering over the ground,
protecting it from the injurious effects of exposure to wind and sun during
Winter. In this respect it is better than rye, because it is equally quick
and more fertilizing, being a potash plant. Sown in such places as indi-
cated, it can be plowed down any time in the Spring to a profit four times
its cost.

The cost of seed to sow an acre is about $1.00 to $1.50. The expenses
of preparing the land to sow and plowing the clover under can be calcu-
lated by any farmer. The estimated value to the acre of Scarlet clover as
a green manure is thirty dollars. An experiment conducted with a corn
crop following a crop of Crimson clover, the seed of which costs one dol-
lar to the acre, and the various operations of plowing and harrowing
four dollars — a total of five dollars — gave as much corn to the acre as an
application of twenty dollars' worth of nitrate of soda.

107. Q. Should wheat, rye and oats be cut before fully ripe ?

A. Yes, as by such course the straw is of a better quality, there is an
extended opportunity to secure the crop, there is a saving in the crop by
securing it all, and the nutritive powers of the grain are greater than when
longer exposed to the action of the sun.

108. Q. Does the outward appearance of plants indicate the character
of manuring and system of tillage necessary to be pursued?

A. Decidedly so. Beans and peas show by their foliage that they derive
most nutrition from the air, and wheat and rye from the spareness of
their foliage show they receive the least.

109. Q. What is dodder?

A. It is a parasitic creeper, leafless, twining, the stems twisting con-
trary to the sun's course and attaching themselves to the supporting
plant by numerous air roots which, extracting the sap of the plant, kill
it by starvation. The seeds of dodder at first germinate and vegetate upon
the earth till the plant reaches a height of two or three inches, by which

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 25

time, if its tendrils cau seize upon the juicy stems of clover, flax, hops,
tomatoes, onions and many otlier plants, they will attach themselves to
these plants and cease to continue their attachment to the soil. The
color of the plant is yellow, and it produces closely packed heads of bell-
shaped white and pink flowers sometimes quite sweet scented.

110. Q. What is ramie ? Ramie.
A. It is a plant, a native of China and adjacent countries, and of value

as producing a bark containing a fibre in many respects supposed to be
equal to flax.

111. Q. In what States can ramie be grown ? Ramie.
A. Very successfully in any of the cotton States. The roots once

planted last for many years.

113. Q. How many tons of the dry green bark can be produced to the Green Bark.
acre and at what value ?

A. On good bottom land two to three crops can be grown. To each
cutting from 500 to 1000 pounds, worth five cents per pound.

113. Q. Has the manufacture of ramie fabric yet become an established Manufacture.
process ?

A. Not yet, though many mills are making experiments in de-gumming
imported ramie bark known as China grass and in spinning the thread
and weaving tissues.

114. Q. Give directions for starting or forcing Vegetable or Flower Forcing
seeds in the house ? Seeds.

A. When it is desired to hasten the development of plants, they may be
sown in the conservatory or in boxes within the house. Those who have
greenhouses hardly need directions, but for those who have had lees
experience we drop the following hints :

Procure shallow boxes, trays, or broad pots from two to four inches
deep ; the bottoms permitting the free passage of water, else the earth
will bake and become sour. Seeds will not germinate satisfactorily or
thrive in a wet soil. Prepare a mixture of one-third leaf-mold cut fine,
one-third clean sand, and one-third finely pulverized stable manure ;
moisten the mixture thoroughly, and fill into the boxes to within a half
inch of the top — gently patting down the surface to a level. Upon this
distribute the seed, and cover just out of sight, by sifting over the seed
the finest eartli procurable, settling the seed down with a fine spray of
water shaken from a brush, a heavier application baking the surface.
Place the boxes where they will remain at a temperature of between 60°
and 70°, applying water with a brush or fine rose when the surface be-
comes dry. When the seedlings are half an inch high, they may be
transplanted to other boxes, placing the tiny plants about one to each
square inch. When these become so large as to crowd each other, they
should again be transplanted to the garden or to other boxes according to
the season.

115. Q. What is a hotbed ? Hotbed.
A. It is a box or frame without bottom or top, made for one, two or

26

QUERIES AXD ANSWERS.

four sash, as in the illustration. It may be made permanent of brick or
stone, or temporary of
plank or one-inch com-
mon boards, the back
board about twenty
inches high, one-half
greater elevation than
the front, which should
be twelve to fourteen
inches — the whole
made to support a sash
or several of any dimensions, the best of about three by seven feet. The
back being higher than the front, gives a declivity to the sash, thus cast-
ing off the rain, which it would not do if flat.

The box at proper season is placed upon a bed of fermenting material,
which, making a gentle and continuous heat, warms up a layer of soil
resting upon it, and thus germinates seed and forces plants into rapid
growth.

Manure. The value of the bed depends principally upon the character of the

fermenting material. This should be rich stable manure (no cow dung)
forked over two or three times at intervals of a week and kept in a deep
and compact pile till it begins to smoke or steam, indicating that the
process of fermentation has set in. If the dung be very rich in grain an
addition of forest leaves is desirable, as they serve to prolong the period
of fermentation, which otherwise might be too rapid.

liocation and Selecting a well-drained location, and one never flooded by rain, exca-

Alaking.

Care of
Uotbeds.

vate a pit one or two feet deep, and one foot longer and one foot broader
than the box. Into this place six inches of rough barnyard manure, corn
stalks, leaves or straw, for drainage, and on it lightly fork in the ferment-
ing dung and tramp it firmly down to a depth of two feet. Place on the
box and fit the sash lightly, cover with mats and allow fermentation to
again proceed, banking up with hot manure on the outside all around at
an angle of 45°. Place on top of the manure a layer of three inches of
rich, moist, finely pulverized soil. In a day or so the temperature will
rise to 120°. When the temperature has fallen to 90° destroy all the
weeds which have sprouted ; and sow the seed for which the bed is in-
tended. Cover every night with mats to exclude frost and give air during
the day, never allowing the temperature to fall below 70° or rise above
90°. The secret of growing good plants is to give plenty of air, else the
plants will be sickly, spindly specimens. Short, stocky plants are what
are desired. Sow the seed in rows three inches apart and one-quarter to
one-third inch deep, and cover by sifting on fine earth.

Water every evening. Remove the mats every morning about nine
o'clock, give air about ten o'clock. Cut off the air in the afternoon as
soon as the air becomes the least chilly. Cover with mats before sunset.
Hotbeds should be covered early in the evening, to retain their heat, and

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 27

in the morning uncovered wlien the sun rests upon the glass, as every
eflort should be made to give the plants all the sunlight possible, as its
rays are vivifying to a degree beyond the amount of its heat, it having a
chemical and physiological effect beyond explanation. Even dull light
is better than no light, consequently it is a bad plan to cover sashes v?ith
mats, except for the direct purpose of keeping out cold. Peppers and
egg plants require more heat than other plants. Success depends on ^

bottom heat from the manure, top heat from the sun, water from daily
application, and air at midday. Without plenty of air the other requisites
will be fruitless. All seedlings should be transplanted into other hobteds
or intermediate beds when two inches high. Hotbeds may be used for
forcing lettuce, radish, egg plant, pepper, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower
and ornamental flowers.

We have known locations where stable manure for hotbeds was not Artificial
readily obtained, and to meet such conditions we give the following
directions for manufacturing a fermenting material for the production of
a moderate and continuous heat, the quantities named being suflicient
for a box twelve by seven feet. Take as the crude materials, 500 pounds
of straw, three bushels powdered quicklime, six pounds muriatic acid,
six pounds saltpetre.

Having prepared the excavation of proper dimensions, spread three or
four inches of forest leaves or old hay in the bottom. Upon that spread
eight inches of the straw, tramp it down and sprinkle with one-third part
of the quicklime. Dilute the six pounds of muriatic acid with twenty
gallons of water, and by means of an old broom, sprinkle the bed with
one-third part of the solution. Make another layer of eight inches of
straw, applying quicklime and the solution as before. Repeat for a third
layer. Upon this make a fourth layer of straw, and upon it sprinkle the
four pounds of saltpetre dissolved in thirty gallons of water. Place the
box in position, bank up outside, within the box spread three inches rich,
finely pulverized earth, and put on the sash. A heat will soon be gener-
ated which will continue for two or three weeks.

116. Q. What is the cause of coldness in clay soils ? Radiation.
A. Clay soils holding water have much of it to evaporate, and radiation

always produces cold.

117. Q. Does drainage warm the soil ? Drainage.
A. Yes ; as it reduces the amount of water to be evaporated and radia-
tion always produces cold.

118. Q. What is meant by firming the soil ? Firming the
A. It is a newly coined expression to indicate a process as old as the ^**'^*

agriculture of Virgil. It means pressing down the soil with the feet or a
roller, so that the soil and seed or transplanted seedling and soil are
brought into intimate contact so that germination or vegetation may be
hastened and promoted.

119. Q. What is sap ? Sap.

28

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Frost.

Mold.

Gypsum.

Insecticide.

A. Sap is water circulating ia plants, and containing gaseous matter
and certain eartlis and salts in solution or suspension.

120. Q. Why do young vegetables and the tender leaves of all plants
suffer more from frost than older growth ?

A. Because supercharged with sap they evaporate rapidly and become
cold and freeze sooner than parts more mature.

121 Q. What is vegetable mold ?

A. It is a dark-colored soil best known as the upper strata found in
woodlands. It consists of decayed weeds, twigs, branches of trees, de-
cayed grass and other vegetable matter mixed with surface soil.

122. Q. What is gypsum ?

A. It is known sometimes as plaster of Paris, sometimes as sulphate of
lime. It is the least valuable of the mineral manures, pound for pound,
but is highly thought of as a top dressing for grass lands, clover thriving
especially after its application.
Insecticides. 123. Q. How can I kill garden ants ?

A. By using molasses mixed with paris green.

124. Q. What is the best insecticide ?
A. The discovery of an article which, while not injuring the cucumber

plant, will destroy the bug which infests it from the time of its germina-
tion until it has attained a growth of three or four rough leaves, is a sub-
ject of the greatest interest to all cultivators of this fruit. So much has
been written of a contradictory nature upon this subject that it is next
to impossible to determine what remedies to adopt. We would suggest
that each cultivator experiment for himself with several compounds : for
instance, one part of hellebore mixed with four parts of ground land
plaster ; one part of slug shot mixed with six parts of land plaster ; one
part Paris green mixed with twelve parts of land plaster ; and one pint of
kerosene oil mixed with three quarts of sawdust.

Good results in the destruction of squash bugs have been obtained by
the application, under ground about the roots of the plants, of the liquid
carbon bisulphide, the fumes of which are quickly deadly to insect life.
Eight ounces of Paris green to 100 gallons of water is Professor Cook's
wash for the cucumber beetle. Oil of Lavender is very efficient.

125. Q. In the use of Paris green, what quantity should be applied ?
A. On an average one pound to twenty-five or thirty of plaster or lime,

or one tablespoon ful to fuur gallons of water.
Paii8 Green. 126 Q. Name the six or seven insecticides in most general use, attach-
ing suggestive prices for same?

Paris green about 30 cents per pound.

Slug shot " 25 " "

Hellebore " 25 " "

London purple " 20 " " "

Persian insect powder " 75 " " "

Hammond thrip juice.

Paris Green.

QUERIES AXD ANSWERS. 29

127. Q Do you i-ecommend applying insectitcides in powder or solu- Water.
tion?

A. Try both ways, water ou small areas, powder on large tracts.

128. Q. Does water act as a fertilizer ? Water.
A. Impure water does because it contains fertilizing matter absorbed

from decaying material. Pure water acts in a fertilizing way only by the
gases which it contains.

129. Q. Is rain water of a fertilizing character? Rain Water.
A. Yes; as it contains ammonia, which it absorbs during its passage

through the air.

130. Q. Is there any foundation for the proverb that snow is the poor Snow,
man's manure?

A. There is, as snow in falling absorbs more fertilizing elements than
the same amount of rain, and when resting on the earth acts as a blanket
to stop the ammoniacal emanation from the soil.

131. Q. Does a large crop of cedar-tree berries and other wild bird fruit Severe
indicate the approach of a severe Winter? Winter.

A. No, not necessarily ; it simply Is the resultant effect of a previously
mild Winter. After a cold Winter there often follows a mild one, and the
berries then afford a good supply of food for birds.

133. Q. What is dew ? Dew.

A. It is water condensed from the atmosphere and deposited upon
bodies cooler than the atmosphere.

133. Q. Why are cloudy nights less dewy than clear nights? Kadiation.
A. Because clouds reducing radiation prevent objects parting with as

much heat as they would if radiation was uninterrupted.

134. Q. Why is it that gravel walks are in the morning found dry, Radiation.
while the grass on both sides is wet with dew ?

A. Because gravel does not radiate as rapidly as grass, therefore does
not become a depository of dew.

135. Q. Why is tlie subject of dew one of much importance to the gar- i>ew.
dener ?

A. Because the study of the subject impresses upon the gardener the
fact that the atmosphere contains a quantity of moisture, and that by
keeping his garden soil loose that air may enter it he may in dry seasons
'profit by the natural moisture of the atmosphere.

136. Q. What is white frost? Proat.
A. It is frozen dew.

137. Q. Why is moonlight said to be cold? Cold Night.
A. Because on moonlight nights the radiation is rapid, there are no

clouds to stop it.

138. Q. Which is the leading fruit-growing section of the country? Fruits.
A. Astonishing as has been the increase in fruit growing in the old

States, it cannot be compared to the astonishing developments in California,
one day's shipment in 1893 from Los Angeles, California, being two

30

QUERIES a:sd answers.

Ijme.

Lime.

Ashes.

Stable
Manure.

Soils.

Soil
Substances

Subsoil.

Peat.
Peat.

Alluvium.
Rotation,

Chemical
Action.

hundred aud ten cars of green and canned fruit, at an average valuation
of $6000, or one and one-quarter millions of dollars.

A single California grower of.Bartlette pears shipped in 1892 seventy-
five cars from the trees of one ranch.

139. Q. Why is it that lime can be advantageously applied to many
soils?

A. Because by its chemical action it sets free ammonia from depths
below the reach of the plow.

140. Q. How should ordinary lime be applied ?

A. It should be first reduced to a powder by a slacking process, and, '
when perfectly dry, spread evenly upon the surface, care being taken to
break any lumps.

141. Q. Of what value are unleached wood ashes as a fertilizer?

A. Valuing potash at 5 cents per pound, and insoluble phosphoric acid
at 5 cents per pound, hardwood ashes, as produced in ordinary stoves, is
worth about $12 per ton.

142. Q. Is it proper to apply stable manure simultaneously with lime?
A. No ; no manure of any kind should be applied with lime, as its value

would be reduced. It would be best not to apply such manure for two
or three months after an application of lime.

143. Q. What constitutes a loamy soil ?

A. Loam is a mixed material of earth formed of disintegrated rocks
and generally found removed from the locality of its origin. It is more
fertile than clay, containing more vegetable matter.

144. Q. What are the two principal substances in soil ?

A. The organic, as oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, products
of substances once endowed with life. The inorganic, wholly mineral, as
oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, silica, potash, lime, soda, and iron.

145. Q. Is a good subsoil important to a garden ?

A. Very important, as a clay, near the surface, keeps the surfiice satu-
rated with water after a rain, causing it to be cold, or if the subsoil be of
gravel and near the surface it passes off surface moisture too rapidly.

148. Q. How may peaty soils be improved ?

A. By draining and by burning the surface.

147. Q. How are peaty soils formed ?

A. They are composed of mosses and water plants mixed with sand
and clay deposited by water, the whole amalgamated into a spongy mass. ,

148. Q. How are alluvial soils formed?

A. By a deposit of sand and earth by water. These soils are generally
remarkably fertile.

149. Q. Why is rotation of crops practiced ?

A. Various plants require different foods ; without rotation a soil would
be exhausted of those elements mostly used by the plant cultivated.

150. Q. Why do different results follow the application of the same ma-
nure upon soils apparently similar?

A. Because of distinct chemical action in the soil of different localities,

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 31

and even of different fields, and because of a difference in the degree and
character of fertilizing elements remaining in tlie soil from previous manur-
ings.

151. Q. What are the inorganic constituents ? Plant

A. They are the mineral portions of plants taken into their circulation, Constituents.
as potash or lime.

152. Q. How is potash extracted from plants ? Potash.
A. It is procured from wood ashes. It is clear, therefore, that wood

ashes is a valuable fertilizer.

153. Q. How is soda obtained from plants ? Soda.
A. It is found most largely in the ashes of sea weeds, but is present in

small quantity in the ashes of all plants.

154. Q. How is lime obtained from plants. Lime.
A. From the ashes, same as potash and soda, as it forms a part of all

vegetable growth.

155. Q. What is phosphate of lime ? Phosphate of
A. It is a combination of phosphoric acid with lime. It is the princi- ^"*«*

pal portion of bones, the other portions being gelatine and fat.

156. Q. From whence do plants obtain their phosphate of lime? Phosphate.
A. It is found in a limited extent in nearly all soils, but it is artificially

applied in the form of bone dust, Charleston and Florida rock.

157. Q. How do plants obtain hydrogen? Hydrogen.
A. From water, by the agency of their leaves, tissues and roots.

158. Q. From whence do plants obtain nitrogen? Nitrogen.
A. Principally through their roots, taken up in a form of ammonia. It

is found in the form, of vegetable albumen and gluten and in the seeds of
plants. Plants also respire nitrogen by their leaves.

159. Q. How is it that there is such a variety of vegetable products? Combina-
A. Because of combinations in varying proportions between simple *^*»^^*

elements.

160. Q. What are the organic constituents of plants ? Organic

A. They are the products of vegetable life, examples being starch, Constituents.
sugar, and gum.

161. Q. What is hydrogen ? Hydrogen.
A. Hydrogen, like oxygen, is known in a state of gas, and is found in

water and all combinations of animal and vegetable substances.

163. Q. What is nitrogen ? Nitrogen.

A. Nitrogen is also a gas, without smell, taste or color, and is found in
the atmosphere and in all animal and some vegetable substances.

163. Q. How do plants get their carbon ? Carbon.
A. Carbon in the form of carbonic acid gas is absorbed from the air by

plants, and to a small extent is taken by the roots from decaying vege-
table matter.

164. Q. How do plants get their oxygen ? Oxygen.
A. From water, which they imbibe through their roots and by their

process of leaf inspiration. They also give out oxygen when it is in
excess.

32

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Plant
Growth.

!Element.

Carbon.

Oxygen.

Treatment of
Manure.

Manure
Odor.

Horse Dung.

Nitrogen.

Sulphuric
Acid.

Pliopphate of
Lime.

Guano.

TJarnyard
Manure.

165. Q. What are the principal chemicals influencing plant growth ?
A. Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen.

166. Q. What is an element ?

A. An element is a body composed of one kind of matter. Carbon,
oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen are elements, but when combined with
other substances the new formations are called compounds.

167. Q. What is carbon ?

A. It is an element forming a large proportion of vegetable substance.
A familiar form of carbon is charcoal.

168. Q. What is oxygen?

A. An element known only in a state of gas. It is without taste,
smell or color ; it is found in water, air, and in minerals, and is necessary
to the continuance both of plant and animal life.

169. Q. Should manure be kept in piles or heaps?
A. Yes, and covered up with soil, as by putrefaction in the open air, five

per cent, of the nutritive matter will be lost in a month, whereas, if piled
and covered, the gases are cooled and absorbed by the external covering.

170. Q. Why do manure heaps emit a pungent odor?

A. Because of the gases generated in fermentation, principally sul-
phuretted and phosphuretted hydrogen.

171. Q. Why is horse dung hotter than the excrement from cows?

A. The excrement of horses fed on grain contains a greater amount of
nitrogen and less water than that from other farm animals, consequently
it ferments more rapidly

172. Q. What effect has nitrogen on plants?

A. It increases the foliage, lengthens the stems of the plants, and pro-
longs their growth.

173. Q. Why is sulphuric acid applied to bones intended for fertilizing?
A. Because the phosphate of lime in the bone is the chief manurial

substance and a larger portion of it is made quickly active as plant food
by the application of the sulphuric acid. The resultant of the bones thus
treated is afterwards known as superphosphate of lime.

174. Q. Is phosphate of lime soluble ?
A. It is very slowly soluble, especially in dry seasons. Superphosphate

of lime is extremely soluble. Phosphate of lime continues to exercise a
slow but beneficial effect upon fertility, while superphosphate of lime,
expending itself in half the period, is a more profitable application.

175. Q. What is Peruvian guano?

A. It is the excrement from sea birds, and when good contains lime,
potash, Boda, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, the two last
named being the most valuable.

176. Q. Is it true that land never tires of barnyard manure?

A. Yes, it is ; because stable dung contains all the ingredients and is in
a state ready almost for immediate use by growing plants. Sometimes,
however, it is advantageous to cease the use of farmyard manure and

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 33

apply manufactured fertilizers to reduce the number of insects and to
aftbrd an opportunity to cleanse the soil of weeds.

177. Q. Do the qualities of animal excrement difter ? Excrement.
A. Very widely ; depending not only on the food supplied, but on the

race ; as cows, horses, pigs and sheep require and assimilate or reject dif-
ferent chemical constituents.

178. Q. What effect has lime on plants ?

A. It generally shortens the period of growth and hastens the time of Lime,
ripening.

179. Q. Is there a varying influence depending upon the moon's phases The Moon.
exercised on vegetation ?

A. No ; not to the slightest degree. The peasantry of all nations,
from days of earliest record to the present day, have such a belief, and
regulate seed sowing, fence making, roofing, killing of meat, and other
farm and domestic duties by the moon's phases ; but there is not, to any
degree, any foundation for the practice.

Analogous to this there is the belief that it is dangerous to sleep under
the moon's rays, and that insane persons are more visibly affected during
certain conditions of the moon ; but this is an exploded idea.

180. Q. What are the properties of light on vegetation 1 i.ig:ht.
A. Light has three properties :

(1). Luminosity.

(2). Heat.

(3.) A chemical property termed actinism.

181. Q. What effect have the rays of the sun upon vegetation ? Sun Effect.
A. The luminous rays excite and quicken the vital action of growing

plants by which they decompose carbonic acid gas.

182. Q. What are the effects of solar heat? Solar Heat.
A. It influences vegetation from the shooting of the germ to the perfec-
tion of the fruit or seed ; under solar heat the flowers of plants consume

oxygen while at the same time the leaves are emitting it.

183. Q. What is the efi"ect of actinism? Actinism.
A. It quickens vegetation. Seeds will germinate hi darkness, but to

vegetate freely they must have light.

184. Q. What is the distinction between germination and vegetation ? Germination
A. Germination is the putting forth of a bud or germ. Vegetation is;

the condition of subsequent growth.

185. Q. Is it economical to make liquid manure by soaking stable ma- Liquid
nure in vats of water. Manure.

A. Yes, because the valuable portions of the manure become thoroughly
amalgamated by fermentation, and the process of decomposition is com-
pleted before the manure is applied to the crop. Manure, in liquid form,
is very thoroughly and efficiently applied to the soil.

186. Q. Why does decaying cabbage smell so badly ? Vegetable
A. Because of the escape of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. Decay.

1 "''

Vegetation.

u

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Autumn
Coloring of
Leaves.

Glucose.

Paris Green.

FertiUty of
Liand.

Condition of
Farmers.

Ag^cultural
depression.

Farm
Uislilte.

Aerricultural
Iklachiuery.

Bailroads.

187. Q. Is frost the cause of the brilliant coloring of Autumn leaves ?
A. No ; generally a physico-chemical phenomenon allied to the ripening

of fruit, a decrease of vital power, resulting often from injury, inflicted in
early growth, as from lightning stroke, barking by cattle, from soil stamp-
ing by cattle, or occasionally it is the result of a want of nutrition conse-
quent on a hot dry Summer and Autumn. At other times, consequent
upon the swelling of the next year's buds at the base of the leaf stems,
cutting off the circulation. These and other physical causes render the
plant juices susceptible to chemical changes, producing colors of varying
degree.

188. Q. What is glucose?

A. A form of sugar generally made from Indian corn. It naturally
occurs in varying degrees in the juice of plants and is produced in large
quantities from Indian corn and used in various commercial ways. For
table purposes it is not used, being inferior to cane sugar.

189. Q. Is Paris green, being a form of arsenic, dangerous to use upon
potatoes, tomatoes and egg plants ?

A. Never dangerous on potatoes, only dangerous on tomatoes and egg
plants after they have developed half-sized fruit, as it might be carried to
the table.

190. Q. Is the fertility of the land in the old States maintained ?
A. No ; it has decreased.

First, there being too much dependence placed upon commercial fertil-
izers, and second, through a want of knowledge of the good old agricul-
ture practices of rotation of crops and green manuring.

191. Q. Do farmers in the old States live better than formerly ?

A. They did much better for fifteen or sixteen years after the war of
1861-1865, but are now, by reason of the agricultural depression, returning
to antebellum conditions of domestic affairs.

192. Q. What are the general causes of the agricultural depression ?
A. It is a condition of things which extends over the entire agricultural

world. The cause is overproduction, brought about by the introduction
of labor-saving machines and railroad extension, leading to overcropping.
The labor of supplying the world with food has been diminished. One
man now does the work of fifty.

193. Q. Why do the young people quit the farm ?

A. Young Americans as a rule are not disposed to engage in the labori-
ous work of a farm ; they prefer to embark in commerce or manufactures.

194. Q. Has there been a profit to farmers by the development of labor-
saving machines ?

A. No ; not a profit, only a convenience. The cheapening of farm pro-
ducts by the use of machines has been one of the causes of overproduc-
tion, and the prevalent agricultural depression.

195. Q. Does the building of railroads increase the value of lands?

A. Yes ; they increase the value of farms within a mile or so of stations ;
but railroads often decrease lands laying further off, as by the prolonga-
tion of the tracks new competing territory is developed.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 35

196. Q. Does the development of manufacturing villages increase the Production.
value of the production of the adjacent farms?

A. Not to any great extent ; not bej'^ond the saving of freight from other
points, as prices are generally regulated by the rates prevalent at the large
centres of commercial trade.

197. Q. Do the people living in the cities generally profit by the low l,ow Prices,
prices brought about by the agricultural depression ?

A. No ; for while the raising of Western beef is almost unprofitable to
the herdsmen, the people of the cities pay almost as much as formerly, the
profits going to the middle men, who by the use of immense capital drive
out all competitors and keep the retail prices up.

198. Q. Is the tendency in the old sections of the country to divide Division of
farms or to unite them ? Farms.

A. In the old States to divide, farms going into the hands of smaller
operators.

199. Q. How much labor on the large farms of Dakota does it take Farm Labor,
to provide bread for 1000 persons ?

A. The labor of each man employed, estimating his employment as con-
tinuous for twelve months, is 5500 bushels. Another man's labor for a
year converts this wheat into flour ; five men's labor for a year transfers it
to Philadelphia ; three more convert it into bread and sell it, thus ten men
working one year produce bread for 1000 mouths.

Continuing in this line of calculation based upon the use of labor-sav-
ing machinery, if twenty men make the clothing, twenty more build the
houses, twenty more provide the literature and amusements, twenty more
manage the public oflices and ten more provide miscellaneous necessi-
ties, we thus have 100 adults providing all the necessities for 1000
mouths. If 1000 mouths represent 200 men, we perceive that while 100
of these men have employment all the year round the other 100 are idle,
consequent upon the development of machine processes and the expansion
of railroads and opening of new lands.

200. Q. Are the agricultural lands in any of the States worked to their Agricultural
full capacity ? Capacity.

A. They are not ; American farmers have no conception what it is to
work land to its full capacity of production. The most intensely culti-
vated gardens in the United States do not yield more than the aver-
age production of whole districts at France, Belgium and Holland, and
yet the quantity of grain harvested of crop 1891 was 3,538,000,000
bushels.

201. Q. Does subsoiling pay ? Subsoiling.
A. Yes; on all lands having a retentive subsoil, as such holds so much

moisture as to retard healthy plant development, as such soils also do the
unrestricted development of tap root and deep running fibres.

Such soils should be broken up by a subsoil plow or coulter affixed to
a plow beam and run in the bottom of every open furrow, after a common

36 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

plow. Anotlier system of breaking subsoil oa fields where a root crop is
contemplated is, after the field has been plowed and harrowed, to trench
out at three feet, and in every open trench to run a subsoil plow or coulter
breaking the hard part, apply the fertilizer, ridge over by splitting the
standing ridges, draw down to a flat surface, and drill the seed directly
over the fertilizer, and over the deeply broken bed through which will
freely drain all superfluous moisture and into which the roots can deeply
delve.

Sandy soils, which do not retain moisture, nor offer impediments to the
downward development of roots as carrots, parsnips or mangolds, do not
require subsoiling.
Steam 202. Q. Why has not steam plowing been popular in the United States ?

Plowing. ^ YoT two reasons :

First. In the old States the farms are not large enough to warrant the
purchase of such expensive apparatus, the cost being $10,000 to $20,000,
according to style and size.

Second. On the large farms of the West ; far removed from well-ap-
pointed machine shops, the difficulty in making repairs and the difflculty
in holding expert machinists, are all serious.

The writer has known of the importation of two complete sets of plow-
ing engines and tackle of Fowler's make, each costing about $18,000,
neither of which ever paid the freight.

The writer worked on Bloomsdale farm during the Summers of '71 and
'72, endeavoring to perform plowing by direct traction by the use of a
three-wheel rubber-tired Scotch engine, but gave up the scheme as im-
practicable.
Systems. 203. Q. Describe briefly the methods of plowing by steam?

A. In Europe there are three distinct systems of drawing the plows,
harrows, etc., etc.

First. The direct system, by which self-propelling steam engines pass
over the land and drag the implements. This is very wasteful of power
and impracticable on soft or slippery soil.

Second. The rope and windlass system, under which the locomotive re-
mains on the headland, and pulls the implements back and forth, by
means of a wire rope winding on a drum beneath the engine and across
the field to the opposite headland, where it winds around a similar drum
on a second engine, or around a drum on an anchored windlass. The im-
plements being in gangs of plows, cultivators or harrows.

In New Jersey there has been built a completely designed farm traction
engine for chopping the earth instead of plowing it. This new system,
one of many knives revolving rapidly, was conceived at and first tested
on Bloomsdale Farm, August, 1886, the chopping attachment being ap-
plied to a steam farm spader, then being tried. The cutting arrangements
are of many independent, rapidly revolving knives, chopping out slivers
of earth something similar to the chips of wood cut by a steam planer.
Such a system of choppers does not take so much power as required to

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 37

draw plows and it bids fair to be practicable, particularly as after the pas-
sage of the engine the earth is left in the condition of an absolutely perfect
seed bed six to eight inches deep.

204. Q. In draining land where there is very slight declivity state the Draining.
least fall from which a good result can be expected?

A. Half an inch to every sixteen feet, though one-quarter of an inch in
sixteen feet has been known to work well on a line of open drain of 1000
feet

205. Q. How shall I make the cheapest and simplest level for use by Draining
ordinary farm laborers in ditch digging ? Level.

A. Decide first on the pitch or declivity of the ditch or drain.

If, for example, one inch in sixteen feet is desired, then take a sixteen-
foot board and plane off both edges perfectly straight, and of equal width
from end to end, then with a chalk line mark off on one side an oblique
line from one inch to nothing and rip out. Next procure a carpenter's
spirit level.

When digging the ditch, shovel the earth out so that when the leveling
board is placed with the wide end down the ditch, it will rest all of its
length on the lower edge on the earth and place the carpenter's spirit
level upon the top smooth edge, thus indicating the true level, when the
pitch will be one inch every sixteen feet or five feet in a 1000.

206. Q. Is there any foundation in fact for the popular belief among Snperatition.
horsemen that a horse with white hoofs must necessarily have soft feet ?

A. Veterinary surgeons say, if there is any appreciable difierence in
density of pigmented or non-pigmented hoofs it is so slight as to make no
practical diflference as to soundness or usefulness.

207. Q. How many acres does the United States Land Oflice sell an- Land Sales.
nually ?

A. In the year 1889, the sales amounted to 19,000,000 acres.

208. Q. What proportion of our agricultural productions are sent to Exports.
foreign countries?

A. About one-tenth — a small proportion after all — and yet it is a greater
percentage than the agricultural exports of any other country. This ex-
port is not likely to reach a greater proportion, as the nine-tenths will
always be needed at home, and as many other nations are sending to the
purchasing countries their surplusses of the same kind of productions.
Our export trade if increased must be in the line of concentrated articles
as cheese, butter, canned fruit and vegetables. The annual value of our
farm productions exported amounts to about $400,000,000, with the agri-
cultural imports just about equal to the exports.

209. Q. Among the importations, what agricultural products are they American
which American farms should produce ? Productions.

A. First. Sugar, the amount imported being equal in value to our wheat
and flour exported.

Second. Flax, hemp and other fibre imports, which amount in value to
nearly the total value of our boasted cotton crops.

Third. Fruit, of which $20,000,000 worth are annually imported.

33

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

210. Q. What is the proportion to each inhabitant of corn consumed
Corn and domestically and in the arts, in the United States?

A. About thirty-five bushels, an amount greater than the per capita
consumption of any cereal in the world.
Com. 211. Q. What is the average yield per acre of corn in the United States?

A. Twenty-four bushels or about one and one-sixth acres grown to
each one of the population of sixty-five million, the product valued at
$675,000,000.
Exports. 212. Q. What proportion of corn and cornmeal is exported ?

A. Not over four per cent.
Wheat. 213. Q. How much wheat is annually grown in the United States?

A. 460,000,000 bushels, grown on 35,000,000 acres.
Exports. 214. Q. How much is annually exported ?

A. About 125,000,000 bushels.
"Wiieat 215. Q. Is the exportation of wheat likely to increase ?

Export. ^ jj^Q . ^jjg western nations of Europe are our only customers, and

they draw from every quarter of the globe. The 150,000,000 bushels
required in excess of their production they buy where they can get it
the cheapest, and probably in the future will purchase less from us.
Yield. 216. Q. What is the average yield per acre in the United States ?

A. Twelve bushels.
Wheat to 217. Q. What is the proportion between the average acreage of wheat

I'opuiation. and the population ?

A. Something over one-half acre of wheat to each inhabitant —
or 7 bushels to each inhabitant.
Oats. 218. Q. How many acres are annually cultivated in oats ?

A. About 21,000,000.
Oats. 219. Q. What is the average production per acre of oats?

A. Twenty-seven bushels.
Buckwheat. 220. Q. Of buckwheat, how much is grown annually ?

A. About 1,000,000 acres, average twelve bushels to the acre.
Barley. 221. Q. What quantity of barley is grown in the United States ?

A. 3,000,000 acres, producing twenty-one bushels to the acre.
Kye. 222. Q. What is the annual area of rye in this country ?

A. Slightly less than 3,000,000, producing an average of twelve bushels
to the acre.
Cereals. 223. Q. What is the average production of all the cereals per head of

our population of 65,000,000?

A. About fifty-two bushels per head, immensely greater than that of
any other country in the world.
Potatoes. 224. Q. What is the annual production of potatoes in this country ?

A. About 200,000,000 bushels, produced on 2,750,000 acres, an average
of nearly 3 bushels to each inhabitant. Total crop valued at $91,000,000.
Hay. 225. Q. How much hay is produced in the United States?

A. Nearly 50,000,000 tons from about 40,000,000 acres, the estimated
value of the product being $400,000,000.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 39

226. Q. What are the agricultural statistics of tobacco ? Tobacco.
A. Nearly 600,000,000 pounds grown on about 750,000 acres, valued

at $50,000,000.

227. Q. What are the statistics as to farm live stock in the United i-ive stock.
States ?

A. The number of animals taken from the last report of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture placed horses at 14.000,000, mules 2,300,000, milch
cows at 16,000,000, oxen and beeves at 37,000,000, sheep 45,000,000, and
hogs 52,000,000, valued at $2,420,000,000.

228. Q. What is the principal cause of fluctuations in prices of agricul- Fluctuations
tural productions?

A. The varying meteorological conditions of the season of growth in
each of the 8000 counties of the Union. No legitimate pursuit of man is
so great a lottery as agriculture.

229. Q. What plants are used as salads ? Salads.
A. Very little beyond lettuce, endive, corn salad, cress and mustard, is

known by American gardeners of the wide variety of foliage-bearing
plants used in Europe as salads, served uncooked and boiled. Beet tops,
succeeding spinach, are a favorite dish in England.

Radish seed pods, succeeding the pithy roots, are, when small, very
delicate, and used to a large extent in France.

Cardoon, chicory, dandelion, nasturtium, scurvy grass, sorrel, sea-
kale, Swiss chard, turnip tops, are all favorites, and their extended use,
adds much to the profit of a. garden and the enjoyment of a family in the
country.

230. Q. How is cauliflower cultivated ? CauUflower.
A. This delicious plant, like broccoli and French artichoke, is distin-
guished from other table vegetables by producing edible flower heads. By

long years of selection and culture of some accidental natural variation of
this plant of the cabbage family discovered in the Middle Ages, the
flowers of the cauliflower have been, to a large extent, rendered abor-
tive, and the flower stems multiplied, shortened and thickened till they
have been bred to form a half- globular compact crown or head which,
when cooked, is tender as marrow, and the choicest of all esculent vege-
tables. Varying with climatic and soil conditions, the seed is sown at all
seasons. In hotbeds at close of Winter, out of doors when the apple is in
bloom, again when the oak is in full leaf, again at Midsummer, and
again during Winter under glass. The young plants are treated
the same as cabbage, and the larger plants require the same rich fer-
tilization and culture — indeed more intense culture, as only those cauli-
flowers are good which are grown quickly. We ofier only seed of the
highest quality. The early varieties are most likely to succeed in the
hands of inexperienced growers. Sow the early sorts in seed-beds
beginning of Autumn, keep them in a "cold frame," protected by sash
from severe frost during the Winter, and transplant into deep and very
rich ground as soon as frost ceases. Handglasses or boxes placed over

40

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

them at night, when they are put out, are useful. It should be observed,
however, that success is very uncertain in dry localities. In Pennsyl-
vania the cauliflower seldom heads well unless under glass, or in cold
frames. But there is little difficulty in having fine cauliflowers when
planted in frames under glass, at close of Winter, so as to advance them
ahead of the early Summer heat. The late varieties mature in Autumn,
and are sown at the same time, and managed similarly to cabbage. They
do best in localities where the atmosphere is damp and saline, as on the
coast. We may add that cauliflower can only be grown on rich, well-tilled,
well-watered soil, and that it can hardly be overfed.
Kokl-Rabi. 231. Q. What is kohl-rabi?

A. This plant, used both for table and for cattle feeding, is a cabbage in
which the cultural development has been directed to the stalk, not to the
leaf. The enlarged stalks, taking the globular form of turnips, are more
hardy and nutritious than turnips.

Any good soil will produce a crop, the plants for which may be grown
like cabbage in seed-beds for transplanting, or sown in permanent posi-
tion in three-feet rows.

Sow the seed for table use at any period when cabbage may be sown.
Drill in rows at two feet and thin to six inches.

For cattle feeding drill the seed in Midsummer for Autumn develop-
ment. Yield 300 to 400 bushels to the acre.
Egg Plant. 232. Q. Give cultural directions for egg plant.

This seed is generally sown under glass and transplanted to the field two
or three weeks after corn-planting season. The plants are set in rows of
five feet and at three feet in the row. The land cannot be too highly fer-
tilized for this crop — very short, thoroughly rotted stable manure or simi-
lar preparation is best ; strong manure, or hot. rank manure, is unsuitable.
Sow in hotbeds or other protected place early in the Spring ; when up
two or three inches transplant into small pots (which plunge in earth), so
as to get stocky, well-rooted plants, and late in the Spring, or not till the
commencement of Summer, unless the weather be warm, transplant into
thoroughly worked, rich and recently well-manured ground. A good
plan is to open a deep, wide trench, filling it nearly with manure ; restore
the earth and plant therein, placing the plants three feet apart each way.
The seed does not vegetate freely ; repeated sowings are sometimes neces-
sary. It is almost useless to attempt the culture of egg plant unless the
proper attention be given. In growing the egg plant in the Summer and
Autumn mouths in Florida, great trouble is sometimes experienced in
getting a stand of plants owing to the excessive heat and beating rains.
This difficulty can be largely overcome by shading the ground where the
seed is sown. If sown in beds, the shading may be accomplished by
means of frames covered with seed-bed cloth, or by blinds of slats or
common boards properly supported over the beds to cut off the direct rays
of the sun. If the seed is sown where the plants are to remain (a bad
practice) the shading may be done by using palmetto fans or leaves, plac-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 41

ing them one each on the north and south side of the hill, the tops meeting
over the seed. This plan is used by some of the most successful growera
in the Gulf States.

About 3000 plants are required to plant an acre. These plants should
produce an average of three to four fruits, weighing two to three pounds
each. Our selected seeds are always taken from fruit weighing eight ♦.o
ten pounds each ; we have had them of thirteen pounds in weight. Com-
mission merchants in Philadelphia pay the market gardener about, on an
average, one-and-a-half cents per fruit. The highest prices are eight and
ten cents per fruit.

Florida fruit arrives in Philadelphia the latter part of November, and
commands $6 to $8 per barrel crate. Earlier in the Autumn the market
is supplied by fruit from Jersey. Towards Christmas the price of Florida
egg plant rises to $10 per barrel crate and then declines by April to $6 to
$8, and by May to 85, after which they are likely to arrive in a damaged
condition and be worthless. Egg plant fruit can be grated and canned
for "Winter use.

233. Q. Why don't I succeed with lettuce ? Lettuce.
A. To have fine lettuce in early Spring, sow in seed-bed from com-
mencement to middle of Autumn. During Winter protect the plants by

a box covered with window or other sash, or with litter, as they stand on
the ground. Early in the Spring transplant some into rich ground. The
others force under the sash. Or in early Spring sow in a hotbed and
transplant, but Autumn-sown plants are best. For a later supply, sow in
drills when the cherry is in bloom ; when up a few inches thin out, leav-
ing plants at proper distances ; this is a better plan than transplanting
late in the season. For this purpose use Bloomsdale Reliable, Landreths'
Forcing, Virginia Solid Header and Heat-resisting varieties, which we have
selected as standard sorts by reason of their ability to resist heat and the
longer time they are in condition for the table than some other kinds
which shoot to seed as soon as the head is formed.

234. Q. How should asparagus be planted ? Asparagus.
A. This plant succeeds best on sandy soil, though reclaimed marsh

land, when freed from water, is admirably adapted to its culture ; the
lighter the soil the earlier the plants shoot in the Spring. Of whatever ♦'

character the ground may be, it should be well cleared of trash or other
incumbrances, and in a good state of cultivation. The land is prepared
by opening deep trenches six or eight feet apart, by passing a two-horse
plow twice to each furrow, throwing a furrow slice to the right and left,
and finally cleaning and deepening the furrow by a third passage of the
plow. The roots are planted in the bottom of the furrow, at eighteen
inches apart, and covered by an inch of soil.

Stable manure may be applied in the furrow before the roots are placed,
or on top of the roots after they are covered.

North of the latitude of Washington, Spring planting, when the apple
is in bloom, is considered to give the best results, but south of Washing-

42 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

ton Fall planting has proven the best. We can ship asparagus roots,
from October to March, to any point within 1000 miles, but they must be
planted as soon as received, as if exposed to the air are soon injured in
vigor.

If the rows be six feet apart, about GOOO plants are required to plant an
acre ; if at eight feet apart, 4000 plants are required to the acre.

One-year-old well-developed roots are better than older ones. When
well planted and fertilized a cutting of stalks can be made about three
times the second year alter planting. Cutting should not be continued
too late in the Spring or the roots will become exhausted if the shoots are
not allowed to develop fully, for of course it must be understood the leaves
are the lungs of the plants. After cutting has ceased the ground should
be worked by plowing away from the rows and manuring alongside,
after which the earth should be thrown back. Twenty bushels of salt to
the acre, sown broadcast, may be used to advantage annually. The roots
of asparagus (though some penetrate six and eight feet in depth) are,
many of them, inclined to run near the surface ; the cultivator should ac-
cordingly, as far as possible, aim at flat culture. Early crops, like peas,
may be profitably grown between the rows of asparagus for the first two
or three years. Asparagus can be bleached and made especially tender
by mulching or covering with six inches of fine cut hay, straw or leaves.

A season's cutting covers eight to ten weeks, and profitable cutting
continues up to ten years from planting, after which time the beds are
considered unprofitable by market gardeners.

From 800 to 1500 two pound bunches of asparagus can be cut to the
acre, and a good field-hand can cut 150 bunches in a day. In the Philadel-
phia market asparagus bunches are always made to weigh two pounds,
and vary from ten to fifty stalks to the bunch, according to condition of
culture. A skillful workman can trim, wash, pack and tie about 300
bunches in a day. At the New York market green-pointed "grass" is
demanded, the Philadelphia market calls for white-pointed. Both colors
are found in the same field. The price obtained in the Philadelphia
market by truckers from, commission men is on an average ten cents per
bunch, never lower than eight cents, though sometimes the price paid by
commission men is forty to fifty cents.

Asparagus is always in demand, such a thing as the market being
seriously glutted with it never occurs. The variety known as tlie Colossal
is the best, producing shoots often one inch in diameter, and sometimes
as many as fifty to the plant.

One pound of asparagus seed will produce 2500 plants. The seed may
be sown when the cherry is in bloom or among the earliest operations in
the Spring, and is usually drilled in rows of ten inches. If the land be
friable, fertile and well cultivated, these seedlings can be set out the next
Spring.

235. Q. Give directions as to planting French artichoke?

A. This plant may be grown from seed sown when the cherry is in

QUKRIES AND ANSWERS. 43

bloom or from suckers taken from established plants. If the seed be sown
the plants may be raised in beds and transplanted. The seedlings or sets
should be planted out in rows at four feet apart, at eighteen inches to the
row. Artichoke in a congenial climate will stand for several years, but
success with it in the United States cannot be expected north of the
cotton belt. It is a French vegetable, the flower buds of which are eaten.

236. Q. How are mushrooms grown ? Musiirooms.
A. The culture of mushrooms to the initiated is very easy, but it is a

subject of much difficulty to the novice. We cannot attempt here to give
at length the necessary directions, but refer the inquirer to some of the
various publications upon the subject.

Plant one pound of spawn to the square foot. Kept on sale in the form
of bricks. The spawn is planted in dark pits, caves, in outdoor hotbeds,
or on banks of compost. Per brick of about 1^ pounds, 15 cents.

Any mushroom, or toad stool, the stem of which underground springs
from a cup or socket, or which has any suggestion of such a socket,
should be set down as poisonous. The most intensely poisonous of mush-
rooms— the Amariata bulbosa and the Amariata vernus — are generally
found in the woods, though sometimes in the open field. They are posi-
tively deadly, taking eflfect in about ten hours after eating.

237. Q. How are onion sets grown? Onion Sets.
A. Drill, when the apple is in bloom, sixty to seventy-five pounds of

seed to the acre. At Midsummer, or whenever the tops die, remove the
small bulbs, buttons or sets, as they are indifferently called, produced by
this process, to a dry place. In the Autumn, or early in the following
Spring, replant them in rows, the sets two inches apart, the rows wide
enough to hoe between them. Observe : If not sown quite thickly in the
first instance, they attain too large a size, and when replanted shoot to
seed.

In growing onions for the market, either from seed or sets, an unusually
large size is not to be desired, two to three inches in diameter being about
the most desirable size for shipping. A vigorously growing onion crop
frequently can be hastened to early ripening at near the desired size by
simply stopping the vigor of growth by running a scuffle hoe under the
bulbs on one side so as to cut off one-half the roots. Such a course of
treatment will reduce the excess of vigor and forward maturity. If the
grower awaits the development of mammoth onions, or even large ones,
he frequently lets pass opportunities for paying sales, far more profitable
than afterwards realized.

238. Q. What are Bermuda onions ? Bermuda
A. An early sort originally grown in Bermuda— now largely grown in Onions.

Florida, Louisiana and Texas and some little in Georgia and Carolina.

Down the Mississippi, below New Orleans, 100,000 barrels of marketable
onions are grown annually. All the early ones formerly grown were
known as Creole onions, half round and light red, but they are fast being
supplanted by the Bermudas.

44

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

The following table, extracted from Bulletin No. 27, of the Louisiana
State Experimental Station, clearly shows the relative development of
size and relative period of maturity to that size. It will be perceived at a
glance that the Bermudas were nearly twice as large and fifteen to twenty-
five days earlier than the Creole.

Transplanting Onions at Baton Rouge. — Sown in August, 1893.

Variety.

*Red Bermuda, transplanted

Red Bermuda, not transplanted

White Bermuda, transplanted

White Bermuda, not transplanted

Louisiana or Creole, transplanted

Louisiana or Creole, not transplanted.

Prize Taker, transplanted

Prize Taker, not transplanted

Average Wt.

Earliness.

4.5 ounces.
4.5 "

April 1

April 27

5.5 "
5

April 15
April 30

3

2.5 "

April 25
April 25

7.8 "
8

May 25
May 30

It will be seen by this that in two cases the average weight was in-
creased, and also the bulk matured earlier, besides this the nearly perfect
stand insured by transplanting gave a much increased total yield per
given length of row. These seeds were sown the last of August, 1893,
and the plants transplanted when less than one-fourth inch in diameter.

Fertilizers. 239. Q. Why do commercial fertilizers give the best results in wet
seasons '?

A. In wet seasons the repeated and abundant rains completely solve
the component parts, so that neither in a dry state nor in half solved con-
dition can they burn the rootlets.
Germination. 240. Q. Why is It that fresh seeds do not germinate as quickly as old
seeds ?

A. Some old seeds being perfectly dry are more susceptible to a less
degree of moisture, consequently sprout quickly.

241. Q. To what age do seeds retain their vitality?

A. That is a hard question to answer, as so much depends upon condi-
tions of moisture, heat and soil^-but as a rule vegetable seeds are entirely
dead in eight years for cabbage, turnip and beet ; four j'^ears for carrot,
parsley, spinach ; five years for peas, beans, cucumber, squash, melons ;
three years for peppers, egg plant, okra, corn.

242. Q. Why do some experienced gardeners prefer old seeds to fresh
ones?

A. Old seeds having less physical force do not develop such vigorous
plants — do not grow so rampant, and in the case of melons, squashes,
cucumbers, they do not cover so much ground, while setting more fruit.

Vitality of

Seeds.

Old Seeds
Preferred.

* Twenty days ahead of the Creole, and four and a half ounces against three ounces.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 45

243. Q. After a field is inoculated by bringing to it and incorporating soU

with its surface soil some soil from another field, known to be inhabited inoculation.
by bacteria or microbes, what is the subsequent action ?

A. The bacteria or organisms, if they be the right kind, cause, by some
unknown process, the roots of the plants to develop minute nodules or
tubercles, which, by some action, absorb nitrogen from the air and hold
it. Four-fifths of the atmosphere is nitrogen. Consequently there is an
unlimited supply, and if this new scientific discovery can be more thor-
oughly understood the entire system of agriculture may be revolution-
ized as completely as electricity has overturned former systems now obso-
lete.

244. Q. Are wrinkled and flattened varieties of peas sweeter and more Peas.
delicate than smooth round-seeded sorts ?

A. The shriveled form of certain pea seed is indicative of a sugary
quality, just as the shriveled grains of sugar-corn distinguish its quality
from the more starchy field corns. Many of the wrinkled peas possess a
shelly hull, which, to some people, make them less desirable than the
Landreth Extra Early or the Bloomsdale pea. Wrinkled half-flat peas
never seem to possess the same germinative force as hard round peas.

245. Q. What are the best plants for green manuring ? Green

A. All vigorous growers, which can be plowed under, have a decided Manuring.
fertilizing influence upon soil, as the turning under returns to the upper
soil all that the plant had drawn from depths below ; but if to this can be
added a stock of fertility derived from the air, immense gain is made.
Now this can be realized by growing plants of the leguminous family,
as Red clover. Crimson clover. Alfalfa, Cow peas, lupins, all of which,
beside being potash finders, have the faculty of drawing nitrogen from
the air, and adding to the soil that which it did not possess before.

246. Q. Why is inoculation of soils advised? Soil

A. To start a growth of bacteria, such as desired. One of the latest dis- inocalation.
coveries in agriculture is that different kinds of plants, notably those of
the leguminous family, are aided in their growth by distinct forms of
bacteria or microbes. Novr, a field which has had upon it a crop of
beans, continues for a time to support the bean microbe, but beans sown
upon a new field, however rich in potash or phosphoric acid, may want
, nitrogen, which can be obtained in considerable quantity from the air if
plenty of microbes be present in the soil. By inoculating this new field
through a top-dressing of soil from the old bean field, the development
of microbes can be greatly advanced and the bean crop enlarged through
nitrogen stolen from the air.

247. Q. Is the greatest productiveness found in green or wax-podded Beans.
beans ?

A. As a rule, in green-podded sorts; but some wax pods are exceedingly
prolific, but when most so it is at a loss of quality.

248. Q. How can I kill crows and sparrows ? Crows.
A. Soak corn in strychnine water.

46

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Beans.

Com.
Onion Sets.

Asparagus
Bug.

Fungicides.

Insecticides.

Fungi.

Insecticides.

Linae.

Salt.

Fungi.

249. Q. Which is superior in quality, a round green-podded bean or
a wax-podded bean ?

A. Tastes vary. The writer thinks a wax pod always tough.

250. Q. Which is the best sugar corn for an all-round sort ?
A. The Landreth and Stowell's Evergreen.

251. Q. Does freezing injure onion sets ?

A. Sets kept throughout winter in the latitude of Philadelphia are
always frozen, and are not injured under careful handling, but should
not be handled when the frost is coming out of them. If received in
frozen condition spread them out to thaw.

252. Q. Is there any application which I can make to drive off the
asparagus beetle from my young asparagus beds ?

A. Lime dust applied when the dew is on.

253. Q, What are the most generally used fungicides ?

A. Compounds of copper and sulphur, particularly ; ammoniacal car-
bonates of copper and Bordeaux mixture.

254. Q, Why do some so-called insecticides fail to be effective ?

A. Probably because applied without any knowledge of the nature of
the insects desired to destroy ; for instance, insects which eat their food
can be poisoned by mineral applications to the foliage, but insects which
feed upon the juice of plants obtained by puncturing the skin cannot be
poisoned by outward applications. The latter can only be destroyed by
an application of something which will clog up their breathing pores.

255. Q. What fungi give the most trouble to the farmer and gardener ?
A. Those occurring on the potato, onion, turnip, cabbage, corn, clover,

wheat. A rotation of crops is effective in overcoming a fungus attack,
as one which destroys plants of the cabbage family seldom attacks plants
of a distinct genus, as, for instance, the onion or potato.

256. Q. What are the leading insecticides ?

A. Compounds of arsenic, as Paris green and London purple ; oils and
soaps, tobacco dust, sulphur, red pepper.

257. Q. Is lime a good fertilizer?

A. Not of very much direct value, but of great importance in render-
ing available plant foods already in the soil. Lime also preserves the par-
ticles of soil in a separate coagulated condition, making heavy soils friable
and pervious to water. It also promotes the formation of nitrates in the
soil.

258. Q. Is common salt valuable as a manure?

A. No, not primarily ; but it may on some soils have a good effect in
helping to set free more important constituents. It is also useful for
destroying insects or grubs.

259. Q. What is this fungi about which so much is now said by the
scientific papers ?

A. It is generally a parasitic growth, popularly termed mildew, mold,
smut, blight or rust. Some of these growths can be prevented, others pal-
liated and sometimes cured. As a rule, the smallest portions are self-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 47

productive if not destroyed, for instance, portions of the potato fungus,
too small to be seen through a microscope, so small that figures cannot
express their minuteness, are so potent with life that every atom will grow
under favorable conditions ; and the spores or reproductive parts of the
putrefactive fungus of the lettuce plant are so small as to take 1000 to
equal the size of the foot of a house fly.

260. Q. Is a collard a cabbage, and what is its history ? CoUard.
A. Certainly it is one of the cabbage family, just as is the cauliflower

or Brussels sprouts. It has been cultivated in the cotton States for a cen-
tury. It may have been derived from a good heading cabbage, or it may,
as is most probable, have been one of the Cow cabbages, common in parts
of France — possibly brought over by early French settlers.

261. Q. From whence came most of the cultivated species of plants? Origin of
A. From Europe and Western Asia. The United States has furnished i'i»'»*s.

very few. Maize or Indian corn, the Jerusalem artichoke, and the
gourds being the only important ones.

263. Q. I notice the main stems of my lima bean vines are all twisted. Lima Beans.
Is that a healthy condition ?

A. It is perfectly natural, as all twining plants have their main stems
twisted upon the axis of the stem and in the same direction as they turn
around supports. The extent of such stem twisting is increased or
diminished according as the supporting stock or pole is rough or smooth.
The rougher it is the more the new stem twists. Ordinarily, there is
one twist of the stem for each spiral turn around a support, but some-
times much more.

263. Q. Can I make good hay out of oats cut when in green condition ? Oats Hay.
A. Excellent, if dried properly and got under cover without rain. It

should be cut before showing the seed, otherwise the growtli becomes so
bulky, that cut and laying upon the ground, it cannot be expected to dry,
except under such dry and hot conditions as almost impossible to antici-
pate.

264. Q. I am offered at a Roanoke river fishery 100,000 herring. Are Fish Manure.
they of value?

A. Very fertilizing, but very temporary in effect. Only good for one
year. On our Jersey farm we have used 250,000 herring a year, and on
our Virginia farm we have used 10,000,000 menhaden a year — a similar
fish. Thirty to forty thousand broadcasted to the acre and plowed under
four inches. Some farmers put two fish to a hill of corn.

265. Q. What is the best grass for planting on sand hills to prevent sand Grass.
blowing?

A. Arundo Arenaria, a Dutch grass, planted extensively on the sand
dunes of Holland.

266. Q. My beet field is very spotty, that is, uneven in the stand ; the VitaUty.
appearance indicating that there was a want of vitality in the seed, that is,

the germination was very poor ?
A. If the seed sown upon your field failed in all parts of it to germi-

48

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Germination.

Melon
Mildew.

Potatoes
Growing.

Weeds-

Twining of
Beans.

Toads.

Climbing
Plants.

Cause of
Climbing.

Spring
Wlieat.

nate, then the seed might have been deficient in vitality. But, as you
say it is spotty, it indicates a cause not attributable to the seed, but possi-
bly to poor tillage, poor sowing, unfavorable conditions of rain fall, heat
or cold, or possibly to insects over or under ground. If one foot of row
was good, so should have been a thousand feet, for all the good seed could
not have got into one place.

267. Q. Is mildew common to muskmelons ? Mine are covered with it.
A. Yes. Something like grape mildew. It can be held in check by

spraying with Bordeaux mixture.

268. Q. My potatoes stored in cellar have many of them developed new
young potatoes of an inch in size. "What is the cause of this?

A. Probably heat and moisture. It is an old practice in England to
force such an abnormal growth. In under-glass experiments with pota-
toes it is quite common for potato eyes to at once produce small but per-
fect tubers.

266. Q. How many varieties of weeds are there to annoy the farmer?

A. The New Jersey State Agricultural College exhibited at the Chicago
Fair 751 species, and that did not comprise one-half of what exist in the
United States.

270. Q. Why do beans and other climbing plants twist contrary to
the course of the sun ?

A. You are mistaken, as all da not twist the same. Among those
twisting against the sun are Garden Pole beans, morning glory, jas-
minum, wistaria, clematis. Among those twisting with the sun are the
hop vine, honeysuckle, and many others, and some climbers go in both
directions, as the nasturtium.

271. Q. My garden is infested by toads. Do you advise me to kill
them?

A. No I They don't harm you or any of your vegetables or flowers, but,
to the contrary, eat thousands of insects which might be very destructive.
In France, gardeners pay twenty-five cents apiece for them as insect ex-
terminators.

272. Q. How many classes of climbing plants are there ?

A. Four classes : 1. Those which twine spirally round a support, as a
Lima bean. 2. Those which possess irritable organs, which, when
they touch any object, clasp it, as a clematis. 3. Those which climb up
by means of hooks, as cucumbers. 4. Those which climb by rootlets, as
the ivy.

273. Q. "What causes the Lima bean, for instance, to climb a pole?

A. The nerve force seems to be centred in the last formed internode —
the previously formed one losing its disposition to travel with or against
the sun. "What causes the movement it is impossible to say.

274. Q. Can I grow in my section of Georgia a crop of Minnesota
Spring wheat?

A. No ; not as a Spring-sown crop, but it might do well as an Autumn
crop same as Winter wheat. Many crops of an annual habit can be

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 49

turned to a biennial habit — for instance, as a Winter oat treated just like
wheat.

275. Q. What is the nature of the dark rusty spots which are thickly melon Fungi.
appearing on my watermelons, both foliage and fruit?

A, It is probably a fungus similar with that which spots bean
pods, and if so, is quite contagious. Young plants can be sprayed with
Bordeaux mixture, but it is difficult to arrest it even then, as the liquid
cannot be thoroughly applied to the under sides of the foliage. On a
strongly developed crop nothing can be done, as it is impossible to spray
the under parts of such a mass of foliage laying almost on the ground.

276. Q. I want to try a good native Southern grass. What do you Texas
recommend ? Blue Grass.

A. An American perennial grass not generally known but of admirable
character for Southern sections, is the Texas Blue grass {Poa araclmifera),
discovered on the prairies of that State in 1853. It blossoms there about
the last of March and ripens its seed about the middle of April. Its habit
in Southern States is much stronger than Kentucky Blue grass. In
Texas, under the severest droughts, it sometimes lags a little, but after
Autumn rains quickly springs into most vigorous growth and continues
to grow all Winter. It makes a strong top growth for hay and a matted
sod standing continued pasturing. It roots deeply and spreads rapidly
by buds from long, strong, underground stems, which by their vigor re-
sist the encroachment of Bermuda grass. Once established it will con-
tinue to stand for a lifetime. It is best propagated . by cuttings of the
roots, 20,000 set to the acre, or say one to each two square feet. Roots
cost about $1.00 per 1000, seed about $3.00 per pound, six pounds being
sown to the acre.

277. Q. What is Bermuda grass? Bermuda
A. Botanically it is known as Cynodon dactylon and is a creeping per- Grass.

€nnial, bearing long, leafless flower stalks, abundant but small foliage,
and producing a mat of under-ground stems and superficial runners. It
is not a native of Bermuda, but of Southern Europe. It is difficult to
grow it from seed. Consequently best propagated by roots — every root-
cutting of an inch will produce a plant. In the Southern States on good
land it is one of the best hay grasses. It is very difficult to eradicate and
often becomes a great nuisance.

278. Q. What is Johnson grass ? Johnson
A. It is known as Sorghum holepense, a native of Africa. Its chief Grass.

value is in regions where other grasses fail, but it must be cut young and
often to be of value. It is difficult to eradicate, close pasturing being a
means of killing it out. It should only be planted in waste places or
where wanted permanently.

279. Q. What is Crab grass ? ^^^^ ^^^^^^
A. Botanically Panicum sanguinale, a native of Europe, but now com-
mon in all the Southern States. It produces long, under-ground, hori-
zontal roots, often five and six feet long, rooting and branching at every

50

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Herbs.

Sports.

joint. The flower stalks rise to a height of three feet. It is a grass to be
dreaded as very difficult of eradication. It flourishes under hot sun
and often on poor soils, gives fair pasturage when other sorts of grass are
dried up.
Guinea Grass. 280. Q. What is Guinea grass ?

A. Botanically it is called Fanicnm maximum, and is a native of Africa
and cultivated extensively in the West Indies. Very susceptible to frost,
and only ripens seed in the tropics. It is a large hay producer, reaching
a height of six to seven feet. The seed resembles millet.

281. Q. My herbs this year don't seem to possess the usual aroma —
why is it ?

A. The aroma is strongest in hot, dry Summers — when they grow vig-
orously under effects of abundant rains they possess little aroma.

282. Q, Why are not more of our ornamental plants and fruits grown
from seed ?

A. Because ofttimes they produce very little seed or none at all, but
more especially because they are bud propagations, not the results of evo-
lution or watchful and slow breeding. They are generally sports without
heredity. In some of these cases, where the subject of heredity has been
closely followed up for years, the seed produces liije parent — for instance,
among fruits many forms of Russian apples, and some peaches, grapes,
plums and quinces.

283. Q. How can I make my pole beans run more freely ?
A. Use nitrogen as a manure — apply it in the form of dried meat, blood,

fish or guano.

284. Q. How can I keep my beans and peas more dwarf?
A. Omit nitrogenous manures and fertilize with potash.

285. Q. How many grasses are there ?
A. Over 3000 plants of the grass family are known and described, the

greater part of no value. The list of grass seeds offered for sale in vari-
ous countries and recommended for forage numbers about 200 sorts.

296. Q. My cucumber vines set very few fruit compared with the num-
ber of blossoms. How is this ?

A. In cucumbers the sexes occur in distinct flowers and it is only the
female flowers which develop fruit. In cucumbers, blossoms occur at
every joint, and these are only three to four inches apart, often three
blossoms at a joint, and quite 100 to 200 blossoms to a single vine, and
presuming that one-tliird were female a cultivator might look for an enor-
mous production, but very few of the female flowers become pollenized
and fruitful.

287. Q. Can I take up some of my tomato plants growing in the field
and keep them over the Winter for setting out next Spring?

A. You might succeed, but the chances are against you, as the plants
are in unsuitable condition for removal. Tomato plants, however, have
been known to live for years in a greenhouse, and in the West Indies

Nitrogen.

Potash.

Grasses.

Cacumber
Blossoms.

Tomato.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 51

they flourish out of doors like grape vines. Many annual plants become
biennial in the tropics, for example, the pepper and egg plant.

288. Q. What is the relative proportion of male and female blossoms Squash,
on the bush squash ?

A. About five males to one female. The flowers of the male are larger
and borne on long fool stalks and after fully distending fall ofl", leaving
the fool stalks behind.

289. Q. I fear I have given too big a dose of fertilizer to my pea crop, over-

as the foliage is turning yellow. What do you advise me to do to rectify manuring,
my mistake ?

A. Constant cultivation is the only ameliorative course you can adopt —
its object being to keep the soil friable so that not only rain but dew, fog
and atmospheric moisture can more fully enter the soil to solve the fertil-
izer, and the more it is diluted the less burning its results. Commercial
fertilizers seldom burn in a rainy season, but always are likely to do so in
a dry one.

290. Q. My tomato plants are wilting and curling and turning brown. Tomato
Am I going to lose my crop ? Diseases.

A. Your plants are evidently sufiering from a fungus growth — a micro-
scopic vegetation which is eating up the fleshy matter of the leaves
and arresting all development. Spraying with fungicides is effective
•when you can reach the under side of the leaves, but otherwise it is only
half done.

291. Q. I find that seeds bearing the same name, that is, sold under Names
the same label, differ very widely. Why are not particular seeds the °^ Seed.
same the world over ? Why don't one seed merchant sell the same stock

as another?

A. They differ because some are grown in Germany, some in France,
some in England or Scotland, or if American, some are produced in the
Eastern, others in the Central, and others in the Western or Pacific
States. All these localities possess different soils and climates, and conse-
quently there is naturally developed a variation in size, color, flower and
desirability, and yet they all are issued under a given name — for instance,
the seed of Evergreen corn grown in Pennsylvania or New England will
produce a plant of distinct characteristics from plants grown from Illinois
stock, Kansas or Michigan stock, and yet it is all sold as Evergreen.

292. Q. What shall I do to rid my garden of earth worms ? Earth
A. The common earth worm does no harm, in fact is rather an advan- Worms.

tage, as it bores air passages throughout the soil. It can be destroyed by
the application of lime.

293. Q. Why are round-podded beans preferred to flat pods ? Roimd-pod
A. Round pods are generally solid or meaty and free or comparatively Beans.

free from string, but flat pods are often more or less hollow or windy,
generally stringy and nearly always thin, and when examined closely
possess sides more or less like muslin.

52

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

BeanKust. 294. Q. The pods at one end of my bean patch are spotted with red
rust ; the greater part of the patch is free from rust. How do you explain
this?

A. Possibly the end where the rust appears is lower, and conse-
quently damper, or, perhaps, it is in the shade of trees or other obstruc-
tion to free circulation of air. The rust is a fungus.

Potato im- 295. Q. What is the extent of annual importations of potatoes?

portations. A. During the year, ending June, 1894, the importations were as
follows :

Belgium

Germany , ,

Netherlands

United Kingdom — England

Scotland ,

Ireland

Bermuda

Dominion of Canada — Nova Scotia, New Bruns.

wick, etc

Quebec, Ontario, etc

Mexico

Cuba

China

All other countries

Bushels. Values,

51,720
41,662
28,347
295,435
,671,239
28,540
64,993

596,799

188,020

1,235

28,084
1,187
5,317

3,002,578

5 16.844

15,354

15,607

117,288

737,531

10,872

109,122

169,086

63.353

1,454

17,351

252

3,080

$1,277,194

Conch Grass.

Japan
Clover,

Alfalfa.

Peach
Yellows.

296. Q. What is conch grass or quack ?

A. Agropyrum repens, a nuisance found in nearly all the Northern
States, a first-cousin to the crab grass of the South. It forms a dense
sod, its far-reaching horizontal roots having short joints, which throw
out root fibres and leaf stalks. Its foliage and roots are succulent and
nutritious, but it is a pest of the first order.

297. Q. What is Japan clover ?

A. Lespedeza striata, introduced about 1850, from China. It is a
quick-growing annual, killed by frost. Does best on clay lands, especi-
ally on bottoms, where it is a good hay producer. It seeds itself.

298. Q. What is Alfalfa ?

A. It is Medicago sativa botanically. Also known as Lucerne and used
for cuttting almost entirely, as it is not adapted for pasturage, cattle eat-
ing it off the crown. According to soil and location it continues in vigor
from three to ten years. It is adapted to dry climates. Overflow kills it.

299. Q. Can I cure my peach trees, which appear to be afiected with,
the yellows, by the application of wood ashes ?

A. No ; manuring the soil will not stop the spread of the disease .

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 53

300. Q. Where can I purchase spraying apparatus and get formulas for Spraying

insecticide ? Apparatus.

A. From the publishers of this pamphlet.

301. Q. In your Catalogue, you sometimes refer to tillage, then to cul-xuiagc.
tivation. What is the difference ?

A. To plow, to dig, to harrow, before the crop is planted, is to till.
The earth is tilled, but the crop is cultivated.

302. Q. What leaf fibre plants can be grown successfully in the Gulf Fibre Plants.
States ?

A. The Agave rigida or true sisal heinp, the Agave decipiens or false
sisal hemp, the Agave Americana or century plant, Ananassa sativa or
pineapple, Sansevieria or bowstring hemp, Phormium or New Zealand
flax. Yucca filamentosa or bear grass.

303. Q. How many experimental stations are there in the United States ? Experimen-
A. About fifty. Some States having two, others more. **^ stations.

304. Q. On what crops is nitrate of soda especially eflFective. Nitrate of
A. As an auxiliary to stable manure it is efficient on all crops, but it Soda.

is especially profitable on the crops most expensive to grow, on account
of excessive labor, as by its use there is more certainly assured a larger
return.

305. Q. A seed-grower writes of male cabbage plants failing to pro- Sexes in
duce heads. Is this so? Cabbage.

A. It is a ridiculous statement, as there is no such thing as a male cab-
bage plant, the two sexes occurring in the same flower. Cabbage plants
which fail to head, if the conditions of season, climate and soil are favor-
able, might properly be termed abortive.

306. Q. I have in my watermelon field a twenty-pound melon, one halfParti-coiored
deep green, the other half lemon yellow — the dividing line running from Watermelon.
blossom end to stem end. How is this ?

A. It may be the efiect of a pumpkin hybridization the previous year
of a double or twin watermelon blossom, or it may be only a common
freak or sport of nature — a familiar example being found in some gourds,
which are always half green and half yellow.

307. Q. If the flower of a watermelon is pollenized from the flower of Hybrid
a pumpkin, and the cross be efi"ective, is the fruit resulting an obvious Melons.
hybrid ?

A. No ; it is little afi"ected if any — the hybridization being confined to
the seed, which planted the next year shows the mixture.

308. Q. Why is it that every year about half of my spinach plants die sexin
without producing seed ? Spinach.

A. The half which die are the male plants, which dry up after perfect-
ing their bloom. The female plants only produce seed, and these live for
a month after the male plants have disappeared.

309. Q. Not one-half of the blossoms on my cucumber vines ever set sex in

fruit. Why is this ? Cucumber.

A. The sexes occur in distinct flowers — the male never produces fruit.

54

QUERIES AND ANSvVERS.

Pumpkin or
Squash.

Tea Plant.

First

Horticultural

Society.

First

Agricultural
Society.

Tomatoes.

Salt.

Cutting
Lettuce.

Coreless
Carrot.

Color in
Vegetables.

Dates for
Seeding.

and only those female flowers which are fertilized or pollenized by con-
tact with male flowers or through the agency of the wind or of insects.

310. Q. What is the difference between a pumpliin and a squash?

A. A pumpkin never develops a rind hard as wood, while a squash does.

311. Q. Can the tea plant be grown successfully in the United States?
A. Yes, the plant can be grown very successfully in some of the Cotton

States, but in this country labor is very costly as compared with the
cheap labor of China. In 1790, David Landreth had growing near Phila-
delphia a hedge of tea plants which stood for years.

312. Q. At what date was the first Horticultural Society established in
America ?

A. In 1828, the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, of which David
Landreth was Secretary.

313. Q. At what date was the first Agricultural Society established in
America?

A. In 1785, the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture.

314. Q. Are all tomatoes derived from the same species ?

A. No ; the best of the large sorts in cultivation have been derived
from the Esculentum, a sort divided into four or five cells by intervening
partitions. The pear-shaped varieties are derived from the Pyriforme, a
sort of two cells. The grape or current sorts from the Cerasiforme, of
two cells.

315. Q. Will salt applied to my fields drive away corn grubs ?

A. Yes ; very frequently most efficient in arresting ravages of chinch
bugs on wheat, cut worms on corn, but it should be applied before the
crop is planted — six or seven bushels to the acre.

316. Q. You describe a lettuce as a cutting sort. What do you imply
by that expression ?

A. A variety producing a mass of loose leaves — not a heading sort —
generally an early variety.

317. Q. What do you mean by coreless as applied to a carrot?

A. The usual types of carrots contain a woody centre, from off which
the soft outer shell can be removed. In the case of the coreless varieties
this character is nearly eliminated — the whole mass being soft.

318. Q. Are not Yellow Belgian carrots more nutritious for cattle feed-
ing than White Belgian ?

A. As a rule vegetables of deep colors are considered richer than those
without color, but it is possibly a fiction. The Sugar beet is white, the
Bassano beet is white, both of exceeding sweetness.

319. Q. Is there any general guide to indicate the proper periods for
sowing seeds, a guide good for all sections ?

A. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to indicate a guide for sow-
ing in the Southern States, but in the North the blooming of trees aflfords
a good indication. The periods for the first Spring sowing might be
named as follows :

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 55

1st Period The blooming of the peach Peas. Periods for

2d Period The blooming of the cherry Peas, SowingSeeds.

Spinach,

Lettuce,

Corn salad,

Onion sets,

Asparagus roots.

3d Period The bloommg of the pear All the above,

■with addition of

Radish,

Celery,

Carrot,

Beet,

Mustard,

Onion seed,

Parsley,

Tomato seed,

Cabbage,

Parsnip.

4th Period The blooming of the apple All the preceding,

with addition of

Salsify,

Beans,

Corn,

Cucumber,

Melon,

Pumpkin,

Okra.

320. Q. What soils are best adapted to tobacco culture? Tobacco

A. Like all other cultivated plants, tobacco has its various forms, quali- Soils.
ties and assortments, and the progressive tobacco grower plants only
those the most profitable to him, as respects soil and his market, both of
■which must be studied. Red clay subsoils, ■with rich top soils, generally
produce the best dark rich export tobacco. Soils composed of sand or
gravel, ■with subsoil of light brown or red clay, develop the best stem-
ming tobacco and fillers. Flat lowlands of alluvial soil give the best
cigar types. Limestone soils, dark and rich, are the only soils adapted to
White Burleigh, which, when well grown, is very choice. Slaty soils
produce the best quality of the yellow wrapping sorts. The list of so-
called varieties of tobacco runs up into hundreds, many the result only
of a difference in soil. The publishers have selected a limited number of
varieties of such as will meet any requirement under the classification of
adaptability. The publishers solicit orders for seed, believing their stocks
to be of excellence, and knowing a change of seed, when good stock can
be obtained, is generally a great advantage to the planter.

56

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

321. Q. "Why did my second sowing of turnip seed utterly fail to come
up when my first sowing from the same bag did perfectly well 1

A. Possibly the second sowing was eaten off by the turnip fly when it
was only one-twentieth (^^) of an inch out of the ground, and was killed
before you were aware it had sprouted.

322. Q. Are there two kinds of top onions?

A. Yes ; those with single eyes producing one large onion and those
with several eyes splitting up into a number of small bulbs. Conse-
quently inferior to the larger single type variety.

323. Q. Have pole beans any advantage over bush beans?

A. It is more expensive to prepare to grow pole beans, as the poles are
costly and the vines need to be tied up three or four times ; but the pro-
duct is larger, consequently the general results are in favor of the pole
varieties, especially as the pole sorts, with two or three exceptions, con-
tinue to bear till killed by frost, while the bush beans produce their
entire crop in a very limited period.

324. Q. Have vine crops different degrees of power of resistance to the
burning effect of Paris green ?

A. Yes ; cantaloupes the least — next watermelons, followed by pump-
kins— the hardiest being squash.

325. Q. What is best remedy for bugs on melons ?

A. This is a difficult question. Lots of preparations will kill bugs dead
as Cfesar, but if put on strong enough to finish the insects they either kill
the plants or burn them. It is difficult to strike the happy medium.

Paris green is as good as any bug poison, but it should be mixed with
something as a dilutant, as land plaster — say one part of Paris green to
100 of plaster or flour — anything stronger will burn the leaves of the
plants. Applications may be made at intervals of four days. For the
melon louse use kerosene emulsion or whale oil soap.

326. Q. How can I test the vitality of seeds ?

A. Many ways ; but none altogether satisfactory, for results to-day may
be positively changed next week or next month, so much depending upon
the peculiar conditions of moisture and heat, or the fluctuations of the
same. Again, seeds have their periods of sprouting — sometimes those
which fail in January will do well in April. Tests of vitality can be
made by counting out 100 seeds just as they run, good and bad, and test-
ing them to develop the percentage of seeds which will sprout. This
can be done between solidified bats of cotton kept damp in a saucer
partly filled with water — or on seed-testing trays manufactured for the
purpose, or in pots filled with earth and kept in proper temperature or on
the earth benches of a greenhouse. Vitality tests out of doors are very
unsatisfactory, as dashing rains are apt to defeat all calculations.

327. Q. For small vegetable gardens do you advise the use of s>,able
manure or commercial fertilizer?

A. Stable manure every time, as it comprehends all the necessary fer-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 57

tilizing ingredients and loosens and aerates the soil. Soils too frequently
treated with commercial fertilizer become compacted.

328. Q. Should I plant my radish seed during the increase or decline of Moon

the moon ? influence.

A. The moon has no influence upon vegetation. That is an exploded
idea too dead to be resurrected.

329. Q. Why is there more fungus growth some seasons than others? Fungi.
A. Nearly all fungus growths can, in a general way, be likened to a

mushroom growth, and the mushroom, it is well known, flourishes under
conditions of moisture. So, likewise, fungus developments are most
common in wet seasons.

330. Q. Why are insects more destructive to vegetables some seasons insects,
than others ?

A. Insects destructive to vegetables always appear in greater numbers
after a mild Winter. The larvte of such insects lay dormant in the soil
over Winter, and very hard frost kills millions. While under the condi-
tions of a mild Winter all live and show themselves in Spring or Summer.

331. Q. Is a wet or dry season the most profitable to the practical Most
market gardener ? Profltabie

A. A dry one, as a wet season smiles alike on both good and poormana- Seasons.
gers, while in a dry season, when so many crops fail, the good manager,
having a variety of crops put in at diS"erent periods and possessing practi-
cal experience in meeting difficulties as they arise, succeeds in obtaining
good crops from some portions of his land and high prices for his products.

332. Q. Is the perennial Lima bean a desirable sort for garden cultiva- Perennial
tion ? Lima.

A. It does not possess any particular merit beyond novelty. It devel-
ops a small bushy plant of slender and procumbent character ; pods four
to five inches long and depressed between the seeds, which, when
dry, are oblong and thick and of good quality. It is late and a shy
bearer. It has the peculiar character of keeping the cotyledons under the
earth. Other Limas elevate them.

333. Q. How many forms of Lima beans are there in general cultivation ? Lima Beans.
A. Two very distinct classes, the pole and the bush. The pole or

climbing class can be divided into the Large Lima, the Challenger Lima,
King of Garden Lima, and the Carolina, both white, yellow, spotted
and black. The bush or dwarf class can be divided into the Dwarf
Carolina in three colors, white, yellow, spotted ; the Potato Lima, or
Dreer's Dwarf, or Kumerle, the Burpee Lima, and the Perennial Lima.

334. Q. Can the Large Lima bean be kept alive so that the same roots perennial
will produce a crop the second Summer ? Beans.

A. It is doubtful if it could be done, except in Southern Florida. In
California, the Perennial Lima and the White Dutch Runner beans, which
both have fleshy roots, often live over Winter, and send up from near the
surface a second growth of vines, producing a second crop of pods.

335. Q. Why is a snap short or stringless bean called a string bean? ^ string Beans.
A. Simply through force of habit or custom. The bean of years ago,

58

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Butter Beans.

Germination.

Bermuda
Grass.

Cow Peas.

Cotton
Fertilizers.

Club Root.

Green
IVIanuring.

Grass Soils.

all having been stringy, which undesirable quality has, by intense selec-
tion, been eliminated, the best "string beans" now not possessing any
strings, but snapping off short like sticks of glass.

336. Q. What are "butter" beans ?

A. At the present day the term butter beans is applied to yellow wax-
podded sorts, as they somewhat resemble butter in color ; but years ago
the term was only applied to the Lima bean, as it was usually served with
a butter sauce.

337. Q. Do seeds diflFer much in sprouting qualities ?

A. Yes ; very much. There is a great variation in germinative power
under diverse conditions of soil as respect heat and cold, excessive damp-
ness or dryness. Most seeds make but one effort to start or germinate,
that is, they start, and, if unchecked, continue to grow freely, or, per-
haps, drag along if not arrested entirely ; but some others, wheat, for ex-
ample, can be stopped entirely by cold or heat, excessive wet or drought,
and, upon the return of favorable conditions, start again and again, four
or five times repeated.

338. Q. What is the best grass I can use in Florida to stop my land
from washing ?

A. Bermuda grass, planted by cutting small pieces of sod and inserting it.

339. Q. How do you recommend Cow peas to be used ?

A. 1. The vines can be plowed under when green. 2. The vines can
be cut and dried for cattle food. 3. The vines can be allowed to dry and
produce a crop of seed. 4. The vines can be allowed to dry and fall ou
the surface and lay all Winter.

340. Q. What is the best manure for cotton ?

A. Cotton requires phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash in the order
named. Or for a crop of say 300 pounds of lint per acre say 50 pounds
phosphoric acid, 20 pounds nitrogen, and 15 pounds potash. For the
phosphoric acid, use commercial super-phosphates possessing a large
quantity of soluble phosphoric acid ; for nitrogen, use dried blood, dried
fish, ground cotton seed ; for potash, use muriate of potash.

341. Q. My cabbage has developed club root. Instruct me how to stop
it from destroying the entire field ?

A. It cannot be stopped, as any application now would be too late.
After the crop is off, apply 80 bushels of slacked lime per acre and 8
bushels of salt.

342. Q. What plants can I best use for green manuring?

A. Cow pea, alfalfa, scarlet clover, melilotus, serradilla, lupine, vetch,
rye, maize, sorghum, red clover.

343. Q. Name the situations where various grasses do best ?

A. In special locations as on lowlands or mountain sides, or on special
soils as sands, gravels, clays, loams, some sorts may, with advantage, be
omitted and others added. Timothy, for example, a short-lived hay
grass, does best on well-drained land and in northern latitudes. Red
Top, a longer-lived sort, does better on moist land, even sustaining long-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 59

continued overflow. Orchard grass, on the other hand, a good, all-
around sort, will grow on dry, sandy loam ; fairly well on poor clay and
better on rich bottoms, so it be not overflowed, and it even endures the
shade of trees.

344. Q. On what soil does Blue grass do best ? Blue Grass.
A. Blue grass doing best on limestone soils is not a good hay producer,

as it is a light cropper, difiicult to cut and harder to cure, but it is emi-
nently a pasturage and lawn grass. It is an easy grower, flourishing for
a limited time on gravels, bottoms and clays, while on limestone soils
grazing fields have been known to remain in perfection for sixty years.
It will not stand severe droughts, but resists any amount of frost, while
continued pasturage only makes it better.

345. Q. What are the best grasses for pasturage ? Pasturage
A. Upon the length of time which it is contemplated to allow the pas- ''**^***

turage to stand depends, to a large extent, the varieties of grass seeds to
mix, as for example, Timothy, Italian Rye grass, Cocksfoot, White and
Alsike clover, are all very quick to develop and suitable for a two or
three years' shift, while for a longer term should be added Blue grass.
Red Top, Foxtail, Tall Fescue, Perennial Rye, Lucerne and Red clover.

346. Q. How many grass seeds are in a pound ? Seeds to the
A. One who sets himself to estimate the number of seeds in a pound *"^ '

will soon come to a realization of the necessity for a perfect seed bed, that
the small seeds be not lost in crevices or under clods, for he will find the
seeds to number in a pound of Tall Fescue 250,000, Red clover 280,000,
Orchard grass 600,000, Timothy 1,250,000, Blue grass 2,375,000, Rough
Meadow 3,000,000 and Red Top 8,000,000. Can it be expected that over
10 per cent, of the seeds ever make a plant, considering the rough tillage
and careless sowing of the ordinary farmer ?

347. Q. Why do you advise the sowing of so much grass seed to the Grass

acre ? Seeding.

A. Thin seeding of grass is a most serious mistake, as a poor stand of
grass only leaves room for weeds to occupy the space. Consequently we
advise a very liberal application of seed, for under the best conditions, as
respects preparation of land, distribution of seed and covering, a large
portion of the seed will get too deeply covered over to vegetate.

348. Q. How deep should grass seed be covered ? Depth of
A. Not more than one farmer in a hundred by his field practice shows Cohering.

any indication that he realizes the necessity of shallow covering of grass
seeds, for they generally put on a harrow and cover to a depth of one to
two and a half inches, delicate seeds not one-thirtieth of an inch in diame-
ter. Certainly the greater part never shows a green blade, for farmers
seldom stop to consider the delicate nature of the seeds they commit to
rough, cloddy earth.

349. Q. Instruct me what mixture of grasses will do best in my section ?
A. AH prescriptions for grass seed mixtures are little more than gener-
alities, for no one can compile a table or seriesof tables showing thevarie-

60

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Grass Seed
Prescription s

Heredity.

Variability.

Market
Gardening.

Cucumber
Salting.

ties positively adapted to different localities, for soils even on adjoining
fields frequently vary so much as to require an entire change in the varie-
ties and proportions. How much more difficult to prescribe for unknown
soils, some perhaps a thousand miles away. The geological constitution,
rainfall, drainage, altitude and objects sought, whether for hay or graz-
ing, all need to be studied. The best guide is the experience of others in
one's location, but even that is often misleading, for we have grown grand
crops of Timothy and Clover in a section of a Southern State, where the
farmers seldom saved any hay, trusting almost entirely to corn fodder —
of course there were no barnyards worthy of the name in that locality.

350. Q. Is there much dependence to be placed in heredity ?

A. While heredity is a well-marked principle in vegetable life, there is
a constant tendency to depart from established forms, sometimes for the
better, oftener for the worse, for reversion is generally downward in the
scale of excellence. The reversion may be in the form of a wild sport, or
a distinct reproduction from a late or a very remote ancestor. Were it
not for heredity the seed growers' labors would be in vain, but fortunately
the man who finds a good thing in the greenhouse, flower garden, or veg-
etable garden, or in the field, can seize upon it, and by the aid of heredity
fix, after a time, its valuable qualities for the benefit of all. But it may
be well to say he meets with many instances of curious reversion to orig-
inal types.

351. Q. Can the Market Gardener do anything to prevent variation
from true types ?

A. No. Every experienced seed grower knows that the purest crops
will sometimes develop the wildest sports ; for instance, a crop of cabbage
of apparently absolute purity may produce a few plants like collards, the
result alone of reversion. The seed grower is powerless to prevent this
natural physiological freak, and the gardener who knows anything of
seed production and vegetable variability deals more rationally with the
seedsman than he who knows nothing of such matters, but thinks nature
should produce plants all as much alike as nickels from the mint.

352. Q. What is the value of the Market Gardening industry in the
United States ?

A. Upward of $100,000,000 is invested in this industry, the annual pro-
ducts reaching a value of over $75,000,000, the product of over half a
million acres of laud. The annual expenditures for fertilizers being
$10,000,000, the number of hands employed being 250,000. The number
of horses and mules employed being 75,800. The value of the imple-
ments used being $8,971,000. In tlie Philadelphia district, which includes
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, there are employed 70,000
men at an average cost for daily wages of $1.19 ; the annual production
being of the value of $21,000,000.

353. Q. What is the extent of cucumber pickling?

A. While gardeners may have some idea of the extent of cucumber
culture for sale as a vegetable, little is known about the development of

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 61

its culture for salted pickles. Our neighbors over in New Jersey were for
years the largest producers of cucumbers for salting, growing annually
200,000 bushels, but now, by reason of Western competition, not a quarter
part of that quantity is grown. Long Island, in the East, is the largest
producing section, the New York crops being estimated at 200,000,000
pickles. These pickles bring the farmer from 60 cents to $1.25 per thou-
sand. The Ohio Valley is the next important pickle section. After that,
the country near the south end of Lake Michigan. These various crops
of cucumber sections amount to about 1,500,000 bushels of 300 to the
bushel, consequently 450,000,000 cucumbers. Large quantities are ex-
ported to Europe.

354. Q. How many cucumber pickles can be had from an acre ? Cucumber
A. A good crop of cucumbers when gathered of pickling size produces ^»ckiestothe

from 100 to 175 bushels to the acre. A bushel contains about 300 pickles.
Some cultivators have claimed to produce over 100,000 pickles to the acre.
When pulling pickles the work should be done cautiously, that the
vines be disturbed as little as possible, for if they be uninjured they will
produce many successive pickings. The pickles should be slipped from
the vine by the thumb and finger without raising or disturbing the vine.

355. Q. Can beet root sugar be made in the United States ? Beet Sugar.

A. During the past fifty years a hundred efforts have been made to pro-
duce beet sugar in the United States, but nothing really practical, cer-
tainly nothing profitable, was accomplished till after 1880. During the
Summer of 1893 seven beet sugar factories were in operation in the United

States, one in Virginia, two in Nebraska, one in Utah and three in Call-
fornia. The money Invested in these several factories is estimated at
$2,500,000. In the Autumn of 1893 and Winter of 1894 the output of
sugar from these seven factories was 45,000,000 pounds.

356. Q. Is the canning of peas increasing ? Pea Canning.
A. The quantity of pea seed annually sown has reached vast dimen-
sions, quite 250,000 bushels being annually planted. In the Chesapeake

Bay district alone it is estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 bushels are sown
each year on from 20,000 to 25,000 acres from which product 75 per cent.
is put into cans. The quantity of product of peas greatly varies under
conditions, sometimes 100 bushels of green pods to the acre being har-
vested, at other times only thirty or forty. The canning of peas has de-
veloped on a par with that of tomatoes, the number of tin cans put up in
the United States being estimated at 18.000,000 to 20,000,000. The Balti-
more city canners use annually about 400,000 bushels of shelled peas,
which they put into 7,000,000 cans.

357. Q. Is there any machinery made for shelling green peas? Shelling Peas
A. Formerly all peas for canning had to be picked from the vines by

hand and shelled by hand. Some years ago machine shellers or pea
hullers were invented for opening the green pods, 100 bushels an hour or
1000 bushels a day, and grading the soft peas into three classes according
to size. These machines do the work better than when done by hand.

62

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Tomato
Introduction

Seasons for
Vegetables.

and doing the work so quickly the peas are put through the process of
canning before they take on a dry or soiled appearance, which is often
the case when done by the slow system of hand shelling. But now the
large growers never pull a green pod, but by machinery pull up the vines
from the entire field when they are bearing the greatest number of devel-
oped pods, and then passing the vines through the machine break off the
pods, open them, and grade the peas.

358. Q. In what year were tomatoes generally introduced as a vege-
table ?

A. In this country tomatoes came into general use about 1845, and have
grown so rapidly in favor that no fruit or vegetable which can be named
has to such a rate increased in cultivation, the fruit, either natural or
canned, being used in all seasons — indeed, quite as much in Winter as in
Summer.

Tomatoes were first packed in tin and glass by Mr. Harrison W. Crosby,
at Lafayette College, Pa., in the year 1848. He sold his product at fifty
cents a can ; now the price is seven cents — the result of the adoption of
steam machinery and intense application to the cheapening of costs.

The canning of tomatoes has now reached enormous proportions. In
1894, 138,000,000 tins were put up, and the vegetable, as it is classed, is in
as common use during Winter as in Midsummer.

359. Q. What are the seasons for various vegetables ?

A. Formerly esculent vegetables could be divided into classes, as re-
spects seasons of use, and a period named covering the time of sale of
each class — as, for example, peas were only offered during May, June and
July, and so with cucumbers, tomatoes, egg plants and beans ; they all
had their seasons, and, when they were past, only those people who had
greenhouses could expect more until the return of the corresponding sea-
son of the following year. But now that is a condition of the past, for
Georgia and Florida, with their evergreen productiveness, have been able
to revolutionize the old conditions by sending to the Northern cities, even
when snowclad and icebound, the fruits of balmy Summer.

360. Q. Where do the earliest new potatoes come from?

A. Large quantities of new potatoes reach the markets of New York
and Philadelphia from Bermuda, Charleston, Savannah, Florida, and still
later, but before Northern crops mature, from Virginia and Maryland ;
and there is room for more, at paying prices, and they who present them
early, of good sorts and in good condition, need not apprehend a want of
customers.
SweetPotato. 361. Q. What is the relation of the white potato to the sweet potato ?

A. The white potato has become a product of the world, cultivated
equally successfully from Chili to Alaska, from the Cape of Good Hope
to Iceland. The sweet potato, on the other hand, belongs to a distinct
botanical order ; in fact, if one is a potato the other is not. The tubers
of the white potato are underground branches, while the tubers of the
sweet potato are enlarged roots. The sweet potato is very sugary as well

Potatoes.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 63

as farinaceous. It appears to have been found both in tropical America
and part of Asia. The early Spanish voyagers to America took it back
with them to Spain, where it was cultivated as early as 1526, or forty or
fifty years earlier than the white potato.

362. Q. How many marketable ears of green corn should we get to the Com.
acre, and how long does it require from planting to marketing ?

A. Of the medium and large varieties of sugar corn, 75 to 80 bushels,
or 8000 to 9000 marketable ears can be raised to the acre. Corn when
planted in Midsummer does not mature as quickly as when Spring planted,
as the climatic conditions are not so favorable, not of such a forcing na-
ture as the early Summer influences, hence from 10 to 15 days must be
added to the calculation of the time required to develop a crop, for in-
stance, the Evergreen Sugar corn, which, when planted, say May 15, will
mature under usual conditions in 85 days, should be given 90 to 100 days
as an Autumn crop.

363. Q. What is the extent of the corn canning interest ? Corn

A. The canning of corn for "Winter use has become a most important Canning-
industry, employing thousands of hands and a large capital invested in
buildings and machinery. The number of tins put up during the Sum-
mer of 1893 was 93,000,000, and it is expected that during the Summer of
1895 the number of cans may reach to 125,000,000. New York State cans
the largest quantity, with Maine not far behind and Maryland as a third.
The operations in the State of Maryland of growing the best vegetable
sweet corn for canning have reached a most notable development. One
Maryland farmer and canner alone purchasing for several years the seed
corn to plant 1100 acres of his own land and 3400 acres of contracted crop
grown by neighbors ; every grain from which 4500 acres he put up in tin
cans,

364. Q. What are the manufacturing uses of corn ? Uses of
A. A large quantity of corn is used in making starch. This article is Com.

more generally used in the arts than is realized, for it enters in the filling
of many woven fabrics, in the manufacture of candy, some candy being
over half starch, in baking powders, paper and a thousand things as an
adulterant, 250,000,000 pounds of starch being annually consumed in vari-
ous ways, and all of which, in this country, is made principally from pota-
toes, corn and some from wheat. About 10,000,000 bushels of corn are
annually used in the manufacture of starch. A comparatively new use
for corn is that for brewing or beer making, quite 30,000,000 bushels
being used annually. Corn used for brewing has first to be deprived of
its cuticle and its germ to get rid of the native oil, for if over 2 per
cent, of oil remains the corn is unfit for beer. The degerminating ma-
chines are very ingenious.

365. Q. What is the geographical centre of the corn-growing interest ? ^'"^^

A. In 1829 the centre of production was this side of the Alleghenies. ^^****'**'"*'"*
In 1839 over the mountain. In 1849 in Ohio. In 1889 in Illinois. In 1894
in Iowa. None of these districts which once led have fallen behind in

6i

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

production ; only been eclipsed by the phenomenal production and ex-
tended areas of the newer States ; for instance, Tennessee, which fifty
years ago ranked first, now ranks only ninth, though its production of
corn is double what it was then.

366. Q. How much corn is grown in Europe?

A. The growth of corn in Europe is steadily increasing, now reaching
the quantity of 300,000,000 bushels, or say one-seventh of that of the
United States. Tlie European countries producing the largest quantity
are Austria Hungary, with 100,000,000 bushels, followed by France with
80,000,000 bushels. In the Mediterranean countries there are annually
sown many million acres in forage corn. The grain there does not reach
perfection as in this country, for it is always imperfect in form and gen-
erally stained and moldy, for the climatic conditions of the nights there
are not at all favorable to the ripening of the grain. The undeveloped
and moldy grain when consumed for a length of time develops a disease,
to treat which special hospitals have been established.

367. Q. When was the first vegetable analysis made ?

A. The first accurate analysis of a vegetable was not made till the year
1810, and so late as 1838 the Gottingen Academy offered a prize for a sat-
isfactory solution of the question whether the ingredients of the ashes are
essential to vegetable growth. The last forty years have placed agricul-
ture upon a scientific foundation, and the strides of development have
been wonderful. The investigations of all scientific men, in these partic-
ular pursuits, have served to dispel ancient theories and develop a knowl-
edge of the systems of germination, subsistence and growth.

368. Q. What are the essentials to plant subsistence?

A. It is, fortunately, the case that nearly every soil holds more or less of
the inorganic parts essential to vegetable growth. They may be briefly
enumerated as sulphates, phosphates, nitrates, chlorides and carbonates
of potash, lime, magnesia, iron. Where an ingredient is deficient in
quantity it can be readily aided by specific application. The time has
come when every farmer must possess some knowledge of natural his-
tory ; he must prepare himself, if he expects to follow his pursuit success-
fully, as much as does the mechanic or the professional man.

369. Q. After a market gardener purchases or rents his land, how much
ready cash must he have per acre to properly work the land ?

A. From Florida the reports of the necessary capital per acre in land
or its rental (not of labor), fertilizers, tools, implements, seed and all the
appliances, average ninety-five dollars ; from Texas, forty-five ; from
Illinois, seventy dollars ; from the Norfolk district of Virginia the reports
vary from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five dollars, according
to location, and from Long Island, N. Y., the average of estimates at
the east end are seventy-five and at the west end one hundred and fifty
dollars.

Market gardeners living five miles out of Philadelphia, on tracts of
twenty and thirty acres, devoting all their land and energies to growing

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 65

vegetables, sometimes paying forty dollars per acre for rent, estimate that
the necessary capital averages from two hundred to three hundred dollars
per acre, according to the amount of truck grown under glass. These
same men calculate the profits to be from one hundred and fifty dollars to
two hundred and fifty dollars per acre.

370. Q. How long has the cabbage been in cultivation? Cabbage.
A. The cabbage plant in a cultivated form was known two thousand

years ago, and at the time of Pliny six varieties were in cultivation. The
forms of the Brassica family are varied, some varieties being cultivated for
their leaves, as the cabbage, where the terminal leaf-bud alone is active ;
others for their inflorescence, as the cauliflower, where the terminal leaf-
bud is checked ; others for oil, as rape, where the terminal and lateral
leaf-buds are active ; others for their enlarged roots, as the turnip, where
the leaf-buds are the same as in rape.

371. Q. What is the most profitable branch of market gardening ? Market

A. In the North the most profitable vegetable growing nowadays is ^^ardenmg,
done under glass, both in hotbeds, hothouses and coldhouses — profitable
because the producers are limited in number, and as the products are sent
to market at seasons when the markets are not glutted — out-of-season
vegetables they may be styled. The most successful of such men have
standing contracts with the best hotels, clubs and restaurants.

372. Q. Has there been much progress in methods of vegetable culture ? Vegetable

» i-> a Culture.

A. Vegetable culture at the present day is quite distinct from that of
the past, for while gardening has been from ancient times termed an art,
it may now, in its advanced condition, be termed an art supported, ex-
plained and dignified by nearly every science, all being called upon to
account for the natural phenomena of plant germination, vegetation and
maturity.
378. Q. Are all plants vegetables in a general sense ? Definition of

A. The term Vegetable is very indefinite ; for instance, the oak tree ^^^ " **
equally with the tomato is classed as a vegetable, the cucumber equally
with the orchid, the seaweed equally with the mushroom ; consequently,
in a general sense, trees and seaweed are vegetables as well as cabbages
or watermelons, those which are edible being termed esculent vegetables.
There is a more critical division of those which are used as food and
which may be said to pass through the kitchen for some preparatory
preparation, culinary vegetables being the term used to denote this class.
This classification omits from the class of culinary vegetables those pro-
ducts (as apples, grapes, pears) which can be used without cooking or
without preparation of any sort, but this in fact is not yet correct, for the
line of separation is best determined by physical characteristics.
374. Q. What is a culinary vegetable ? Cuiina

A. The private gardener, the market gardener, the commission mer- Vegetables.
chant, all class as vegetables the potato and the tomato, the cabbage and
the pea, the beet and the egg plant, the celery and the corn, the lettuce
and the bean. This for all practical purposes is right, but physiologically

66 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

is all wrong. Why? Because the egg plant, the tomato, the bean, the
corn, are fruits. How many persons have ever taken the trouble to think
over the difference between a culinary vegetable and a culinary fruit?
What is that difference ? It is a difference of origin of development. A
culinary vegetable is properly the result of abnormal development of
vegetable tissue, as in the enlarged leaves of the cabbage or the thick
roots of the beet or carrot, while a culinary fruit, as also all fruit, is a
growth following and resulting from inflorescence, as after the flower
comes upon thp same stem the egg plant, pepper, tomato, cucumber,
watermelon, pumpkin. All these are fruits just as much as the apple,
pear or grape. Some people might say fruits only grow on hard-wooded
plants, as on trees and bushes, but not so, as a pea is a fruit, an ear of corn
is a fruit. Nevertheless, these distinctions do not make tliem any easier
or harder to produce, do not make them more or less profitable.

What is 375. Q. What is agriculture ?

Agricuitare? A. Agriculture refers to the tillage of the earth over broad fields, as for
the raising of cereals, grass or tubers. Gardening, on the other hand,
refers to the culture of small inclosed areas. This application of the lat-
ter term was quite correct originally, but it is now common for mere
vegetable gardens to equal the area of ordinary grain and grass farms,
requiring in their cultivation a degree of general intelligence, technical
skill, and an amount of activity, implements and labor exceeding that
expended upon large farms.

■What is 376. Q. What is gardening ?

Gardening? j^ Gardening again differs from farming in the range of varieties culti-
vated. The farmer may devote his acres to those crops to which the land
is adapted, but the gardener is expected to grow the entire list of vegeta-
bles, without reference to the composition of the soil. Such cultivation,
to be successful, must be to some extent scientific. The cultivator must
possess a knowledge of the facts and principles which underlie his art or
he will certainly fail. Gardening, whicli formerly was described as agri-
culture upon circumscribed areas, has ever shared with the latter the
esteem of mankind. Twenty-four hundred years ago Socrates said, "It
is the source of health, strength, plenty, riches and honest pleasure ;"
and a poetic English writer said, " It is amid its scenes and pursuits that
life flows pure, the heart more calmly beats."

Market 377. Q. How does market gardening differ from private family gar-

Gardeuing. dcning ?

A. It is done on a larger scale. Market gardening on a large scale may
be termed commercial gardening, as the operator must, to a certain extent,
be a merchant, fully alive to the import of fluctuating prices and quick
to change his point of shipment or his consignee.

Market 378. Q. Is market gardening overdone ?

Gardening. A. With tlie seven millions of people of Philadelphia, New York, Bos-
ton, St. Louis and Chicago, and the many millions more in other cities
and towns which look to these great distributing markets for supplies,

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 67

there is at seasonable periods little fear of gorging the markets if the fruit
and vegetables be well chosen and well packed. Observe the use of the
expression "seasonable periods," as of course no Southern grower of
tomatoes, cucumbers, egg plant, or other garden products would ex-
pect to find a market for his goods in Northern cities when those mar-
kets were in receipt of the same class of garden truck from territory
adjacent, the products of which would be fresher and cheaper than those
from distant points. The shipper of fruits and vegetables from the South,
attempting to cope with the garden States of New Jersey and Delaware,
when their products are being sent to market, would only have his trouble
for his pay.

379. Q. What is the advantage of cropping cow peas? Cow Peas.
A. To improve the fertility of the soil by the concentration near the

surface of potash and nitrogen, seized upon and brought to the surface
by the roots vertically descending to depths below and by the accumula-
tion of nitrogen drawn from the air and held by the root galls — a notable
peculiarity of this crop. The cow pea, which la properly a bean, will
grow upon the poorest soils, and if the crop be repeated for two or three
years will fit them in an astonishing degree for ordinary farm crops.

380. Q. How many families of cow pea are there? Cow Pea
A. There are two marked divisions ; first, the Crowder, in which the Varieties.

seeds are packed so closely in the pods as to be flattened on the sides ;
second, the Kidney formed. These two classes are divided into forty or
fifty sub-varieties of various colors, habits, and periods of maturity. To
produce a dense mass of vine to cover the ground and decay or to be
plowed under green the best are the Calico, Black, Red Ripper and Clay.
If to produce a big yield of dry seed, the best is the Unknown and the
Clay. To produce a crop for ensilage the best are the Clay and the
Whip-poor-will. For all-around purposes the Clay is as good as any.

381. Q. Is it advantageous to manure land intended for a crop of cow^j^^pg^g^
peas?

A. The primary object of growing cow peas is to add fertility to a poor
soil. Now if the soil is very poor but a small crop of cow peas can be
expected and consequently a small return of fertilization to the soil. It
is therefore advantageous to force them by manure if the soil be exces-
sively poor. The manure most elTective in the forcing of cow peas is
superphosphate of lime.

382. Q. In what way does clover, cow peas, and plants of the bean i.egume
family improve the fertility of soil ? FamUy.

A. On the roots of the legume family are developed certain organisms
which acquire and hold nitrogen faster than other portions of these
plants ; these are root galls or tubercles, the product of microbes or bac-
teria. These root galls vary in number in different locations, but on
plants of legume family are always present to a greater or lesser extent.
As they have the faculty of absorbing nitrogen from the air, those plants
which produce the greatest number of these galls are recognized as nat-

68

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Wasbed
Lands.

Inoculation

of

Soils.

American.
Liocust.

Insects.

Pea Bug.

Squash
Borer.

ural, highly nitrogenous fertilizers. It is theorized that the number of
these galls can be increased by treating the soil with microbe water. If
this be correct a new system of intense and cheap soil fertilization will be
developed.

383. Q. What is the best course in the recovery of washed soils or
eroded lands ?

A. The first thing to do is to incorporate organic matter to the fullest
extent possible. A soil charged with humus has the ability to absorb
water and hold it till it percolates to depths below instead of running
away. The second thing to do is to plow and cultivate the land so as to
avert the rapid surface flow of rain water ; this can be done by terracing
and by side-hill ditches and contour cultivation.

384. Q. What is meant by the inoculation of soils?

A. It is a theory that a soil is rendered more fertile for a specific crop
by transferring to it a top-dressing of soil from a field on which the pre-
vious year had been grown a crop of the new crop contemplated. For
instance, if it is intended to put a field down in clover, it is theorized that
the plants will be more vigorous and the crop altogether larger if the field
be top-dressed or manured with soil from a field which was in clover the
previous year.

385. Q. What kind of an insect is the American locust ?

A. It may be described as a large grasshopper, common throughout the
Southern States and sometimes occurring in New York and New Jersey.
It hibernates as an adult and lays eggs in May and June, the young in-
sects appearing in July and August. It manifests a decided preference
for corn, but feeds ravenously on oats, clover, potatoes and foliage of fruit
trees. It seems to prefer elevated food, as watermelons, cucumbers and
other low-growing plants often escape.

386. Q. How can insect depredations best be kept in check on the
farm ?

A. By Autumn plowing, which exposes the soil to the killing effects of
frost. By rotation of crops and thorough cultivation.

387. Q. How does the pea bug get into the pea ?

A. The flying mother insect deposits her eggs upon the outside of the
pods when the pods are less than half grown. The eggs, under the heat
of sun, hatch, and the young grubs eat their way sometimes directly into
the young peas ; at other times they mine along the inside of the pod,
remaining there for days before they enter the pea. These weevil are
propelled by false or temporary legs which they drop with their false skin
when they enter the pea, not till it is nearly fully formed. After that
they assume the ordinary form of larva of the weevil and remain till
Autumn, when they eat their way out.

398. Q. My Boston Marrow and Hubbard squash last August were
destroyed by the squash borer; what shall I do this year to protect my
vines ?

A. Kill the adult red-legged insects, which can be done about sunrise

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 69

and sunset, as they can then be found sitting quite torpidly on top of the
leaves.

389. Q. Are there plants which eat insects ? Carnivorous
A. Yes. Not exactly as animals eat their food, but certain plants are"^^******

possessed of an irritability which gives power of seizing upon such insects
as come within reach of the flowers, which possess digestive powers
which chemically and functionally are somewhat parallel to the powers
possessed by animals.

390. Q. Is there in any of the States a quarantine against insects, the insect
same as the European nations raised against certain American insects, as Quarantine.
the potato bug, for example ?

A. Only in California ; but there ought to be in every State, for we are
not only disseminating all the insects of our American climates, but im-
porting and distributing among ourselves all the insects and fungous dis-
eases of the world,

391. Q. Do growing crops alone diminish the nitrogen of the soil to Nitrogen,
the extent of their nitrogenous composition ?

A. No. Nitrogen disappears more rapidly than the crops alone remove
it. It leaches away by drainage, and as the humus of the soil diminishes
so does the nitrogen. It increases in a marked degree when the land is
put down in clover or plants of that class. The principal loss of nitrates
takes place in Autumn, and this can be partially provided against by the
Summer and Autumn cultivation of nitrate crops, as clover. Southern
cow peas, mustard, rape — green manures for plowing under after frost.

392. Q. What shall I do to make my truck farm pay a better profit? Trucking
A. Stop the cultivation of crops not clearly profitable. Cease making "^^ *'

experiments on a large scale. Reduce the wages expended. Use the best
labor-saving machinery and plant only the best seeds — and they are
Landreths'.

393. Q. Why do garden seeds kept throughout the Summer months in i-pss of
the cotton States so generally lose their vitality? ** ^

A. Because they are subjected to an amount of moisture in the air
which causes the germs to partly start into growth, weakening them for
future effort.

394. Q. Last year I got from you ten pounds Boss watermelon seed and irregular
planted about half of it, the crop resulting being phenomenally fine re- Oermlnation.
specting quantity, size and quality. This year I planted the remaining

half on adjoining field and it is just as inferior as it was last year superior.
How is this ?

A. It is all due to surrounding circumstances, as respects soil, rainfall,
temperature, time of planting, kind of fertilizer and the influence of the
previous crop. Every practical gardener has had this same experience.

395. Q. In what way do crops feed upon the organic compounds applied Plant Food.
to or native to the soil?

A. They do not feed upon them as they are, but only after they have
been reduced to their more simple component parts. These transforma-

70

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Drought.

Paris Green.

Crops on
Sand.

Bean Rust.

Cauliflower
Sou.

Color in
Plants.

Weevil
in Beans.

Pea Bug.

tions are largely effected by inferior organisms which inhabit all soils.
There is accordingly much study applied to soil microbes, cryptogamic
plants, many of which have power to an unusual degree of seizing upon
and fixing the nitrogen of the air as well as that in the soil.

396. Q. Why do some crops resist drought better than others ?

A. Because of difference in length in the descending roots. Wheat,
for instance, resists drought better than grass because it roots deeper. All
plants root more deeply than generally believed, for they have vertically
descending filaments which escape the notice of the ordinary observer.

397. Q. How can I prevent Paris green from burning the foliage of
plants ?

A. A chemical change can be brought about which reduces the burning
quality by adding one pound of lime to every twenty gallons of the Paris
green solution.

398. Q. Can crops be grown on perfectly pure sand by the aid of arti-
ficial manures ?

A. Yes ; Prof. Ville, of France, demonstrated that on washed sands
he could grow good crops by adding to it component parts of plant foods,
the product varying according to the component parts applied, as potash,
lime, nitrogen, or phosphoric acid. These singly, or in twos, or in threes,
or altogether ; 3-inch culture, however, would not be profitable.

399. Q. Can the bean rust be prevented ?

A. It can be reduced by soaking the seed for one hour before planting
in some of the copper baths, as copper carbonate or copper sulphate.

400. Q. What is the best soil for cauliflower ?

A. The soil is not so important a matter as the subsoil and the atmos-
phere. Cauliflower to be of first quality should be grown quickly, and
a quick growth is advanced by a copious supply of water which the roots
can draw upon ; consequently the plants do best where water occurs at a
short depth beneath the surface. As to the location, the plant does best
in a salt atmosphere.

401. Q. Is not the variability in the color, form, odor and secretions of
flowers a provision of Nature to please the eye of man ?

A. It appears not to be that alone, but to be essential to the plants' ex-
istence, as all these qualities referred to aid in the work of insect pollina-
tion and result from insect pollination.

402. Q. How can I kill weevil in my beans?

A. If you can put them into a large glass bottle or a tin-lined chest or
in a tin-lined chamber or room, you can then subject them to the fumes of
bisulphide of carbon, deadly to animal life. One quart of the liquid
allowed to volatilize, which it does quickly, is enough to kill the bugs
in fifty bushels of seed exposed twenty-four hours to its influence.

403. Q. Will seed peas which have been cut by the pea bug germinate
as freely and produce as well as peas which have not been effected by the
bug?

A. Take one hundred peas and it will be observed they have not all

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 71

been entered exactly at the same place ; in some the germ has been de-
stroyed— they certainly will not sprout ; in some the interior is more eaten
out than in others — they afford less food support to the young plant,
which may never be healthy ; others of the one hundred are uninjured as
a seed stock.

404. Q. What is the remedy for destroying insects in small seeds — the Bisulphide.
weevil in dried beans and the bugs in dried peas ?

A. Subject the seeds in a closed vessel, as a pot, chest, or tight room,
to the fumes of some deadly chemical preparation, as cyanide of potassium
or carbon bisulphide. Don't inhale it yourself.

405. Q. What is the difference between a True Top onion set and the Top Onion.
Egyptian or Winter Top onion set ?

A. The True Top onion set is the product of the True Top large onion,
which is planted out in the Spring to produce sets on top of the stalks
(they do not produce black seed) The sets are planted to produce large
onions. The Egyptian or Winter Top onion set is nothing more nor less
than the original True Top onion, which has been allowed to remain in
the ground year after year and has degenerated into a half wild condition;
the sets will not produce a large onion, but grow in bunches in the form
of scullions. Until they were introduced as a novelty they were regarded
as utterly worthless. The two may be detected by cutting the set of each
in half— the True type will cut to one eye and the Egyptian will cut to
several eyes or hearts.

406. Q. Is it possible to bring the Egyptian or Winter onion back to its Winter
original form — that is to say, a True Top set, which will produce a large, Onion.
perfect onion ? If so, what is the procedure ?

A. It is not worth the effort. Better get the true stock at once, even if
at double prices.

407. Q. Will seed beans which have been cut by the weevil germinate ? Weevii.
A. A proportion will; but no one till after trial can tell what that ii^ Beans.

proportion will be. The weevil in beans is more severe than the pea bug
in peas, as the bean weevil is more ravenous, eating a larger proportion
of the interior of the bean, and frequently where one insect is present in
a bean there are several, which in time will completely honeycomb the
bean. Weevily beans should at once be burned up.

408. Q. What causes my radishes to be so scabby and eaten ? Radish.
A. Worms and grubs. No help for the present crop. Next year dress

the field with lime and salt and avoid stable manure ; use commercial fer-
tilizers broadcasted early in the season. Use kainit.

409. Q. Can I grow chicory as a substitute for coffee ? Chicory.
A. Yes ; a very good substitute. It is grown exactly like carrots or

parsnips ; it should be taken up in October and sliced and dried. The
Landreths cultivated it during the war, in the sixties, and sold the roots
to coffee men.

410. Q. Does not self-blanching celery, both white and golden, show a Celery,
tendency to produce green plants ? Seif-bianch-

72

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Cutshort
Beans.

Brocootf.

Rhubarb.

Drought.

Turnips.

Celery,
Self-blanch-
ing.

Firming the
Sou.

Bean Bust.

A. Yes, to revert to the original form ; and it is well it does so, other-
wise they both would become so dwarfed and puny as to soon go out of
use.

411. Q. What does the word " cutshort " signify, as applied to cornfield
beans?

A. Cutshort and snapshort both signify the same thing ; that is, a bean
producing a green, edible pod, without a string, but they are not always
stringless.

412. Q. What is the difference between broccoli and cauliflower?

A. Broccoli, though quite similar to cauliflower, is a plant taliing longer
to mature. It does not make so dense a head as cauliflower and the head
is often divided in sections by leaves protruding through it. Broccoli, as
a rule, is cultivated in a more southern climate than cauliflower.

413. Q. Can a fixed variety of rhubarb be obtained from seed ?

A. Not absolutely ; but great improvements have been accomplished in
the last few years. A positively fixed type can only be had from cuttings
from roots from an approved type.

414. Q. What effect has drought upon root crops, such as beet, carrot
and parsnip?

A. It reduces the product and results in a crop of dry, tough, inferior
roots and a stock more likely to decay than if it had been grown under
healthy conditions. Drought sometimes causes them to shoot to seed the
first season.

415. Q. With a few exceptions, all my neighbors who planted Lan-
dreths' turnip seed failed to obtain good bulbs, only strings ; but I got a
crop. How is that ?

A. Unfavorable circumstances as respects soil and other conditions. If
one man succeeded and others did not, the trouble was not with the seed
but was local ; anyone should clearly see that.

416. Q. Is self-blanching celery tender and crisp, or must it be earthed
up like other celery ?

A. The term "self-blanching" only indicates that the plants have a
habit of developing stocks and leaves from which a portion of the usual
green color has been eliminated by selection. The blanching habit does
not indicate a crisping habit ; that is only obtained by exclusion from the
sun, banking in earth or between boards.

417. Q. I noticed the other day an old trucker running a wheelbarrow
over his beet seed which he had just finished drilling. What was the
object?

A. To "firm " the soil ; that is, to compress the seed and soil that they
might be brought into contact to hasten germination and facilitate vege-
tation.

418. Q. My beans this year have all spotted. Can I do anything
another year to prevent the recurrence of this effect ?

A. You can adopt a preventive. Bathe the seed beans before sowing
in a copper solution, but don't spray the vines when they are bearing

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 78

marketable pods with such a solution, as the pods might carry the
poison.

419. Q. How is it seed sown in the drill very often comes up in spots ? vitauty.
Does it indicate unvital seed ?

A. The question almost answers itself, for, if the seed sown sprouted
thickly in several places or even in one place, it demonstrates that had the
conditions been good there would be an equal germination all over the
field ; that the seed was all right — something else was wrong.

420. Q. How is it that double varieties of flowers can't be produced Doable
from seed with the same reliability as single sorts ? oweis.

A. Double flowers are abnormal, that is, out of the ordinary form.
The sexual organs often becoming entirely changed in development, often
indeed becoming leaves themselves.

421. Q. Can I apply Paris green to my small cabbages? Paris Green.
A. Yes, when they are very small, as subsequent rains will wash out

from the joints any of the mineral poison which may lodge there; but
when the plants are heading it would be criminal to apply Paris green.

422. Q. What is the cause of smut on onion sets and how can it be pre- Onion Smut.
vented ?

A. It is a fungous growth which may be partially prevented by bath-
ing the seed in a copper solution and by spraying the plants with the
same. A soil-dressing of salt has a good effect. It can be had in kainit,
which also contains potash.

423. Q. Can crops be bred to ripen earlier by selecting seed stock from Unripe Seed,
plants not thoroughly ripe?

A. Yes, a very noticeable result can be obtained after three or four
years of diligent application. By that time the stock is truly a pedigree
stock and will develop a character of marked earliness compared with
the stock from which it was originally derived.

424. Q. What is your experience with Winter or turf oats ? Winter Oats.
A. On our Virginia plantations we have cultivated it for thirty years

with great satisfaction. It produces a greater number of pounds to the
acre of heavier seed than we can obtain from any other sort. We sow it
in September and it gets a foot high by December. It can be pastured
all Winter but not after starting in the Spring.

425. Q. How is it that to obtain a continued bloom from sweet peas the Sweet Peas
flower should be regularly cut oflf ? Blooming.

A. Simply because sweet peas are like everything else : if allowed to
develop seed the drain upon the vitality of the plant absorbs all its vigor
and flowering almost ceases. It is the same with cucumbers. Cut off" the
young, green pickles, and there will be continuous blooming ; but permit
the first settings to form large fruit and the blossoms will cease to appear.

426. Q. Can sweet peas be successfully grown in the Southern States ? p^*** ^®**
A. Certainly ; but the seed must be sown in November, December or

January, that the vines be developed in the early Spring months.

427. Q. Is it possible to keep watermelons till January and retain their Melons.
flavor?

74

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Radish.

Egg Plant,
Sowing Seed.

English
Beans.

Harlequin
Bug.

Nomencla-
ture.

Agriculture.

A. Melons of late development picked before they are ripe, can, in an
ice house, be kept till January, with the flavor still attached to them.
But a man's desire for watermelon is not so keen when the thermometer
is below the freezing point as when it is up in the nineties. Consequently
he turns from it with the remark that it hasn't any flavor.

428. Q. I have a patch of radish grown from a remnant of your seed
left over from last year ; then the crop was fine, but this year the plants
shot up to seed without making bulbs.

A. This will sometimes happen, and is a consequence of local condi-
tions. Each case has its own explanation. Such results are unprofitable
to market gardeners, but they never give us any concern, for we cannot
control soil treatment or meteorological conditions.

429. Q. Down here in Florida I have to sow my egg plant seed in
August. What is the best system?

A. The worst system is to plant the seed in a permanent location out in
the open sunlight. If that must be done, shade the planting spots with
palmetto leaves. The better system is to sow the seed in cold frames,
where they can be watered with manure liquid and removed to the field
on a rainy day. Still better to spot the seed in strawberry boxes or pieces
of tough turf and nurse them in the shade till three inches high. Set out
in this way and they won't know they were moved.

430. Q. In England, as a boy, I was almost brought up on broad beans.
Why are they not used here ?

A. Very few people in America use English broad beans, as the cut-
short or snap-short varieties are superior. Americans have no room for
them; in fact, they won't stand an American sun.

431. Q. We are troubled in our cabbage fields this year with the green-
and-yellow bug, somewhat like the large ladybug, but bigger — better
described as like a terrapin. What can we do to destroy it ?

A. It is the harlequin bug, one of the worst of all insect pests. It is a
juice sucker and cannot be destroyed by mineral poisons applied to the
foliage, as it does not eat foliage but pierces the stem and extracts the sap.
It can only be destroyed by hand picking and by suffocating it by clog,
ging up its breathing apparatus.

432. Q. Why is it that there is so much confusion in the names of veg-
etables ?

A. The irregularities of nomenclature can never be regulated by law
or by the resolutions of horticultural associations, for dealers in seeds
prefer to add to the confusion rather than lessen it. New names to old
things give opportunities for new descriptions and higher prices.

433. Q. Is agriculture a failure ; that is, is it unprofitable ?

A. That depends on what constitutes success. If success alone means
a big fortune and prominence in city life, then agriculture is indeed a
failure ; but if it means a healthy bodily constitution, a fair accumulation
of worldly effects, and a spirit more contented than possessed by men in
other pursuits, then agriculture is a success.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 75

434. Q. What is an onion set? What is an
A. It is a bulb prematurely matured, a consequence primarily of pecu- Onion Set?

liar climatic conditions, and secondarily a result of thick seeding and con-
sequently starvation. It is not a perfectly matured bulb, else, however
small, it would produce seed the following year. On the other hand, it is
not a bulb arrested in its growth by violence, as by pulling up and wring-
ing off the green top, as is generally the case in the treatment of Western
onion sets, often sold at what appear to be cheap prices, but really very
dear prices. The leaves of a true onion set always die down perfectly.
The climate of Philadelphia for one hundred years has been recognized
as particularly adapted to the growth of onion sets ; indeed, there, noth-
ing but sets can be grown, for try ever so hard and frequently to produce
onions from seed, they seldom or never can be developed. Every plant
makes a set ; the climate forces them to it. The writer does not believe
good-keeping sets, or first-class sets in any particular, can be grown in
any locality where full-sized market onions can be grown, the conditions
required for the one crop being antagonistic to the other.

435. Q. Does the color of beet leaves indicate the color of their roots? Beet l^eaves,
A. Not always. Some beets, as the Dark Ked Turnip forms, have dark Color.

red foliage, but the Long Blood Red, having a flesh fully as deeply col-
ored as any other, has leaves of varied colors, some red and some green,
the flesh of the green-leaved roots being fully as red as the red-leaved roots.

436. Q. What does the word "Savoy" signify, as applied to spinach savoy.
and cabbage ?

A, The expression "Savoy" was first attached to cabbage when a
small, crumpled-leaved variety was introduced from the kingdom of Savoy,
Italy. Subsequently David Landreth found a spinach with crumpled
leaves which he called "Savoy spinach," because it was crumpled like
the leaves of the Savoy cabbage.

437. Q. What does the word " Cos " signify as applied to lettuce ? Cos.
A. It is applied to a sort which originated, or at least was found, on

the Island of Cos, near Malta, in the Mediterranean sea.

438. Q. What is the effect of nitrate of soda on garden vegetables ? Nitrate of
Can it be used to the exclusion of other fertilizers ? Soda.

A. Nitrate of soda is valuable for its nitrogen, one of the four princi-
pal essentials to plant growth, which are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash
and lime. This being the case, nitrate of soda, it will be perceived, is not
a complete food and should not be depended upon exclusively. Nitrogen
can be had in many other forms.

439. Q. Why do cabbage plants so often act differently as respects the Cabbage,
production of heads when the treatment has been just the same?

A. Variability as respects heading, as evinced by a want of uniformity
of heading or period of heading, is all due to conditions, many of them
beyond our observation. Ofttimes an injury is received by plants in the
seedbed, or it may be frost, or excessive drought, or it may be the con-
dition of the land into which the cabbage was transplanted.

76

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Plant
Degeneracy.

Cheat.

Transplant-
ing.

Fences.

Cloche.

Insects or
Fungi.

Clover or
Peas.

440. Q. Do plants run out or degenerate ?

A. Families seldom run out, but varieties frequently do. For instance,
the potato as a family was never equally developed in all good qualities,
as at present, but there have been hundreds of instances of particular
sorts of superlative merit which are now forgotten varieties which degen-
erated and passed out of use. Such degeneracy applies more particularly
to those specific sorts of plants as are propagated by grafts, buds or tubers,
as in those cases the collective diseases of more or less remote parents,
scions or buds are often passed down through a long line of progeny. Not
so with other plants produced from true seed, as either through the male
or female flower the blood by impregnation is changed and the product
generally strengthened physically.

441. Q. Does wheat turn to cheat?

A. No. Seed of cheat, a hardy grass, botanically known as Bromtis
sicalinus, is often sold in imperfectly cleaned seed wheat, and being more
hardy than wheat survives wheat in severe Winters. The ignorant
farmer then jumps to the idea that his wheat has turned to cheat.

442. Q. Why are root crops intended for seed nearly always trans-
planted ?

A. To induce a degree of debility of constitution — to check the luxuri-
ance of growth, all of which induces a disposition to shoot to seed and
helps to maintain a standard quality.

443. Q. What is the cost of supporting the fences in the State of Penn-
sylvania ?

A. The official report places the annual repairs at about ten millions of
dollars.

444. Q. What is a cloche ?

A. A large bell glass about sixteen inches high and broad, used in
France to force vegetables. A gardener with 100 of these can surpass all
his neighbors in forcing early vegetables. Particularly valuable in the
forcing of salads, radish, and in the protection of vines from cucumber
bugs.

445. Q. Which is most to be dreaded by the gardener — destructive in-
sects or fungi?

A. Fungi most decidedly, as it works so insidiously. Insects can be
seen and partially understood, picked off, frightened oflF, killed ofi ; but
parasitic fungi may be present for weeks without it being recognized.
There are many forms of fungi feeding upon the leaves and roots of
garden vegetables, most of them fortunately too trivial to deserve notice.

446. Q. What advantage has Scarlet clover over Red clover for plow-
ing under as a green manure, and has one or either any advantage over
Southern cow pea ?

A. No advantage, except that the Scarlet clover is very rapid in devel-
opment, attaining in a season, from August to June, as much development
as Red clover would arrive at in twice the time. Cow peas sown in July
can be plowed under in September and October, and are very good ferlil-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 77

izers, being potash gatherers from the soil below and nitrogen gatherers
from the air above.

447. Q. How late can Crimson clover be successfully sown in the lati- Scarlet
tude of Savannah ? Clover.

A. Sown as late as November 1st, it should attain a sufficient vigor of
growth to make a big crop in the Spring ; sown later, it will of course
flourish, but a big crop of hay to cut or green stuff to plow under cannot
be looked for unless the plant had a good start in Autumn. No striking
fertilizing results can be expected from a plo wed-under crop of Scarlet
clover where the sowing of seed has been late and where the plowing
under is early, as its merit consists in the collection of potash from the
soil by the roots and of nitrogen by the leaves and roots for storage in
the root galls, and all this cannot be done to any great extent between
November and April. Sown in August the results are better.

448. Q. Is there a marked difference in the habit of tomatoes grown Tomatoes,
upon light and heavy soils ?

A. Grown on light soils the vines are puny, the foliage small and sparse,
the fruit small but very early, and because of thin foliage liable to sun-
burn. On heavy soil the conditions are just the contrary.

449. Q. What is your experience in the use of Lobos guano? Lobos Guano
A. It is that it is not worth quarter the money asked for it. No reliance

can be placed upon it for the making of a crop. Put your money in some
other fertilizer.

450. Q. My cabbage plants in beds, now ready for setting in the field, cabbage
are ruined by black stem, the bark of the stem slufflng off. What is the Fungus,
trouble and what the remedy ?

A. The disease is a parasitic fungous growth. There is no remedy that
would justify the assumption of subsequent expenses on your cabbage
crop. Better pull up and burn the entire lot of plants and purchase
healthy plants from an unaffected bed.

451. Q. What is leaf blight ? teaf Bligbt.
A, It is a decay consequent upon arrested nutrition following insect or

fungous attack. Leaf blight as an expression does not indicate the nature
of disease, for the blight may follow ravage by either insects or fungus.
Leaf blight on garden vegetables is generally the outward sign of a para-
sitic fungus known also as rust, mold, smut, mildew. It is difficult to de-
scribe the almost inconceivable smallness of the most destructive garden
fungi.

452. Q. How is a resin wash made? Resin Wash.
A. Take three pounds pulverized resin, one pound pulverized caustic

soda, one gallon fish oil, and, with sufficient water, boil till dissolved and
an hour longer. Add twenty gallons of water, strain and spray. This
is a good insecticide for sap suckers, acting by contact.

453. Q, Name a good preventive against the cutworm in corn. Cutworm,
A. Kainit, a potash salt which destroys the worm while at same time

stimulating the plant to vigorous growth.

78

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Grubs.

Arsenical
Poisons.

Grasses

for

dry soils.

Fangi and
Insects.

Plant
Diseases.

Pea Mold.

Rye Grasses.

Half-ripe
Seed.

Vegetable
Diseases.

454. Q. What is the best application to check the ravages of under-
ground grubs ?

A. Kerosene emulsion has been found beneficial upon root-crops of
radish, and will be found offensive to all grubs.

455. Q. What are arsenical food poisons ?

A. Paris green, arsenite of copper, white arsenic, arsenious oxide, Lon-
don purple, calcium arsenite.

456. Q. What kinds of grass are best adapted for culture in arid dis-
tricts ?

A. Those with deeply-penetrating roots and others with thickened or
fleshy, creeping, underground stems. Gramma, Buffalo, Bermuda, and
Wire grass are the best. Shallow-rooted, broad-leaved grasses won't do.

457. Q. Do insects dwelling upon garden vegetables eat fungi growing
upon the same plants?

A. Yes ; very generally ; and a portion not eaten are taken up by the
hairs of insects and thus carried from the infected plants to healthy ones.
Some garden fungi germinate and continue to grow upon the bodies of
insects.

458. Q. Is disease hereditary in plants ?

A. By analogy it is so, and it is believed observations have proven it.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of caution in the selection
of healthy seed.

-^59. Q. What causes pea mold ?

A. There are several forms of pea mold. One developed principally
under conditions of damp, close atmosphere and retarded by dry weather.
Another form is favored by dry atmosphere and retarded by rain. Noth-
ing can be offered as a satisfactory remedy to destroy the fungus while
preserving at the same time the value of the crop.

460. Q. How can I distinguish Perennial Rye grass from the Italian ?
A. The bases of the Perennial are red and flat. The bases of the Italian

are red and perfectly round.

461. Q. Can a variety of a garden vegetable be made earlier by growing
it from half-ripened seed ?

A. Experiments have demonstrated this to be so, provided the system
be continued for three or four successive generations. Plants grown from
such pedigree seed show an early habit because they are weak and puny.
Continued long enough the resultant crops would become exceedingly
unproductive.

463. Q. Are diseases of vegetables increasing?

A. No ; not to any great extent. But the close intercourse of remote
sections of the country tends to introduce into every section the fungous
diseases of every other section, and under the conditions of greatly in-
creased scientific agricultural knowledge the public has its attention
called to what some years ago would have passed unnoticed. Then as
now nearly every esculent vegetable was subject to disease, in fact it is
rare that any garden vegetable can be found not supporting a foreign

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 79

growth. In the Bloomsdale experimental garden every plant of every
family may be said to be affected either iu leaf, stem or root, and the
plants there grown are healthy as can be found anywhere. Smut or mil-
dew or some other form of disease may be said to be always present.

463. Q. The United States Secretary of Agriculture declares that the The Plow.
plow is a humbug. Is he correct ?

A. After he invents a better implement he will be a better authority.
Political commissioners do not make practical farmers.

464. Q. "What is the potato vine blight? Potato Blight
A. The potato is subject to the attacks of several parasitic fungi, two

or more of which attack clover and lettuce, appearing as patches of white
film, which, in a few weeks, spread over the entire plant, extract the
juice and reduce the vigor of the plant so that growth of tubers ceases.
There is no remedy for this disease, and to prevent its spread exceedingly
great caution has to be observed in burning all the stems of the infected
crop.

465. Q. Where does the white grub come from? White Grub.
A. The while grub is the larv?e of the familiar June bug, or, more cor-
rectly. May beetle, which, in the early Spring months, enters dwellings

in the evening, swarming about the lights, buzzing loudly and violently,
knocking themselves against the walls and ceilings. The perfect insect
feeds upon the foliage of trees, and is more or less destructive. The eggs
are deposited in the earth, and hatch in about a month. The grubs re-
main in the ground, doing little injury till the second Summer, when
they attack the roots of plants. They remain as grubs in the earth for
nearly three years, by which time they reach a length of two inches, and
often appear in such great numbers as to do immense damage.

466. Q. My asparagus, now about ready to send to market, is being de- Asparagus
stroyed by the beetle. What can I do ? Beetle.

A. Nothing can be done to destroy the asparagus beetle upon the mar-
ketable shoots, as mineral poisons would be destructive to human life, and
offensive applications would destroy the value of the crop.

Asparagus beds past the marketable condition of growth can be dressed
advantageously with a solution of a table^poonful of Paris green in
four gallons of water, which will be generally found to kill the slugs.
Sometimes effective results ensue by the application of freshly slaked lime i

while the dew is on them, for the least particle of lime touching the skin
of a slug is certain to kill it.

467. Q. Why do turnips, beets and carrots keep better some seasons Turnip
than others ? PreserTatlon.

A. Probably because better protected from frost — or possibly no amount
of protection would have prevented decay, as the roots may have been
sickly, consequent upon an unhealthy growth, the result of Autumn
weather conditions, either too wet or too dry, or damage by insects or
fungous growth.

80

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Exhaustive
Crops.

Green 4gg q q^^ j consider a mass of hog weeds plowed under as a raanur-

Manuring. j^g of the land ?

A. Yes ; to a small extent ; but not so etBcient as if the plants plowed
under were noted as collectors of potash from soil depths or of nitrogen
from the air. The benefit from a mass of common surface weeds turned
under is more from aerating the soil than from any direct fertilizing effect.

469. Q. Why do some crops seem to poison the land, unfitting it for
others ?

A. Crops all act differently upon the soil by taking from it different
foods or different proportions of food ingredients. Consequently they
leave the land in different conditions. Cabbage, for instance, is such a
rank feeder that it takes everything it can reach. Spinach the same.
Other crops seem to render the soil inert. Millet, for instance, is so slow
to cover the land that the soil suffers by exposure to sun, wind and rain;
it becomes baked and after the millet is cut off seems almost dead.

470. Q. What are bulbs ?
A. Fleshy buds, generally underground, but sometimes formed on the

surface. They might be termed abbreviated stems of plants.

471. Q. What is the reason that wheat and other grains are so valuable ?
A. Because of the starch they contain in admixture with nitrogenous

matter.

472. Q. Why is a potato called a tuber?
A. The natural formation of the potato has to be called something, and

it might just as well be called a tuber as something else. The word is
from a Latin root, to swell. It is an enlarged underground bud.

473. Q. Do plants breathe ?
A. Certainly ; though not exactly in the sense of animal respiration.

Plants, however, take in air and decompose it, retaining certain portions
and rejecting others.

474. Q. How much water do plants exhale ?
A. Wheat, peas, beans, during their season of growth transpire quite

two hundred times their dry weight of water. An acre of cabbage will
transpire in a day over ten tons of water.

475. Q. To what distance can pollen be carried ?
A. Cases are recorded where pollen has been wafted thirty miles.

476. Q. How long will pollen retain its vitality ?
A. Sometimes for months— quite long enough to transport it from one

country to another.

477. Q. What are the longest instances of retention of vitality in seeds?
A. Seeds of leguminous plants have been known to sprout after being

kept for sixty years. Rye has been known to sprout after one hundred
and forty years.

478. Q. How can the germination of seeds be stimulated ?
A. By soaking in weak chlorine water.

Sowing Seeds 479. Q. Is it the best policy in sowing small seeds, as turnip, spinach,
carrot and beet, to drill on the level or on ridges.

Bulbs.

Starch.

Tubers.

Inhalatios.

Exhalation.

Pollen.

PoUen.

Titallty.

Germination.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 81

A. On ridges ; but not more than of one inch elevation when settled
down. On ridges the seed just drilled is not subject to flooding by rain
and throughout the season is more easily liept clean.

480. Q. When spraying plants how much solution should be applied? Spraying.
A. Just enough to thoroughly moisten the foliage of the plants.

481. Q. Can a fungus working beneath the surface of the soil be checked Fungus,
by Bordeaux mixture ?

A. Very doubtful.

482. Q. Can cabbage plants which have developed club root be made Club Root
healthy by any application ? *°

A. No. Once the fungus has taken hold of a cabbage plant no appli- ^ *^®'
cation will make that plant healthy. As in the case of turnips, a preven-
tive is an application of sixty to seventy bushels to the acre of air-
slacked stone lime.

483. Q. What is the best remedy to use in the treatment of club root in ciub Root
turnip ? in

A. There is no remedy to arrest the disease, but air-slacked stone lime turnip.
used at the rate of seventy to eighty bushels to the acre, and applied be-
fore the sowing of the seed, retards if it does not destroy the fungus.

484. Q. How can I make Bordeaux mixture ? Bordeaux
A. Provide half sections of whisky or vinegar barrels in which to do Mixture.

the mixing and contain the solution. Take as follows, or in greater pro-
portions, five pounds sulphate of copper, five pounds quicklime, twenty-
five gallons water. Dissolve the sulphate in two gallons of hot water,
slack the lime in two gallons of water, and thoroughly strain it to remove
all sediment, and when cold mix it with the solution of sulphate. Then
mix the whole in the remaining twenty-one gallons of water.

485. Q. What is the name of the bean rust and how can it be prevented? Bean Rust.
A. The bean rust is a fungus known as anthracnose, and it attacks not

only the pod but the foliage and stems. A partial preventive is, as soon
as the young plants are above ground to spray them with Bordeaux mix-
ture and repeat the application every week.

486. Q. What is the best spraying solution to stop leaf blight on potato Spraying.
vines ?

A. Bordeaux mixture reduced to half strength by the addition of water.

487. Q. Do you advise a bath for potato seed before planting ? Potato Bath.
A. Yes ; plunge the cuttings for two or three hours in a solution made

in the proportion of ten ounces of corrosive sublimate to eight gallons of
water. This deadly poison is a preventive of the fungus causing scab
on young potato tubers.

488. Q. What should be done to drive off the squash bug ? Squash Bug.
A. As these bugs are sap suckers no application of mineral or other

poisons is effective. The only remedy is after the crop is over to destroy
all vines and avoid planting on the infected ground.

489. Q. What is the best remedy against the striped cucumber beetle ? cucumber
A. There is no best remedy. Spraying with arsenites applied from an Beetle.

82

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

tiarrae.

Squash Borer

Melon Lice.

Kerosene
Emulsion.

Kerosene
Emulsion.

Use of
Paris Green.

Destruction
of

Insects.

Plant Foods.

under-spray nozzle is sometimes effsctive, as they are consumers of leaf
tissue, but they are insects hard to fight.

490. Q. What are larva) ?

A. Worms or grubs hatched from the eggs of insects. The larvae form
is that in which insects do most damage to vegetation. After a time the
larvfe assume the quiescent state, or pupa form, in which they exist during
Winter, to appear in Spring in a fourtli form, the perfect or imago form.

491. Q. Is there a remedy against the squash vine borer?

A. None yet known. An effective plan is to kill the moths, which can
be done after sunset, when they roost in full view upon the leaves.

492. Q. My melons are covered with lice. What shall I do ?

A, Spray with one pound whale-oil soap dissolved in six gallons of
water, or with fish-oil soap dissolved in eight gallons of water ; or, still
better, use kerosene emulsion. Bordeaux mixture or Paris green is of no
value in this case, as these insects are of the sap-sucking order.

493. Q. How is kerosene emulsion made ?

A. Take a half pound of common softsoap and one gallon of water,
and, by agitation, make a complete sud. Mix this sud by violent churn-
ing with two gallons of kerosene. It is a contact insecticide of great
penetrative power and must be diluted by ten or twelve parts of water.

494. Q, Against what insects can I use kerosene emulsion ?

A. It is eff"ective against all garden lice, rose slugs, leaf rollers, root
maggots, hairy caterpillars and scale insects.

495. Q. Can anything be done to prevent Paris green from burning
foliage ?

A. One pound of Paris green to one hundred gallons of water is a
rather strong solution, but to one hundred and fifty gallons of water one
pound of Paris green is safe. Safety can be assured by adding four gal-
lons of limewater.

496. Q. Can all garden insect pests be destroyed alike ?

A. No ; because there are two distinct orders of insects destructive to
garden vegetables — the leaf eaters and the sap suckers. The first take
leaf matter into their stomachs and can generally be poisoned by a variety
of substances, as Paris green, London purple, etc. The second order can
only be destroyed by bodily contact with some application which, if suc-
cessfully applied, stops the breathing apparatus of the insects. This ma-
terial may be preparations of oil, tobacco dust, pyrethrum, lime.

497. Q. Can vegetables and farm crops be divided into classes, each re-
quiring distinct food?

A. Partially so, and divided into three classes :

1. Those requiring an excess of potash, as peas, beans, potatoes, clover»
flax.

2. Those requiring much nitrogen, as beets, cabbage, oats, wheat, bar-
ley and hemp.

3. Those requiring laige amounts of phosphoric acid, as radish, turnip
and corn.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 83

498. Q. What are the average commercial prices of fertilizers, taking Value,
each separatel}^ ? Plant Foods.

A. The average prices of the leading four manurial substances are :

Bone phosphate of lime 1^ cents per pound.

Nitrate of potassa 6^ " "

Nitrate of soda 2^ " "

Sulphate of ammonia 3^ " "

Sulphate of lime ^ " "

499. Q. Is nitrogen as necessary as writers make out ? Talue of
A. Nitrogenized matter in the soil is absolutely necessary to the growth ^^*^*'S®"*

of vigorous crops ; and the fact cannot be too strongly impressed on every
gardener that nitrogen and phosphoric acid are the leading manurial ad-
ditions required, and a cheap and efficient method of application should
occupy his constant attention.

500. Q. How do plants get nitrogen ? Source of
A. Nitrogen, in the form of atmospheric ammonia, is largely obtained Nitrogen.

"by plants through their leaves, but to an equally large extent does the
soil get it by absorption, and, if covered, it holds it ; and in this simple
fact is one of the several secrets of green manuring, the entire benefit not
being through plant absorption.

501. Q. Where can I get nitrogen ? Nitrogen
A. Assimilable nitrogen may be had, to the extent of twenty per cent.. Supply.

in sulphate of ammonia, fifteen per cent, in nitrate of soda, fourteen per
cent, in nitrate of potassa, or it can be had in dried blood or flesh from
slaughter houses or fish factories. The nitrates, preferably that of potassa,
are best for vegetables, especially root crops ; the sulphates for the cereals.
503. Q. Where can I get potash ? Potash

A. Potash is contained in wood ashes, but is obtainable in larger quan- Supply.
titles in nitrate of potassa, commonly known as saltpetre, which salt
should contain forty-five per cent, potash, with the valuable addition of
fourteen per cent, of nitrogen.

503. Q. Where can I get phosphate of lime ? Phosohate
A. Phosphate of lime can be had, to the extent of fifty per cent., in Supply.

bone dust, seventy per cent, in bone ashes and bone black, and in super-
phosphate of lime, which is phosphate of lime treated with sulphuric
acid, and which, when properly done, should contain forty per cent, of
soluble phosphate.

504. Q. How and where is lime found ? Ume.
A. Lime is found chiefly in the carbonate of lime, as chalk or limestone,

and in the sulphate of lime, as gypsum or plaster of Paris. The sulphate
is best, as most soluble.

505. Q. Where do plants get their food ? Plant Food
A. Plants draw some food from the air by their leaves, but most from

the earth by their roots. The composition of the air is quite constant,

84

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Cabbage
Worm.

Kerosene
£i>iolsion.

Cabbage
Liouse.

Onion Fly.

Seed to Sow
100 Yards.

but the character of the soil is exceedingly variable, and crops grown;
continuously upon a soil draw out one or more of its nutritive principles ;
consequently, it can only be reinvigorated by returning to it those ele-
ments removed in the crops.

506. Q. What shall I apply to my cabbage to kill the green worm ?

A. The cabbage worm is a green caterpillar, feeding on nearly all
broad-leaved vegetables, especially cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce. It
is the larvse of a white butterfly of European origin. Paris green will
poison these caterpillars, but, except in the very early stages of cabbage
growth, it is unsafe to apply so poisonous an article to a plant which
might enfold the poisonous compound within its leaves and kill those who
afterwards ate the plant. Pyrethrum has been found effective.

507. Q. Are there several ways of preparing kerosene emulsion ?

A. Yes ; several ways of arriving at tlie same end — as take : One part
sour milk, two parts kerosene, thoroughly mixed by rapid agitation till
the combination forms a creamy liquid. To this add fourteen parts water,
and apply by an injector, or dash over the vines with a broom. The
emulsion may also be made with : One quart soft soap, one quart kero-
sene, two quarts water mixed by forcible agitation, and diluted with
sixteen quarts of water. Apply to the plants forcibly with a syringe.

508. Q. Can I kill the cabbage louse?

A. The Downy cabbage louse is a mealy, soft-bodied insect, sometimes
appearing in thousands, swarming* like bees upon the leaves of young
cabbage, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. It can be checked off by the
application of kerosene emulsion, but it is diflicult to drive it off entirely.

509. Q. Can the ravage of the onion fly be stopped ?

A. Equal parts of wood ashes and land plaster dusted very thoroughly
on the young plants will generally drive them off. An application of
some efficiency is, one part of Paris green, mixed with forty or fifty parts
of land plaster or flour.

510. Q. Give me a rule to indicate how much seed to purchase for a
garden, the length of the rows in such case being one hundred yards.

A. One ounce of cabbage, cauliflower, coUards, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, egg-plant, kale, kohl-rabi, pepper. All these to be transplanted.

Two ounces of onion, leek, lettuce, endive, parsley, canteloupe, squash,
pumpkin tomato, turnip.

Three ounces of carrot, cress, celery, chervil, watermelon, parsnip^
herbs.

Four ounces of cucumbers, nasturtium, rhubarb, salsify, scorzonera.

Five ounces of beet.

Six ounces of radish, spinach.

Eight ounces of corn salad.

Twelve ounces of okra, asparagus.

One pint of field corn.

One quart of sugar corn.

Three quarts of bush beans, peas.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 85

511. Q. What are the signs for planting garden ? Planting
A. In the Northern and Middle States the average season for open-air Signs or

seeding may be indicated by the blooming of well-known trees and *'"** *'
shrubs, though seeding may be made with profit both before and after
such periods, as it is a safe rule in gardening to divide the risks. For in-
stance, when the peach is in bloom sow those seeds which will germinate
in cold soil, resist slight frost, as peas, spinach, onion and leek. When
the oak bursts its leaf buds sow beet, carrot, celery, lettuce, parsnip, rad-
ish, salsify, turnip, tomato. When the blackberry is in bloom sow those
seeds which will thrive only in warmer soil, as the bean, corn, cucumber,
canteloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, okra.

512. Q. How much time must I give my seeds to sprout before deciding Germination,
to break up the land and sow a second time? Time

A. The time required in germination greatly varies, dependent upon *
the species of plant, the age of the seed and the surrounding conditions
of soil and atmosphere. Under favorable circumstances, peas, beans and
corn should sprout in three days ; cabbage, turnip and radish in four
days ; vine seeds, such as melon, squash and cucumber, in five or six
days. Germination, however, does not guarantee vegetation, as seeds
showing a germ may never appear above ground if physically weak, if
too deeply covered, or if the soil is hardened by rain or heat.

513. Q. Which is the greater loss to the garden, unvital seed or impure Unvital or
gggfl 1 Impure Seed.

A. If seed prove unvital a new purchase can be made and a new plant-
ing follow within a few days ; but impure seed is more deceptive, as its
very vigor secures the crop attention and labor to be subsequently found
wasted. Of the two evils, unvital seed or impure seed, the first, by all
odds, is the least.

514. Q. Must I thin all my crops, or leave some just as they sprouted ? Tiiinnins
A. Do not hesitate to thin out, no matter how sturdy and attractive the ^**P^'

plants may be, for the plant which crowds another is simply a weed.
This thinning should be done before the plants be drawn or elongated in
their stems or leaves, or they will ever afterwards show the injurious
effects of crowding. It may be done by cutting out with a hoe or knife
those plants which are not needed elsewhere, or, if considered worth
transplanting, they should be carefully dug up, that the finer roots be
preserved. No vegetable or flower will properly develop if crowded ;
certainly one symmetrical plant is worth a dozen sickly ones, not only
for market but in general satisfaction.

515. Q. Why do some seed merchants commit errors in filling orders Errors by
for seed ? Seed

A. Because their employes are human. When seed buyers are ready ^®^**^*"***
to pay better prices for seeds perhaps the merchants can afibrd to employ
angels to put up the orders ; angels may be infallible. "To err is human ;
to forgive, divine."

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Bermuda

Grass.

RntaBaga. 516. Q. Why don't I have better success with ruta baga in Georgia?

A. Because you sow it in July — so early that the plants get necky,
badly shaped and tough. In Virginia we have grown healthy, sweet ruta
bagas sown as late as August 25th.
Canteioupes. 517, Q. After the first picking of our crop of canteloupes, which maybe
fair, we seldom get any others not injured by the worm. Is there a
remedy ?

A. No ; no remedy that is satisfactory.

518. Q. I have never been able to get seed of the Bermuda grass that
will germinate, though I have bought it from the most reliable seedsmen.
Please explain the cause of failure to germinate.

A. We have never had any seed that would germinate over ten per
cent. It cannot be saved in a mature stage, as it drops as soon as ripe,
and must therefore be cut green, hence the want of vitality. Setting out
the roots is the only royal road to success with this grass.

519. Q. Is there such a variety as White asparagus ? If so, is it any
more desirable than the Green-top or Purple ?

A. Yes ; there is a variety, of fixed habit, producing white shoots. It
has the appearance of having been bleached and, consequently, is quite
salable.

530. Q. Are large canteloupes as sweet as small ones ?

A. Yes. There is no sweeter melon than the Large Montreal, which
all travelers to Canada never cease to dwell upon. The sweetness de-
pends more upon soil, long hours of daylight, atmospheric conditions and
variety than upon size.

521. Q. What causes stiff-necked onions?
A. If the entire crop is stiff-necked it may be attributed to a want of

such fertilizer, natural or artificial, as is desirable to stimulate quick devel-
opment of crop, or it may be imported seed. If only a per cent, is stiff-
necked it may be attributed to thick seeding, or to a mixed lot of seed.

522. Q. My asparagus bed is now seven years old and gooci as ever ;
how long may I expect it to continue productive ?

A. If the bed is properly plowed and cleaned, and top-fertilized every
autumn, it should last for five or six years more. Salt at the rate of five
bushels to the acre is good for asparagus, it stimulates the asparagus, a
salt plant, and retards weeds.

523. Q. How many times will wheat start and stop, and start and stop,
and start again ?

A. Five or six times — seemingly a provision of nature to fit the most
important cereal for growth under adverse circumstances. No other
seed has this quality to so notable a degree. Oats, rye and barley possess
it to a less extent.

524. Q. How can I distinguish the True Top onion from the False sort ?
A. By cutting the sets transversely — that is, across or between crown

and bottom. If the True Top set, only one heart will be seen ; but if the
False set, often three or four hearts will be seen, and when such a set is
planted each heart makes a set.

Asparagus.

Canteloupes.

Onions.

Asparagus.

Wbeat.

Top OnioB.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 87

525. Q. Is it true that melon seeds several years old are usually more oui Melon
productive than fresh seed ? Seed.

A. It is true ; and the reason is that fresh seeds have often so much
vigor that the plants produce little but stems and leaves, while old
seeds of less vigor put out many blossoms which set and develop fruit, all
borne upon short-jointed vines.

526. Q. Why don't cauliflower flourish equally with cabbage ? Cauliflower.
A. Because cabbage will grow in any locality where the soil is good

and the manuring suflicient, but cauliflower requires particular condi-
tions, flourishing best in a humid and salt atmosphere.

527. Q. Is there any vegetable growth which appears to be animal. Fungus.
A. Yes ; several. One quite common in some gardens is that fungus

which develops the club root in cabbage, turnip and carrot. The spores
have tail-like appendages which by vibration move along over wet surfaces
in a life-like manner.

528. Q. What is the best all-around fertilizer for vegetables ? Stable
A. Well-rotted stable manure from corn-fed and well-kept horses. Manure.

It contains all the ingredients necessary to a perfectly satisfactory growth.

529. Q. Which is the superior for cattle feeding — beets, carrots or Beets,
turnips ?

A. Turnips are the least nutritious, but the quickest and cheapest to
produce. Carrots are very fattening, but are expensive, and they require
much attention. Beets, more properly Mangold, are the most bulky pro-
ducers, are rich in sugar and are easily harvested and preserved. They
are the best for cattle food.

530. Q. Can a trucker rely upon phosphates to develop his crops? Phosphateo
A. Yes; if the soil contains nitrates and potash from previous manur-

ings. Most commercial superphosphates contain valuable proportions of
nitrogen and often some potash. Heavy soils should have stable manure
or green crops plowed under to lighten them. Commercial fertilizers do
not aerate the soil ; under their continued use soils become very hard.

531. Q. Does potash help in growing sweet corn ? Potash.
A. Certainly. Wood ashes, it is well known by all farmers, has been

found very efiiective as a fertilizer to corn crops. But it is not a stimulant
to early growth, is only felt very late in the season.

532. Q. How can I rid my land of white grubs ? Grubs.
A. Apply lime and salt, and plow deeply just after frost, and turn the

furrow slices upside down so that hard frost may kill the pupa of all in-
sects awaiting the return of spring.

533. Q. Why do wrinkled varieties of peas mildew more than hard, Pea Mildew.
round-seeded sorts ?

A. Mildew is a cryptogamic development which for some reason occurs
more frequently upon broad-leaved peas than on those of smaller foliage.
Early peas hardening their foliage early do not afford so favorable a field
for the spread of the fungus.

88 QUERIES AND ANSWERS,

Cabbage 534. Q. What is the best remedy against cabbage worms?

Worms. ^ gijl ^|jg g,.g^ brood with Paris green, applied to the cabbage before

they begin to head up. After that stop the Paris green and use hot water
and kerosene emulsion.

Earthworm. 535. Q Does the angle worm injure vegetables?

A. Not to any extent. It does more good than harm, as it works
numerous passages through the soil, facilitating drainage, admitting
moisture to roots of plants and air to part with its nitrogen.

Cauliflower. 536. Q. Why cannot I grow cauliflower in central Pennsylvania as
successfully as I formerly did on Cape Cod?

A. Because of deficiency of humidity in the air — particularly because
of want of salt in the atmosphere and partially because of want of salt in
the soil. Cauliflower is of the cabbage family — a salt water plant — and
seems particularly to flourish in salt-air districts. Try it on a meadow.

Hog Manure. 537. Q. Why does hog manure cause the soil of gardens to produce
wormy vegetables and club root cabbage ?

A. Because the rich manure attracts flying insects to deposit their eggs
—the grub from which eat anything and everything green, soft and juicy.
The same over-rich masses of manure develop fungous growths, and club
root in cabbage is a result of fungus.

Radishes. 538. Q. Why is it that some soils won't grow radishes ?

A. Radishes will grow, but not good ones, on soils affected with grubs,
worms, ants. These conditions are brought about by the use of pig
manure or night soil.

Potatoes. 539. Q. Why are some potatoes soggy while others, grown same season

in same locality, are dry and mealy ?

A. Some varieties of potato are never mealy ; and sometimes the
choicest sorts are soggy on account of unfavorable soil or season.

Periods for 540. Q. In making repeated sowings during Summer and Autumn of

Sowmg. seeds for kitchen garden, how late can I continue to sow ?

A. Firstly, determine the average dates of slight frost in Autumn and of
killing frost. Secondly, divide your vegetables into the two classes of
those which will at once succumb under first frost and those which will
recover and continue growth till the killing frost. Among the first will
be vines, beans, egg-plants, okro, corn ; among the second, lettuce, spin-
ach, kale, turnip, cabbage. Thirdly, observe the time required in each
instance to mature for table use and plant accordingly.

Onion 541. Q. I drilled two patches with your Strasburg Yellow onion seeds

Germination, for sets, sixty pounds to the acre. One quickly developed finely formed
sets ; the other dragged along and finally resulted in almost a complete
failure. Why was this?

A. This often happens, and is a consequence of conditions, sometimes
of soil and atmosphere, sometimes of period of sowing, oftener from
insect or fungous ravages.

Rusty Beans. 542. Q. Will beans saved from a crop of rusted beans produce in their
turn a crop of rusty beans?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 89

A. Quite possible if the season is a damp one. A preventive is to
give the seed a bath for an hour or two in Bordeaux mixture just before
planting.

543. Q. What is the right time to remove suckers from sugar corn ? Com Suckers
A. Just before coming into blossom, if you must do it ; but let them

alone and save yourself trouble. The sorts which sucker most are the
heaviest yielders. Suckers do not reduce the crop of ears, but the removal
of the suckers reduces the bulk of dry forage.

544. Q. How many bushels of marketable onions can be grown to the Onions,
acre?

A. Five hundred to six hundred bushels is an excellent crop, but eight
hundred is common and twice that number have been reported.

545. Q. Why do early varieties of corn smut more than late sorts ? Corn Smut.
A. Because they have less vigor of constitution.

546. Q. Is Peruvian guano a perfect manure ? Guano.
A. That depends upon its grade. When of first quality it certainly is

an eflFective fertilizer, but is more a stimulant than a perfect manure, as a
thoroughly efficient manure continues to supplement itself over a long
period ; this the Peruvian guano does not.

547. Q. Should an asparagus bed be allowed to go to seed '? Asparagus.
A. Yes ; that is only natural. The plants if not permitted to develop

bush and seed would be unhealthy. After frost kills the vines cut them off.

548. Q. What makes radishes pithy ? Radish.
A. Generally a want of proper nutrition ; on fairly rich land, where the

plants grow quickly, the roots will always be solid.

549. Q. Why is it that cucumber growers who ship slicing cucumbers cucumbers
prefer the White Spine ? for

A. Because the White Spine is a good producer and because it retains Siwpping.
its green color during the period of shipment. That is all, and it is
enough.

550. Q. Can the watermelon be enlarged in size by hybridizing it with ivatermelon.
the pumpkin ?

A. Yes. The market gardeners of New Jersey understood this years
ago, and they frequently planted a few Mammoth pumpkins in their
watermelon patches that they might produce seed which the following
year would produce Mammoth watermelons. This, however, was always
done at the expense of quality.

551. Q. Will squash and pumpkin hybridize ? Hybridiza-
A. Yes ; but only occasionally ; not nearly so freely as supposed by *»<"*•

those who have a smattering of scientific knowledge. When these fami-
lies do hybridize the results are wild or unfixed in habit, and sometimes
the seed from such hybrids will not germinate. Watermelons will mix
very occasionally with pumpkins same as squash.

552. Q. Is agriculture a science or an art ? Agriculture,
A. It is an art, aided and abetted by science ; chemistry, mineralogy, What is it?

physiology, botany and entomology all being drawn upon to demonstrate
the development or retardation of vegetable species.

90

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Scientific
Agriculture

Agricultural
JDevelopment

Botany. 553. Q. Is botany strictly a science ?

A. In general terms it is, but not altogether an exact one, as much,
must be taken upon the evidence of others, it being impossible for any
one man or any body of men to have seen and examined all of the one
hundred and fifty thousand species of known plants. In other sciences
the observations of the discoverer can be confirmed, but not always so in
botany.

554. Q. Is agriculture or horticulture a study presenting much diver-
sity?

A. No study, taken in a scientific aspect, covers so wide a field, or one
the limits of which are so impossible to attain, as all calculations are dis-
turbed by fluctuations in climatic or soil conditions.

555. Q. Will the agricultural practice of the future be an improvement
on that of the past ?

A. Certainly ; for the intelligent practice of agriculture is now guided
by science, and in the future it will be ruled by it. Unfortunately, but a
small proportion of agriculturists will possess scientific intelligence, and
consequently the practices and errors of the past will be continued by the
great majority. There will be three classes of agriculturists : the alto-
gether unscientific, the practical cultivator with some scientific attain-
ments, and the scientific theorist without practical experience or capacity
for making things pay. The agricultural experimental stations have
done more in the past twenty years to disseminate scientific knowledge of
the action of fertilizers, plant diseases and cures, injurious insects and
methods of destroying them, than any agency which ever existed. Agri-
culture is becoming scientific, but it can never be entirely so, as no
method or system can be depended upon to produce a fixed result, conse-
quent upon the uncertain efi'ect of meteorological happenings. No art
will call to its aid to interpret it so many scientific branches as agricul-
ture, but all that will never make it a perfect science, on account of the
unfixed quantity of heat and cold, rain or drought, the variations of
which defeat all calculations.

556. Q. Can I do best by Autumn planting in the high lands of Texas
witli onion seed or sets ?

A. Better plant sets, twelve bushels to the acre, in rows at fifteen
inches apart. Set out in November, they should mature for sale in
March. Seed drilled in October vpould probably be injured by frost.
Drilled Seed. 557. Q. Is it best when sowing turnip seed to put it in with a seed drill,
in rows, or to broadcast it ?

A. It is quickest, cheapest and simplest to broadcast it, but a better
practice is to drill it, as drilled seed is put down more deeply into the soil,
and is therefore able to resist drought under conditions when broadcasted
surface-sown seed would dry up and die.

558. Q. Will cabbage plants head if the seed is sown where the plants
are to stand ?

A. Yes, a portion will head ; sometimes eighty per cent, will head.* At

Onion Sets.

Cabbage.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 91

other times not over twenty per cent. Cabbages to head properly need a
check in their continuity of growth, that is, to have a rest as it were,
when all growth ceases for a time, as is the case when they are taken up
from a seed bed and transplanted to the field. To attempt to grow a crop
of cabbage with the idea of getting heads for sale or use without trans-
planting is a very unsatisfactory system. It is a lazy man's practice, and
he who pursues it gets as much as he deserves for his want of energy.

559. Q. What is the best method to exterminate those noxious weeds
which propagate from the root?

A. The Canada thistle is the worst example of these. The above-sur- weeds.
face part to the ordinary observer appears to be an annual, but the root
is perennial and extends down to about eight inches, and then horizontally
branches out in various directions, forming on its horizontal branches buds
which send up to the surface apparently new plants the next year. On
small areas it can be dug out or killed with lime or salt, but upon broad
fields the most efficient system to destroy it is by constant working so as
to cut oflF its air supply. It is just such treatment as should be given to
all weeds having persistent underground roots.

560. Q. I have the onion maggot every year in my onion sets. Can I
prevent it?

A. Not entirely, as the insects which deposit the eggs when the onion Onlon
seedlings are about two inches high are then flying from field to field. Maggot.
You can, however, kill off a portion of the larvae from which these insects
are developed by burning straw or trash upon your proposed onion patch.
To do it efficiently a deep mass of burning material will have to be used,
or only those larvae that lay within one inch of the surface will be
scorched. Another way to kill the larvae is by the application of about
400 pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre, or about 600 pounds of kainit.
Onions like salt.

561. Q. Is there any rule by which a novice can distinguish the sex of Sexes in
garden vegetables ? If so, please give it. Vegetables.

A. Most garden vegetables can be divided sexually into three classes :

1. Those in which the sexes occur in the same blossom, as in the cab-
bage or beet.

2. Those in which the sexes occur in distinct blossoms on the same
plant, as watermelon, squash, corn.

3. Those in which the sexes occur on distinct plants, as spinach.
When any of the plants are in bloom a very little study by an observant

and intelligent man will indicate the class to which they belong, as it is
very easy, as a rule, to distinguish stamens, the male organs, from pistils,
the female organs.

562. Q. What is the value of millet ? MUlet.
A. The three or four distinct types of millet as ordinarily cultivated

make very good fodder crops for feeding green, and when cut before the
stalks get old and hard make good hay. Millet can be mowed for hay
sixty to seventy days from sowing. There is a popular objection to

92

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Tomato
Fungus.

Popcorn.

Egg Plants.

Mustard.

Corn
Quality.

millet as hay on account of the belief that the small, hard, dry seeds are
swallowed by horses without mastication and cause inflammation of the
bowels, but millet intended for hay should never be allowed to harden its
seed before cutting, as at that period its foliage has lost much of its value
for hay.

563. Q. What is the cause of the black spot on the fruit of my tomato
plants ?

A. Fungous growth which develops at the blossom end of the fruit,
located there probably because the skin is more tender there. The attack
is most generally in wet or damp seasons. The disease once established
on a fruit extends its area of surface and eats deep in the fruit, soon ren-
dering it worthless. Bordeaux mixture is efficient at first to prevent or
arrest the disease, but it can only be used early in the life of the crop,
and as a precaution against the disease, for being a poison it cannot be
used on plants bearing fruit ready for consumption.

564. Q. What makes popcorn pop ?

A. Take a grain of popcorn, or any corn, and cut it down through the
middle, exposing the broad surface from top to bottom, and there will be
observed at the small end, the chit, or germinating part, and surrounding
it to a greater or less extent and extending up to the centre of the grain,
sometimes to the top will be observed more or less white starchy matter,
and on both sides and sometimes above it a deposit of oily matter. Now
it is this oily matter which when heated explodes and turns the grain in-
side out. Popcorn in proportion to its size develops more oily matter
than ordinary field corn, and consequently explodes more violently. Any
other corn with as much oil in it as pop would do as well.

565. Q. Last year my egg plants were borne down with fruit, but this
year they don't average two fruit to a bush. How is this?

A. Most likely due to imperfect pollination. In the egg plant the sexes
are both found in the same flower, but sometimes pollination does not
occur so freely as at others due to conditions of rain-fall, or fog, or low
temperature. In some cases, or in small patches, it would pay to pol-
linize by hand, which work can be done quickly with the point of a knife.

56'j. Q. Among my turnips on a large three-acre field there appears to
be ibout twenty per cent, of mustard. One of my neighbors says it is
frjm a crop which went to seed on the same land five years ago. Can
tais be so?

A. Certainly, and the seed may continue to come up for five years more.
Mustard being very retentive in vitality many seeds plowed down six and
seven inches by the plow will not sprout in years till brought to the sur-
face by a plowing deep enough to reach them and expose them to the in-
fluence of the atmosphere.

567. Q. What constitutes a good type of corn ?

A. Adaptability to location, productiveness, a small cob to dry out
quickly, length of ear resulting in diminished labor in husking and
shelling, depth of kernel, and closeness of packing upon the grain, sal-
able color and weight.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 93

568. Q. Is there any manurial value ia leaf-rakings from woodlands? l-eaf-rakings
A. Very little active value, though it is the basis of humus. Ordina-
rily it is hardly worth the labor of hauling, except for bedding for pigs

in pens, or in a barnyard. Under those conditions it is excellent as an
absorbent.

569. Q. Is intense cold destructive to the vitality of seeds? Seed,
A. If the seeds be dry and well-covered it seldom injuriously aflFects ^^^^^'^y*

vitality. Wheat taken by a North Pole exploring expedition as far north
as 81°, and left there through five winters where the temperature for
months stood at 50° and 60° degrees below zero, germinated freely when
brought to temperate climates. On the other hand few seeds will stand
for any time a heated temperature over 150° F.

570. Q. I have heard of big crops of corn, but never was able to grow Com Crops.
over fifty bushels of shelled grain to the acre, and would like to know

how some people who claim to have grown over 100 bushels of shelled
grain have accomplished it ?

A. It is only done on strong ground, yet not so strong as to throw all
the energy of the plant into making leaf. If a corn field is planted in
hills at 3^ X 3^ feet, and each hill has four stalks producing one ear to
each stalk and shelling seven ounces to the ear, the yield would be 110
bushels to the acre. Not infrequently a hill of four stalks will produce
three to five pounds of shelled corn.

571. Q. I have a never-failing stream of water passing through my Fish Culture.
farm and write to inquire if the duties of farming and fish culture would

conflict, and if there is any profit in fish culture.

A. There is a good profit in fish culture to those who understand it, but
nine out of ten fail to realize a profit for a want of the knowledge of the
requirements to insure success. Hundreds of New England farmers have
profitable fish ponds, and the labor of caring for them does not conflict
with their agricultural operations.

572. Q. Why are some perfectly new seeds unvital ? Seed,
A. It is attributable to a failure of pollination, and the failure to polli- * * ^*

nize may be due to want of a vitality on the part of either the male or
female plant, or to continued rain or a series of very damp heavy days
interfering with the transfer or reception of the pollen. This is noticed
more particularly with the seed of plants in which the sexes are found in
distinct flowers, or distinct plants as corn, melons and spinach. Nearly
all perfectly new seeds contain a varying percentage of such unvital seeds,
generally light, small and stunted, but sometimes as plump as any.

573. Q. Is the heading of cabbage a natural habit of the plant, or is it Cabbage.
an abnormal condition brought about by cultivation.

A. Not by cultivation, but entirely by selection, covering hundreds of
years. Heredity in the cabbage originally was in the line of development
of producing a mass of loose spreading leaves, as in the dandelion, but by
the selecting of those plants most productive in leaves and most dense, a
habit was finally formed which became in time a heredity more torcible

94

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Lettuce.

Firming
the SoU.

Pearl Sets.

Cabbage.

Imported

Cabbage

Seed.

than the previous heredity to form flat open centres. This new habit of
forming a rosette-like head became stronger and stronger till a plant was
developed in which the heading habit was its chief characteristic.

574. Q. I have trouble in getting a good head of lettuce. Which is the
best way to sow it, and how deep should it be covered ?

A. If the seed is good, that is vital, there should not be any trouble if
it be properly sown. Of course if the seed is put into the ground and
covered deeply, only a portion will ever show a sprout above the surface.
It should never be put into the earth, only put on to it and slightly
scratched with a rake, or better still, patted down with a board, or
tramped down lightly by pressing with the foot every square inch of the
bed surface.

575. Q. How can I most rapidly compress seed sown in rows after hav-
ing finished drilling it in the field ?

A. Roll it with a farm roller, or wheel a wheelbarrow with a broad tire
both up and down each row and directly upon the top of each drill mark.
The seed so compressed will sprout first.

576. Q. You recommend the Bloomsdale Extra Early Pearl Sets for
Autumn planting in the South. Will you advise me what degree of frost
they will stand. Here in North Carolina we sometimes have some very
severe weather, but it is of short duration. If they need protection, how
can I protect them ?

A. They will stand a zero temperature without injury if it be only for
a few hours, and if they be well rooted, that is, if they have taken hold of
the soil before their growth was stopped. We have many times had them
standing out all Winter on Bloomsdale when the temperature often went
below zero. They are full proof against 20° frost, that is when the mer-
cury falls to IQO F. They can be protected by hay, straw, pine shatters,
but all this kind of covering affords a harbor for mice, squirrel and other
vermin to feed upon the bulbs.

577. Q. What is the reason I have so much trouble in growing good
cabbage. I get the very best seed I can purchase, and make my seed bed
just as rich ?in^ fertile as possible, yet the plants do not grow or head well
when put out in the field ?

A. Your question, perhaps, answers itself, for you say you grow your
plants on a rich and fertile seed bed, and that is wliere the difticulty
probably comes in. Plants should never be grown on a richer soil than
that to which they are to be removed, otherwise they at once upon trans-
plantation become starved and in ill health. Moved from a poor seed bed
to a field richer than the bed they at once become invigorated and healthy.

578. Q. I have been using cabbage seed which I have imported from
Europe for several years, and I find that in a moist season I can grow
fine cabbage, while in a dry season they are a total failure. What is the
reason ?

A. Because the strain is not acclimated. During a wet season the con-
ditions resemble those of Europe, but when an American dry spell sets in

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 95

the plants from the foreiga-grown seed at once meet with a new condition
and failure results. This being the case, and no one knowing what the
season will be, it is injudicious to plant foreign seed, as a loss of an entire
crop may result with its expense of cultivation. American seed from
thoroughly acclimated stock will do well during either wet or dry weather.

579. Q. How must I grow cabbage plants to keep over Winter in cold Winter
frame ? In my section the mercury often falls to zero. Cabbage.

A. In the latitude of Philadelphia where the mercury often falls below
zero the seed is broadcasted in the open ground about September 1, and
when two inches in height transplanted into cold frames, that they may
take hold of the earth early and become four inches high before hard frost
stops their growth. In the cold frames the plants are set deeply at about
one inch apart. The frames are covered with shutters or boards, which
are removed to give light and air on fine days.

580. Q. My gardener says my egg plants have damped off. What does Egg Plant
that imply ? Damp.

A. That the tissues of their roots or stems have been destroyed by a
parasitic plant, the growth of which has possibly been induced by repeated
conditions of damp soil and damp air and not enough ventilation, fol-
lowed at times by too high a temperature. There are a number of species
of fungi causing a similar decay of young seedlings of tomatoes, peppers,
cabbage and lettuce. Some confined generally to under-glass culture,
others occurring in the open field.

581. Q. My cabbage are infested with the calico bug. What remedy Calico Bug.
can I take to drive them off?

A. They won't drive ; nothing but hand-picking and crushing is an
effective treatment. The writer knows it, for he has had to do it in the
course of many years with thousands of acres of cabbage and turnip
preyed upon by this bug. The insect is also called the terrapin bug and
the harlequin bug. It is a sap sucker, consequently Paris green won't
effect it, or no other outward poison. Oil or emulsions have very little
influence upon it, and it is a most serious pest.

582. Q. What is that disease of the tomato affecting the leaves and stem. Tomato Cnrl.
causing the leaves to curl and finally die?

A. There are several diseases causing tomato leaves to curl. One most
general is termed the tomato oedema, caused, it is thought, by an excessive
rain, a high temperature of the soil, making the roots active in pumping j

up Avater and insufiicient light to induce free transpiration, the result
being an unequal swelling of certain parts and bursting of the tissues, and
a general weakening of the plant, resulting in the death of entire branches.

583. Q. Are vegetables grown on naturally rich soil better in flavor Flavor.
than those grown on worn-out soil made productive by the application of
fertilizers ?

A. Grown on rich origin soil the development in size seems to be at the
expense of fine texture, flavor and good-keeping qualities, while grown
on well-used soil, the development is less rapid, but the flavor is better.

96

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Weeds.

Winter
Cabbage.

Weevil.

Bean
Weevil.

584. Q. Why do most weeds grow faster than the cultivated plants of
a garden ?

A. Bad stocks of all created life, both animal and vegetable, seem to be
endowed with special reproductive and sustaining powers. The common
weeds of the field are generally annuals, and, sprouting after the intended
crop is put in, frequently after it has received its first and second cultiva-
tion, the weeds must of necessity be of exceedingly rapid growth to ma-
ture their seed by the time the regular crop is ready for harvesting. Few
slow- growing weeds ever arrive at a stage to develop vital seeds, but the
quick-growing ones do, and it is with the seeds of such that the soil is
charged, Weed seeds seem to have greater power of retention of germin-
ating qualities than seeds of cultivated plants. It is those of very strong
germination which are most common. Few seeds of garden vegetables
will sprout when but quarter of the age of the seeds of common weeds.

585. Q. If I sow my cabbage seed in September, broadcast, and get
them three inches high by hard frost, can I protect them over Winter by
covering with straw ?

A. This has been tried frequently, but is generally a failure ; the straw
is pressed down by snow and the cabbage rots off. Poles placed flat on
the ground throughout the cabbage would support the snow-covered
straw and probably be found of advantage.

586. Q. What is the hardiest cabbage for sowing in September to keep
over Winter ?

A. Bloomsdale Early Dwarf Flat Dutch is the hardiest. It is a flat
header, not so early as Jersey Wakefield by three weeks, but a better cold
resister. A hardy sort, maturing between these two, is the Bloomsdale
Large York, forming a head similar in shape to the Wakefield but twice
as large.

587. Q. My barn is full of wheat weevil. How can I get rid of them?
A. There are four or five insects which, in unscientific language, are

referred to as wheat and corn weevil. One is a moth and exceedingly
destructive to stored grain, the caterpillar of which is white and about
two-fifths of an inch in length. Two other grain insects are small red
beetles, but of distinct species, and a fourth is the black or true granary
weevil, about one-eighth of an inch long. All these can be partially de-
stroyed by subjecting the grain to the fumes of carbon bisulphide. When
the mature insects are found harboring in the cracks and crevices of
barns they can be destroyed by copious soakings with kerosene oil.

588. Q. When I lived in Pennsylvania I grew large quantities of gro-
cery beans, but cannot down here in Carolina as they become full of bugs.
Is there any remedy ?

A. No ; you will have to turn to other crops. The mature female
insect of the bean weevil deposits her eggs in a slit which she makes
on the pods when the bean pods are very small. The eggs hatch and the
grubs strike for the dark, eating their way through the pod and into the
soft green beans, where they transform to winged insects. As the bean

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 97

weevil deposits many eggs in one place, many beans will contain six or
seven grubs. The pea weevil only deposits one egg in a place.

589. Q. What is implied by humidity of the atmosphere ? Humidiiy.
A. The air will take up and hold invisibly a certain amount of moisture ;

a greater amount will appear as mist, fog, or rain and fall to the ground.
The full amount of moisture that the air will hold in perfect suspension
and invisible is, for scientific purposes, estimated at 100, half that quan-
tity at 50. When the humidity is reported at 90 the air has almost ceased
to be able to take up perspiration from the human body ; consequently
the atmosphere is very oppressive, even though the temperature may not
be above 80° F, Instruments to indicate humidity can be bought for two
or three dollars and are instructive and useful, same as tliermometers.

590. Q. What was the biggest crop of corn ever grown in the United Com Crop.
States?

A. The crop of 1889 was 2,163,893,000 bushels. The estimated crop of
1895 is 2,435,000,000 bushels, from 83,000,000 acres.

591. Q. Are there any Bast fibre plants native to the Middle States Fibre Plants.
which I can experiment with for fibre?

A. Yes, two very promising ones.

1. The Swamp Rose Mallow, a perennial naturally growing in swamps
and producing straight stems to a height of six feet, but growing just as
well on upland. Its fibre is a substitute for jute.

2. The Abutilon or Butter plant, an annual found in nearly all corn-
fields and growing, in ninety days, to a height of four to five feet. It
produces a fibre strong, white, glossy, and a good substitute for jute. It
can be grown wherever Indian corn can be grown.

593. Q. How much Orchard grass seed is grown annually ? Orchard

A. About three million pounds, nearly half of which is sent to Europe. <5rass.

The production ranges from five to fifteen bushels of fourteen pounds to

the acre. It is mostly grown in Kentucky and Virginia.

593. Q. What is the difference between Spring and Winter wheat? Wheat.

A. Spring wheat, an annual, is an abnormal form developed by selec-
tion and climatic conditions from Winter wheat. All wheat, in early
times, was of the biennial habit. In extremely cold sections of country
Winter wheat often kills out, and in such parts Spring wheat is cultivated

to advantage.

594. Q. Is a bearded or beardless wheat the best ? Wheat.
A. Opinions vary upon this subject. A bearded wheat bends over and

breaks down sooner than a bald wheat, as it holds a greater weight of
rain. On the other hand it is more self-protective against the ravages of
birds.

595. Q. In shipping beans to the Northern markets I frequently receive Bean Kust.
reports that they have arrived badly spotted or rusted and therefore un-
salable, though I know they were perfectly free from spots when they

were packed. Can you explain this?
A. Probably due to the natural moisture of the pods when packed.

98

QUERIES AXD ANSWERS.

Red Color
Mystical.

Forest
Growth.

Celery
BUght.

Celery in
the South.

Ergot.

Fertilizing.

Moon's
Influence.

which developed heat and greatly extended the growth of some fungous
disease already on the pods. This result can be partially avoided by dry-
ing and airing the pods under cover in a cool place, as on tables in a
shed. No vegetable should be shipped direct from the field until it is
cooled off,

596. Q. "Why do country horsemen and stable boys tie up the tails of
their horses with red cloth ?

A. It is an old tradition that red is the proper thing to use, the color
being a mystical safeguard against evil spirits. They don't do it for this
purpose, but simply because it is the practice.

597. Q. Does soft wood— as pine — or hard wood — as oak and chestnut —
indicate the agricultural qualities of land ?

A. Not always ; for many sections of country, without any change in
soil, naturally develop both, hard and soft forests following each other.
Two hundred years ago the State of Delaware was covered with hard
woods, and no oak was superior then, or is now, to the oak of Delaware ;
but large sections where oak was cut off, pines followed, and the soil is
the same now as then.

598. Q. What causes the blight in celery ?

A. It is caused by a parasitic fungus. A preventive sometimes used
before the celery crop is planted is kainit. This should be applied not
only to the field but to the seed bed.

599. Q. Why cannot I grow celery at Savannah as successfully as I
formerly did at Easton, Pa.?

A. You can, provided your soil and location is of the proper kind, as
celery is successfully grown as far South as Tampa, Fla. As for the soil,
it should be rich and mucky ; as for the location, it should be upon land
where a constant understrata of water is near the surface. Celery is a
bog plant, and should do in many locations on rice plantations, and so
should cauliflower. It would be found advantageous to shade celery by
alternate rows of corn or sunflower.

600. Q. What is ergot on rye ?

A. A fungus attacking the grain when quite young, producing a horny
growth of disagreeable odor and quite poisonous. When ergoted grain is
used for making meal it always develops sickness and sometimes produces
convulsions, gangrene, and often death.

601. Q. Can vegetables be fertilized through their foliage?

A. Not in the open garden, but to a small extent in glass houses, by
making an artificial atmosphere charged slightly with carbonate of am-
monia.

602. Q. I want to put a new shingle roof upon my barn and my country
carpenter tells me I should only do it during the decline of the moon. Is
there any force in this ?

A. The proper time to shingle a roof, to plant seed, or to kill pork is
just when you are ready. All these old-fashioned ideas about the influence
of the moon are exploded, except in the opinions of a few old-fashioned

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 99

country people. These believe, as their ancestors did, that shingles put
upon a roof in the decline of the moon would hold down and lay flat, but
laid on the increase of the moon would rise up and curl. Some years ago
a Commissioner of Agriculture, in oflice at Washington, told the writer
that he believed in all signs as regulating farm operations ; that he always
killed beef and pork and planted seeds during the proper phases of the
moon, and that even a worm fence put up during the decline of the moon
would stand twice as long as one set during the increase.

603. Q. I have some seeds of a very choice watermelon, saved twenty Watermelon
years ago. Will they sprout ? Seed vitauty.

A. Keep a portion of them in a weak solution of chlorine, another por-
tion in a solution of oxalic acid, and sow both in a well-prepared seed
bed, kept damp, but not wet. A remaining portion fold in a woolen cloth
saturated with oxalic acid, and keep warm near a stove. If any germs
appear put the seed at once into earth.

604. Q. My canteloupe vines bearing nearly full-sized fruits are drying Canteioupe
up. What is the cause ? Diseases.

A. If the drying is in spots it may be from a fungous attack, but if it is
all over the patch and affects all parts of the vine it is either due to defec-
tive nutrition or to drought. Canteloupes should be deeply plowed when
last worked ; at that time the plow is the proper implement, the cultivator
is little good, as the soil should be deeply moved and plenty of it thrown
up to the roots before laying the crop aside.

605. Q. Can I successfully grow garden peas on the same land for Peas,
several years consecutively ?

A. Yes, if the land be well fertilized with potash, phosphoric acid and
nitrogen. It will, however, be best to rotate all crops, each requiring a
difference in soil foods, some a radical difference, others only a slight
difference, all taking some, some more, some less, of each food con-
stituent.

606. Q. Are turnips for stock food better than mangels, beets or carrots? Turnips.
A. Turnips are not so nutritious, nor so long-keeping as beets or

carrots, but can be grown at half the expense of labor, and requiring only
a little over one-half the time from sowing to full development.

607. Q. What is the onion smut ? Onion Smut.
A. A fungus, very minute, and consisting of small filaments or threads

formed within the folds of the onion leaves. This fungus when quite de-
veloped bursts the leaves longitudinally, exhibiting long lines of black
dust, which are spores set forth to further extend the disease. Once
located upon a field the only way to get rid of it is to cease raising onions
on that field. It is contagious ; healthy parts of the field being inoculated
by the smut carried on tools used in working the affected parts.

608. Q. Which is the most money-producing agricultural State of the Richest

Union ? Agricultural

A. New Jersey, which State, considering its acreage under cultivation, ®*****
produces more dollars' worth to the acre than any other State. This is a

100

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Spring
Greens.

Transplant-

Air Plants.

Moisture
Absorbed.

Cold Frame.

Phylloxera.

consequence of its general level surface, and its intermediate location
between the great consuming cities of Philadelphia and New York, and
its influx of Summer visitors along its Atlantic coast, all requiring the
best of all vegetables and in immense quantities.

609. Q. What plants besides Seven Top and Dixie turnip will do well
in Alabama for early Spring greens ?

A. Cabbaging dandelion. Long French sorrel, chickory and Southern
Snow White turnips.

610. Q. What sorts of vegetables should be transplanted to stimulate
their more perfect development ?

A, The transplanting of vegetables cannot be practiced so generally and
so systematically in the United States as in the moist countries of France,
Germany and England. In those countries nearly everything can be
transplanted successfully and to advantage.

As a rule it is advantageous to transplant lettuce, cabbage, kale, cauli-
flower, celery, tomatoes, egg plants and peppers.

611. Q. What are air plants?

A. An order generally found growing upon the trunks and branches of
trees.

Air plants do not draw any nourishment from the trees, consequently
they grow equally well on dead ones as on live ones, drawing all the
nourishment from the air. Familiar examples are found in the very
ornamental hothouse orchids, and in the long moss of southern forests.

612. Q. Do plants absorb moisture through their leaves ?

A. No, not to any appreciable extent. They are great exhalers of
moisture when the condition of the atmosphere will admit it. When the
air is full of humidity or rain the exhalation from the leaves is arrested
and the leaf cells become very much distended by moisture, puffing up the
tissues, upon which appearance some people think the leaves have taken
in moisture from the air.

613. Q. What is a cold frame ?

A. A box of any size or shape set down upon a suitable bed of natural
soil. The box sometimes covered with a window sash or other glass
frame, sometimes only with a shutter or loose boards. A glass frame
adds to the warmth of the soil beneath, a shutter or boards protects the
soil and the contents of the box from injurious effects of rain, cold, or
snow.

In ordinary practice a frame is made of sixteen-foot boards placed
parallel and about six feet apart, the ends closed with other boards.

A cold frame is so called because it is not a hot one, there being no
manure beneath to develop what is called bottom heat.

614. Q. On what kind of soil is the phylloxera least destructive to the
grapevine ?

A. On sandy soils, as such soils hold less air and more water, which is
prejudicial to the rapid increase and development of the insect. Sandy
soils asphyxiates them.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 101

615. Q. Why are American grape vines so largely planted in European American
vineyards, and why are European sorts so seldom planted in America. Grape.

A. The roots of American varieties have greater resistent powers
against the phylloxera. The sorts used are selections from the cestivalis,
riparia, labrusca, and some few are from the wild forms of liupestris cordi-
folia, cinerea, Berlandieri. European sorts having very little resistent
power are not much used in this country, as they soon become unhealthy
and die.

616. Q. On my farm are two distinct qualities of soil, one section being Influence
loam, the other sand, and curious to understand, the plants in the sand **' Sand.
resist drought the best. Why is this ?

A. On a sandy soil water either derived from above as rain, or from
beneath by the action of the sun, lodges in the interstices between the
grains of sand and forces the air out, and in this way a sandy soil may
hold a large amount of water.

617. Q. What is the grape insect known as phylloxera ? PhyUoxera
A. It originally came from the Mississippi Valley, and was discovered ^^^'

about 1854. Between 1870 and 1880 a large portion of the vineyards of
France and Spain was destroyed by it, and subsequently the vineyards of
all Europe were seriously affected. It is believed the insect was taken to
Europe attached to roots of American vines.

Up to 1884 over two million acres of vineyards had been destroyed in
France, and one million more injuriously affected. A loss estimated at
$140,000,000. The mature insect hatches out upon the young roots of the
grape in June, and works its way through the earth to the surface to fly
away and extend its species.

Lighting upon young grape leaves, it deposits its eggs, which form leaf
galls. The grubs hatched in these galls immediately lay other eggs,
sometimes two or three hundred, the larvss from which drop to the earth
and, penetrating it, are ready in the Spring to aflix themselves to the
roots. These larvae form nodules on the rootlets, and deposit about
one hundred eggs, to hatch out and recommence in June the round of
transformations just described. The most eflicient remedy is to saturate
the soil about the vines with the fumes of bisulphide of carbon, about
three hundred pounds to the acre. This is done by pumps with small
penetrating tubes to be forced down among the roots. Flooding or sub-
mersion to a depth of twelve inches for a period of ten days is beneficial
in October or May.

618. Q. What is corn smut ? Corn Smnt.
A. A minute parasitic plant, seldom seen till after some weeks of growth

within the close envelope of the ear, when it bursts out in a black mass.
There is no remedy to arrest its growth while saving the ear. Possibly
soaking the seed corn in blue vitrol might be a preventive.

619. Q. Is there any fertilizing value in green oats or rye plowed under? oreen

A. Yes, to an extent ; but not so much as derived from crimson clover Manuring.
or cow peas. There is no object in raising rye or oats to plow under.

102

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Tomato
Shipping.

Mole Plant.

Cross-bred
Plant.

Sun House.

Asparagus.

Potato
Cultivation.

except that the two crops can be grown so much more quickly than clover
or peas.

620. Q. I frequently have received reports from my commission mer-
chant in St. Louis that the tomatoes I have sent him, and which I know
were perfect when I shipped them, arrived in a decaying condition. Can
you give me any reason for this ?

A. Tomatoes which are picked during tlie heat of the day and packed
without being allowed to cool thoroughly are almost certain to spoil in a
day or so. It is just so with beans, and in fact with all vegetables. They
all should be cooled oflf. Your commission merchant may be right and
you may only have yourself to blame.

621. Q. What is a mule plant ?

A. A progeny from the fertilization of the pistil or female organ of one
species of plant by the pollen from them ale organ of a distinct species
of plant. Two species of the same genus may be thus mixed, but it is
uncommon for them to produce seed. They are most generally sterile,
but not always, for among garden vegetables the cucumber and the melon
have been crossed and the seed has been fertile.

622. Q. What is a cross-bred plant ?

A. A plant raised from seed the product of a variety of some plant of
one species the pistil of which has been fertilized by pollen from a flower
of another plant of the same species. As, for example, a red tomato
crossed with a yellow tomato.

623. Q. What is a sun house?

A. A structure on the same principle as a glass-covered cold frame, only
larger. It is like a greenhouse without artificial heat, depending alto-
gether on sun heat derived during the day and which it partially holds
during the night. In early Spring and late Autumn it protects growing
plants from frost, beating rains, and snow. Such houses are found profit-
able to market gardeners.

624. Q. Is asparagus best when cut under the surface and white, or
when allowed to rise above the surface and become all green ?

A. Simply a matter of taste. Cut above the surface, three times as
many bunches can be cut from a bed as when cut beneath the surface.
The cutting underground destroys many shoots not in sight. For can-
ners' use it must be cut under the surface, as when it gets green it be-
comes too soft to stand the processes of canning.

625. Q. I have looked in vain through your catalogue to find out how
far apart I should plant potatoes. I suppose every farmer knows all
about it, but I am not a farmer. I want to raise about ten bushels.

A. If an acre of potatoes averages 150 bushels, then one-fifteenth of an
acre would be required to produce ten bushels. Now a fifteenth is about
325 square yards, which is, say, forty yards long by eight yards wide.
For a small plot like this plow the land, harrow, and open trenches five
inches deep and two and one-half feet apart. Place the potato cuttings
about eight inches apart and cover with three inches of soil. The culti-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 103

rating and the rain will, after a time, wash down the whole thing to a
level. Previous to plowing, the land should be top-dressed with a full
cartload of well -rotted stable manure, or treated with forty pounds good
commercial fertilizer.

626. Q. I find Ivy on the walls of a farmhouse I just purchased. Will ivy.
it keep the walls damp ?

A. It will keep them dry, as the leaves overlap each other like shingles
80 that not a drop of rain can strike the walls.

627. Q. Are king crabs good manure? King Crab
A. Excellent ; tens of thousands of bushels are used by farmers on the Manure.

South Atlantic waters. Their value, however, is only for one crop, as
their fertilizing influence is very volatile.

628. Q. What is the difference between germination and vegetation ? Germination.
A. Germination is the putting forth of a germ or sprout and the sus-
taining of it till the young plant makes connection with the ground ;

there germination ends and vegetation commences.

629. Q. Has moonlight any influence upon garden vegetables ? MoonUght.
A. No. Some plants of a very sensitive nature, as the Sensitive plant,

awaken under moonlight, but no practical result has ever been noted.

630. Q. Is there much diversity between vegetable garden products in European
Europe and the United States ? Vegetables.

A. Quite marked. • In Europe the gardeners grow lots of things little
cultivated here. For example, artichoke, cardoon, corn salad, chickory,
cress, dandelion, swiss chard, scorzonera, sea kale, sorrel.

631. Q. What size cold frame must I have to hold twelve thousand Cold Frame,
cabbage plants over Winter ?

A. A frame made of boards sixteen feet long, and placed parallel at six
feet distant, the ends being closed, will hold three thousand cabbage
plants.

632. Q. Why do garden vegetables degenerate ? Degenera-
A. Because of careless selection. Esculents propagated from seed can *^**'**

be brought up to their previously highest quality if time be taken. They
do not run out in the same manner as do some tree fruits propagated by
grafts or buds, or the potato as propagated from the tubers, the eyes of
which are really buds.

633. Q. Do plants perspire ? Perspiration
A. They do to a very large extent. It has been proven that a Sunflower of Plants.

plant six feet high perspired in a day ten times as much as man.

634. Q. Why do some professional gardeners always want to buy old Cucumber
seeds of cucumber, melon and squash ? Seed.

A. Running plants from old seeds do not grow so vigorously as from
new seeds. They are shorter jointed, while producing as many blossoms
as long-jointed vines. They are also earlier in maturing and, being com-
pact in growth, a greater number of hills can be planted to the acre.

635. What influence has the qualities of parents upon the progeny of influence
cross-bred plants ? of Parents.

104

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Peas.

Green Moss.

£xtra ISarly
Pea.

Table Com.

■Watering
Plants.

Plant Dis-
crimination.

Potato Bug.

Sorghum.

Licorice.

Hotbeds.

A. It is theorized that the male gives quality to the interior organism,
the female to the external.

636. Q. At what stage of development should table peas be picked
from the vine to obtain them in the most palatable condition ?

A. When about two-thirds developed, as then they are tender, luscious
and altogether superior to qualities possessed when full grown.

637. Q. How can I get rid of the green moss which grows in my lawn,
especially in shady places ?

A. Try three plans : top dress with salt, top dress with lime, spray the
moss with Bordeaux mixture.

638. Q. What is the dividing line on Extra Early pea and a later class?
A. An Extra Early pea should arrive at picking condition at forty-two

to forty-six days from germination. Any sort, whatever the name, later
than that is not an Extra Early.

639. Q. How should corn be eaten ?

A. Score the rows with a knife from end to end of the cob, and with a
fork scrape down and off the edible portion, getting nothing but the soft
interior, the shells of the grains being left behind.

640. Q. Is watering garden vegetables in dry weather beneficial?

A. Sometimes, but often harmful. It is best done at night. If done
during the day it excites the roots to action, the plants pumping up water
and the leaves exhaling it to the dry atmosphere.

When the supply of water stops the roots and leaves are left in a state
of collapse, sometimes worse than before.

641. Q. How is it that plants requiring distinct foods and producing
widely different fruits or juices live upon the same soil ?

A. Partly because plants possess a power of food selection. The wheat
plant for instance will absorb silex, and the pea growing alongside of it
will not absorb any,

643. Q. The leaves from the stems of my potato crop have been all
eaten off by the potato bug, but the tubers appear to be full size. Would
the tubers have been larger if the leaves had not been destroyed ?

A. Certainly ; larger and more perfectly finished in development. Any
condition unnatural is always a check to perfect growth and full maturity.

643. Q. Which are the best varieties of sorghum for sugar making ?
A. The Collier, Coleman, McLean and Folger. The last-named is the

earliest maturing variety and the best all round in sugar-making quali-
ties. The Collier is the hardiest and best for Northern latitudes.

644. Q. Can I grow licorice root in Georgia ?

A. Yes ; on low-lands it will grow freely. The dried roots in bales are
worth $40 a ton. The annual consumption in the United States is 35,000,-
000 pounds of the extract, largely used in confectionery and in tobacco.

645. Q. Should the soil used in hotbeds be changed frequently?

A. Yes ; every year get new soil from a field known to be free from
any disease. The old soil may be infested with parasites which may re-
main alive for many months, even though the earth may be frozen

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 105

hard as iron during Winter. In the open garden old seed beds arc often
nurseries of disease.

646. Q. In growing onions here in Florida for the Northern market I Onions.
have found difficulty in the fact they sometimes grow so large before the

tops die down that they are not readily salable. Is there any "way that I
can cause the tops to die off when they are at the most desirable size ?

A. Two courses are open to the experimenter : one to cut under the
roots with a flat hoe or wide, flat plowshare, to arrest too great vitality ;
the other to break down the tops, pressing them flat with the hand or
with some instrument wrapped in cloth or bagging, so as to be soft.

647. Q. What is a parasitic plant ? Parasitic
A. An order of plant which strikes roots into the substance of other ^i****^.

plantsandfeedson their juices. Molds and blights are examples of lowest
organization of vegetable parasites. The mistletoe is of a higher order,
forming large bunches often several feet in diameter.

648. Q. What is the cause of hollow stem in celery ? Celery.

A. A bad stock. Years ago, before the selection of quality was so in-
tense as now, a considerable percentage of every patch was always hol-
low, but now seldom 3 per cent, in the good varieties is found hollow.

But some Italian celeries are entirely hollow.

649. Q. Which is the best method for a market gardener to follow: Sell- Selling
ing his products through a commission merchant or direct sales to con- vegetables.
sumers ?

A. If he is a large operator it would be impossible for him to sell to the
consumers. A small operator can of course get better prices by taking to
himself the profits of the middle men.

650. Q. What are cryptogamic germs ? Cryptogamic
A. The reproductive organs of flowerless plants. Some such plants Germs.

become trees, but those injurious to cultivated garden vegetables are
always microscopic in size and are known as garden fungi. They have
neither leaves nor stems, their reproductive organs are situated in a mass
of cellular substance.

651. Q. What sorts of vegetables best resist drought? Drought.
A. Drought-sustaining vegetables might be divided into two classes :

first, those which develop deep roots, as carrots and parsnips, which are
able to draw moisture from considerable depth, and secondly, those of
thick, succulent leaves. An example of how thick-leaved plants can
sustain drought while only surface-rooted is seen in the ordinary house
leek and in common sand cactus.

652. Q. Will a crop of potatoes take more fertility out of a field than a Soil

crop of tomatoes ? Kxhaustion.

A. Yes ; potatoes may average 200 bushels to the acre of solid, starchy
tubers, while the tomatoes, if they do average 400 bushels, are 95 per
cent, water.

653. Q. How long will fungus germs remain in the soil after a dis- Fungus
eased crop has been removed ? Germs.

106

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Fungi.

Cabbage.

Sunbam.

Beet.

Onion.

Web Worm.

French
Artichoke.

A. After the crop is removed the fungus germs nearly always find
weeds and plants of some other kind on the same land to feed upon, to
perpetuate their species over the balance of the growing season, and
through most Winters the germs will lie dormant, ready to attach them-
selves to some plant the next Spring.

654. Q. "What are fungi?

A. A very low order of vegetation, a flowerless order, illustrated in
our vegetable gardens by the mushroom and propagated by minute,
spreading fronds.

655. Q. If after I have set out my cabbage plants and they have rooted
and commenced to grow, there comes a spell of cold weather which,
although not enough to wilt the leaves, checks the growth for a period of
several days, what would probably be the efiect on their heading?

A. The check of transplanting young cabbage plants from the seed
bed to the field seems to induce an inclination to form heads, but after the
transplanted cabbages are well established any subsequent check from
frost or severe drought seems to induce a disposition to go to seed. That
inclination once established, the plants commence to show all sorts of vari-
ability of shape and character, sometimes not over half of the crop mak-
ing good heads.

656. Q. Can I use any preventive against sunburn of my water-
melons ?

A. When the vines are about half grown broadcast buckwheat, which
by time the melons are ripe will protect them partially from the sun.

657. Q. Where did the beet originate, or from whence did the first beet
come?

A. It is a native of sandy seacoasts of the Mediterranean, Black and
Caspian seas.

658. Q. Is the origin of the onion known ?

A. It is not ; but it certainly is one of the earliest of cultivated plants —
well known to the Egyptians.

659. Q. What shall I do to drive off an insect which is destroying ray
beets and mangels by eating the leaves and spinning a web on the top of
the wreck ?

A. The description would mark it as one of the web-worms, of which
there are several. They do not confine themselves to beets, but will take
anything in the way of garden truck. To kill them, spray with a solu-
tion of Paris green, one pound of tlie poison to 150 gallons of water, and
three gallons of molasses to make it stick to the leaves.

660. Q. Why is not the artichoke cultivated as generally in the United
States as in France ?

A. Because our Winters are too severe, except in the cotton States, and
because we are accustomed to better food. The artichoke is really of so
little merit that it is not received with favor by Americans, even in local-
ities where it can be successfully grown. The artichoke plant is a form
of cardoon, which latter plant is cultivated for its bleached foot stalks

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 107

and midriba The cardoon does not produce edible heads, it being bred
for its edible leaves, the artichoke for its edible flowers.

661. Q. There is a demand in my market for a Box radish of a deep red Radish,
color. Is there such a radish, with a sliort top and of quick growth, which

I can use for the purpose ? I want them to bunch with my White Box
radish, and they must be of similar shape.

A. Landreths' Earliest is the one to use. It unites two marked quali-
ties : First, an earliness in maturity for table, surpassing any other red
sort ; secondly, a rich depth of claret or ruby color, unapproached by any
other variety. In form it is turnip-shaped, in size and form similar to the
Early Scarlet. The leaves, very short and small, fit it for forcing in glass
house or frame, while its early maturity will astonish the cultivator.

662. Q. Can I improve my tomatoes by pruning the vines? If so, at i''"o»^i»s
■what stage of growth should the pruning be done? °"^^ **®^*

A. Pruning must be done with judgment, else the blooms will be cut
oflf in too large numbers. Pruning, when well done, is advantageous, as
it lets air and light into the vines, which otherwise might become a tangle
in which no fruit could ripen.

663. Q. Is marl of much value as a fertilizer ? Marl.
A. That depends on the kind of marl. The best marl is Jersey green

sand marl, by the use of which large districts in Jersey have been raised
from poverty to affluence. On lands which fifty years ago not over
twenty bushels of corn could be produced, the average crops now are
fifty bushels. All kinds of shell fish deposits are called marl, but there
is a great difference in value of various deposits.

664. Q. What is the manurial effect of large turnips plowed under, Tornips
bulbs and leaves all turned down out of sight? ** Manure.

A. Very valuable ; and a very quick and a very cheap means of enriching
a field. The seed sown broadcast in August will develop a big crop by
Ist November, ready for plowing down before the land is frozen. It is
a system which should be largely practiced, as it is an elficient way
of manuring the land and done at a season when there is little to do on a
farm.

665. Q. What particular merit is there in a strap-leaf turnip ? What strap-leaf
does strap-leaf mean as applied to turnip ? Turnips.

A. It means a leaf without indentures — a straight leaf like a rabbit's
ear. There is no special merit in it — it simply indicates that the stock is
a pedigree one. If it was not watched and culled it would soon cease to
be a strap-leaf— would become a cut-leaf.

666. Q. Are the seeds of garden vegetables, when in eating condition, Maturity of
sufllciently matured for sowing ? Seeds.

A. Those of watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins ; hardly of any-
thing else.

667. Q. What is the best pea to plant for a late crop, say in August ? Peas.
I have tried several sorts, but they always mildew.

A. Landreths' Extra Early is best, as it is the least subject to mildew

108

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Sugar Cane.

Clover.

Tomatoes.

at the season indicated, when nearly all other peas become so covered
with the mildew as to be of little value.

668. Q. From what country did the original sugar cane come ?
A. From Southern Asia, India, Cochin- China, and Malaysia, whence

it spread into Africa, and thence to America, reaching St. Domingo in
1530 and shortly afterwards Mexico and Brazil.

669. Q. Where did the Crimson clover originally come from ?
A. It is found wild in Northern Italy, in Sardinia, and in Algiers, ia

the valley of the Danube and in Macedonia.

670. Q. I have very poor success in growing tomatoes in my garden.
The soil is good and rich, and I can grow very large plants, but they do
not bear much fruit, and it is generally small and knotty, no matter what
variety I plant. Can you explain the cause and remedy ?

A. Possibly the plants go too much to leaf. Try pruning the roots by
digging about them deeply; this will reduce the vigor of growth and per-
haps cause blossoms to appear and set. Also trim the foliage to let in the
light and air.

671. Q. How many brands of commercial fertilizers are there?
A. Probably 600 or 700 distinctly named sorts, all diflfering from each

other in the proportion of contents of available plant food, some brands
worth ten times the value of others, some not worth five dollars a ton.

672. Q. Is kainlt more valuable than common salt?
A. Yes ; because it contains from 15 to 20 per cent, of potash, while

common salt does not contain any. Potash Is a fertilizer or plant food —
salt is not a food, only an alterative and insect driver. The kainit cou-
talns 60 to 70 per cent, of common salt in addition to the potash.

673. Q. Of what country is the sweet potato a native ?
A. Not known positively, but presumed of Mexico or the West Indies,

as it was cultivated in San Domingo in 1526. It differs from the white
potato in its tubers being roots, while in the white potato the tubers are
branches.

674. Q. Where did the garden pea originate ?
A. Probably in Asia, from the Caucasus to Persia. It has been

found among the remains of the lake-dwellers of the bronze age in Switz-
erland.

675. Q. Which is the most nutritious for milch cows, green sugar corn
or green sorghum ?

A. Sorghum by all odds, as it contains from 8 to 12 per cent, of sugar.
Winter Oats. 676. Q. Can I successfully grow Virginia Winter oats In Pennsylvania ?

A. Yos, if it be treated as a Spring oat, as the Winters are too severe
in Pennsylvania to admit it to live as in Virginia. Sown in early Spring
it will ripen three weeks later than ordinary Spring oats. It will be found
far more productive than Spring oats and far heavier to the bushel, fre-
quently going up to thirty-eight and forty pounds. As long back as 1869 it
was grown as a Spring crop on Bloomsdale Farm, giving seventy bushels
to the acre.

Fertilizers.

Kainit.

Sweet
Potato.

Pea.

Cow Feed.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 109

677. Q. Why is it that two tomato patches, both grown from the same Tomat«*9.
seed, develop fruit so distinct?

A. Frequently the case when the periods of sowing the seed or setting
out the plants have been wide apart ; the conditions of growth being
very diflFerent, to say nothing of a possible difference in soil.

678. Q. How many days does it take from germination for a good type Sorghum,
of sorghum to reach as high as 11 per cent, of sugar?

A. About 140 days, and about 145 days to reach 70 per cent, of purity.

679. Q. Is there any difference in period of maturity in a crop of corn, Com.
one-third part of each grown respectively from grains taken from the
butt, middle and end of ear?

A. No, not the first year ; but the practice continued would result in a
marked variability in forms of grains and value.

680. Q. Comparing the two systems of agricultural operations — that of Market
ordinary farming, as the raising of grain, potatoes, hay, cattle and dairy- Gardening.
ing, with truck farming, as in the raising of vegetables for market — which

aflfords the greatest possibilities of profit, and which opens to the highly
educated operator the widest field for action and intelligent, if not scien-
tific application ?

A. The laborious eflfbrts of the farmer producing wheat and other small
grains, corn, potatoes, hay and dairy products, cannot be exceeded by
the labors of any soil cultivator, but the mental details of such labors are
insignificant compared with the operations of truck farming on a large area,
as on the large vegetable farms near some of our large cities. On such
farms the ceaseless round of Spring, Midsummer and Winter crops of vege-
tables from the fields, and others from cold frames, hotbeds and hot-houses ;
the packing, shipping, correspondence; the details of appropriate fertilizers
and special mechanical appliances ; a large pay roll to be provided for every
Saturday night, necessitates great responsibilities and demands technical
and business qualifications such as are not looked for in the ordinary
farmer. The operations of the two are so wide apart as not to be considered
the same moment. One is humdrum, the other unceasing activity and de-
manding, if success is to be attained, qualities not required in a grain farmer,
though his wheat fields may be ten times as big as the vegetable farm.
No man wishing to turn to an agricultural pursuit is too intelligent or too
scientific to adopt that of vegetable farming ; for it is the most intense, the
most interesting, the most technical, the most paying of all soil cultural
operations. It is also the most uncertain, but this adds to the possibilities
of profit as well as loss.

681. Q. In what part of the world was the garden bean first cultivated ? Bean.
A. In Western Asia. It was cultivated at Rome nearly two thousand

years ago. It appears to have existed also in South America long before
the Western Continent was known.

682. Q. Whence came the first cucumbers ? Cucumber.
A. Not positively known, but thought to be from Cabal, in Northwest

India. It has been cultivated in India for three thousand years.

no

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Cantaloupes.

liettuce.

Spinacb.

■Watermelon,
Turnip.

Cabbage
Worm.

Uma Beans.

Puddling.

Liiquid
Manure.

Weeds.

683. Q. Cantaloupes, where did they originally come from ?

A. It is believed they first came from Africa, but possibly they were
natives of Asia as well. The Romans cultivated the cantaloupe and illus-
trated it in pictures now existing. The writer has obtained some very
choice new sorts through the missionaries of Armenia.

684. Q. Where did lettuce originally come from ?

A. The wild form still grows in the Canary Islands, Madeira, Algeria,
and in Asia. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated it.

685. Q. Where did spinach originate?

A. It was first cultivated in Western Asia. The seed originally was all
prickly, the smooth-seeded being a perpetuation of a sport.

686. Q. What is the native country of the watermelon ?

A. Central Africa. Livingstone saw large districts covered with it.

687. Q. My Spring-sown turnips are stringy. What is the cause ? I use
the Red Top Globe. Is there any better sort for Spring sowing?

A. Yes ; Early Flat Dutch, but it must be used when small, not bigger
than a 50=cent piece, otherwise it is certain to get tough, fibrous and hot.

688. Q. Will hot water kill the cabbage caterpillars without injuring
the plants ?

A. Hot water above 160° will scald the plants, but below that will not
hurt them. At any temperature below 160° and above 140^ the worms
will be destroyed. It is an efficient remedy for use in small patches.

689. Q. I have experienced great difficulty in getting a stand of Lima
beans, particularly in cold, wet seasons. Can I overcome this difficulty
by soaking the beans in lard or any other moisture-resisting solution ?

A. You probably plant too early. The Lima will not sprout in cold,
wet soil, as it requires very favorable conditions as respects moderate
moisture and warmed earth. Later plantings, when the soil is in favor-
able condition, will overtake early plantings and the vines be more
healthy. If you must be early, start them under glass or in the house,
and transplant when four inches high.

690. Q. When transplanting cabbage and tomatoes is it necessary to
puddle the roots ?

A. Not desirable unless they are to be shipped some distance. If to be
planted at home, puddling is a mistake, as the mud cements around the
roots and arrests their free action in the soil. Transplant only just before
a rain or just after, and tightly fasten the plant in the soil.

691. Q. Do you advise liquid manure for application to garden vege-
tables ?

A. Yes ; applied between the plants, not on top of them, or it might
scald. Only apply in the evening, as water excites the plants to action —
the roots to absorbing and pumping up and the leaves to evaporation.
This during the middle of a hot day is injurious, but at night is beneficial.

692. Q. How can I keep my paths free of grass and weeds?

A. Lime and salt will hold them in check, but not prevent them
entirely.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. Ill

693. Q. Will burning straw on the surface of ray garden kill weed Weed Seeds,
seeds and insects ?

A. Only partially ; as no heat which a surface-burning would make
would heat the soil over two inches in depth. A deep plowing or digging
will bring to the surface seeds and insects not injured by the heat.

694. Q. When should I manure ray lawn ? i-awn
A. Better spread stable manure in January, twenty-five cartloads to the ^^aJ^i^re.

acre, and rake off the remnant in March. Or, in February or March,
broadcast to the acre 800 to 1000 pounds of superphosphate of lime and
200 to 300 pounds of nitrate of soda.

695. Q. What are the cheapest and quickest green crops I can grow in Green Crops.
Delaware after September 1, to remain on the ground all Winter as a

covering and to be plowed down in March?

A. Rye, living all Winter and forming a mat of roots and strong top
growth. Indian corn, making a strong top growth by frost and then
drying up — a good covering to the soil, preventing blowing. In Dela-
ware, September 1 is too late to sow Scarlet clover to do any good by
March, and late also for Cow peas whicli, w^hen left to dry on the field,
are very hard to plow under in Spring on account of the vines being like
so many wires.

696. Q. Will it pay financially to suspend an electric light over a vege- Electric
table forcing house to hasten the development of market vegetables? ^ *

A. Not in all cases ; for while some plants are benefited, others are
retarded. The vegetable most advanced by electric light is lettuce,
which, it is estimated, is forced ahead quite a week by the use of electric
light.

697. Q. Why do people in hot Southern climates, as the West and East Pungent
Indies, Mexico and Brazil, consume so many hot vegetables, as peppers. Vegetables.
leeks, and Spanish radishes?

A. As tonics to the system. In such countries the liver becomes torpid,
the stomach weak, and foods flavored with peppers and other burning
ingredients tone up the system to resist the evil effect of the climate.

698. Q. How is the percentage of sugar in vegetables influenced by Sugar in
locations of latitude ? Vegetables.

A. All vegetable garden products, as peas, beans, corn, parsnip, carrot,
beets and melons, become more palatable as their cultivation approaches
more nearly the northern limit of their successful growing. This may be
attributed to the longer daylight in Summer of Northern latitudes. Good
form and rich color do not always accompany palatability ; quite the con-
trary, as some of the most exquisitely flavored apples and melons of
Nova Scotia do not compare in appearance with those produced in local-
ities much further South. The use of the electric light at night in gar-
dens will some day, no doubt, become quite general where facilities for
its use exist, as by its use can be obtained all the advantages, and more,
afibrded by the long twilight of a more Northern latitude.

699. Q. Adjoining me is a twenty-acre field which has been out of use Soil Recu-

peration.

112

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Soil Fertility
and Farm
Practice.

Coflfee.

Systems
of Heating:.

"Wire Grass.

for five years — abandoned because of being poor soil. Is it lilcely to have
improved by the rest during that period ?

A. Most decidedly ; especially if in clover or grass, particularly clover;
but even an annual crop of weeds, not removed for five successive sea-
sons, protecting the surface for five successive Winters, will have done it
much good, the weeds collecting, but to a far less degree than clover, fer-
tilizing constituents from the air, the deeji-rooted ones drawing more from
the soil below plow depth and their covering of the surface in a green
form in Summer and dry, dead form in Winter promoting the accumula-
tion of plant foods, especially potash.

700. Q. Which are the most fertile, the farm lands of the United States
or those of England ?

A. The soils of this country, being newer, are naturally more fully
charged with natural plant food, but here they are not cultivated under
the intelligent and intense systems and processes of the English and
Scotch, where the farmers are more thoroughly grounded in the princi-
ples of agriculture. This agricultural intelligence and the moister cli-
mate of England result in the growth of larger crops of potatoes, oats,
wheat, barley, flax, and cattle roots. American farmers, while more
intelligent upon the whole range of general subjects, more self-reliant
and better able to meet unexpected difliculties, are, as a rule, only
veneered with agricultural information. Just the same as the Ameri-
can people are veneered with scientific and literary information, or
as our politicians are with statecraft, compared with the more thor-
oughly educated men of Europe. Educated farmers, that is, men hav-
ing a fully practical and partly a scientific knowledge of agriculture
and all its processes, are able, on comparatively worked-out soils, to
reap a better return than the happy-go-lucky farmers of portions of our
own country, even be they located on soil of virgin fertility. Farmers
satisfied to drag day after day over the miserable public roads of this
country, do not show much of those qualities possessed by the farmers of
England ; and their willingness to rest satisfied with the road conditions
illustrates the condition of their farms and their systems of culture.

701. Q. Can a good substitute for coflee be made from dandelion root?
A. Quite a good imitation ; but better from chlckory, and in greater

quantity, as chickory produces a larger root. It is grown like carrots,
plowed out after frost, washed, sliced and dried. By some preferred to
coffee ; is an excellent adulterant.

702. Q. Which is the best system of heating forcing houses ?

A. This is a question which has been under discussion for years, and
probably will continue to be discussed for a long time. The arguments
are so conclusive as put forth by the partisans of each system, that when
listening to the advocates of one system no room seems to be left to doubt
till the opposite side is heard. The writer, personally, favors hot water.

703. Q. My grass plot is completely taken possession of by wire grass.
Whatshallldo?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 113

A. Only one course is practical, and that is to dig up and remove the
roots and soil, going to a depth of twelve inches Fill in the excavations
with new earth free from wire grass.

704. Q. Are the methods of agriculture advancing as rapidly as the Methods of
practice of other arts and professions ? . , Agriculture.

A. No art is so favored. No art has so many newspapers published
exclusively in its interests. Nearly every State of the Union has estab-
lished agricultural experimental stations. Every scientific naturalist is
working in the interest of agriculture. Thus there is being developed a
theory of agriculture ; but theory and the results of practice do not always
harmonize, as no control can be exercised over the degrees of rainfall,
cold or heat, all of which have so direct an influence over the growth of
plants, and little can be done to prevent the appearance of fungi and
insect enemies ; only palliative remedies when they do appear. Agricul-
tural theories are very valuable, but they alone will not make a crop, as
a ship-building designer plans an ocean racer.

705. Q. Why do cabbage heads sometimes burst open or split? Cabbage
A. Because of an excess of moisture pumped up by the roots and so ""^^ ^"^'

distending the tissues of the interior leaves as to burst the exterior ones.
Cabbages while in a healthy, growing condition never burst, but only
under the influences of a second growth.

706. Q. My melon vines, now half-grown, are dying at the root. Can Fungus.
I do anything to save them ?

A. The trouble may be from sunburn or from underground grubs, but
most probably it arises from a fungous attack destructive to the bark of
stem and roots. If this be so the bark is brown and slufllng ofi". Noth-
ing can be done to positively arrest the disease. Lime and sulphur may
have a good efi"ect.

707. Q. What efl"ect has nitrate of soda upon garden vegetable crops, Nitrate of
and can it be used to the exclusion of other fertilizers ? Soda.

A. Nitrate of soda is valuable for its nitrogen, which is an active stim-
ulant. Especially valuable to leaf-producing plants. It is not a com-
plete fertilizer, as plants want potash and phosphoric acid also. Most soils
contain enough lime.

708. Q. What is the best receptacle I can use to exclude moisture from Keeping
my garden seeds ? Seeds.

A. Tin boxes with screw tops or glass jars made air-tight by rubbers,
as in preserving jars.

709. Q. What is the difierence in the production of seed in the Russian Sunflower.
sunflower and the old form ?

A. The Russian is twice as productive, 2500 pounds of seed have been
raised to the acre. The Russian produces but one flower to the stalk.
The seed is valuable as food for poultry, hogs and cattle, and for making
oil.

710 Q. When spraying my melon vines to kill the louse can I raise up Melon
the vines so as to expose the under surface to the spray ? Louse.

114

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Plant
Growth.

Vegetable
Sweetness.

Okra.

Egg Plant
Fungus.

Liima Bean.

Mushrooms.

A. Yes, you can do it ; but the disturbance to the vines would do as
much harm as the insects. Melon vines, when over half-grown, are seri-
ously injured by lifting. It is just here that the difficulty of spraying
melons in the field comes in — it can seldom be done efficiently.

711. Q. At what period of the twenty-four hours do plants grow with
the greatest rapidity ?

A. Most, but not all, grow fastest at night, as can be readily observed
by marking the relative day and night growth of the runners of water-
melon, cantaloupe, squash, pumpkin; sometimes these will extend fifteen
Inches between sunset and sunrise, while not lengthening over three
inches during the day.

713. Q. Is there any difference in the degree of sweetness of water-
melons grown in different latitudes ?

A. Yes ; all fruits, apples, pears, peaches, as they approach their
northern limits of possible production, develop a degree of sweetness not
possessed by others grown more southward. The watermelons of the
Southern States are never as sweet as those grown in New Jersey.

713. Q. Among Okras which sort is the best ?

A. Long Green Pod in every respect, and in fact no other sort is worth
cultivating if this one can be had.

714. Q. Something is the matter with my egg plant bushes, they are all
sickly and yellow and promise failure. Can I do anything to keep them ?

A. There is not much chance of a good crop from the egg plant if the
bushes once lose their vigor ; indeed they should never be stunted or ad-
verted in growth. If they are brown or black on the bark of the stems
near the earth they are suffering from a fungous growth living upon the
tissues of the bark, and nothing will stop it with certainty ; and even then
a most serious injury will remain if the bark of the stalks has been half
destroyed. Spray the stalks near the ground with Bordeaux mixture.
Next year give your egg plant land nitrate of soda at the rate of 400
pounds to the acre; it may destroy the fungus and will give the plants in-
creased vigor to resist the disease besides giving a better color to the fruit.

715. Q. Will a Lima bean, if planted with the eye upward sprout earlier
than if planted with the eye downward?

A. They do best planted eyes down and not over one inch deep.

716. Q. Will you please give me the most simple and inexpensive
method for cultivating mushrooms from the spawn ?

A. There is no simple and easy method of doing it for the novice to
follow. It is work which only an experienced hand can do with good
chance of success. The work is rough enough in the handling and incorpo-
ration of horse manure and good soil, but to do it well one must have
had lessons from an expert. In no garden process is there such contra-
dictory practice as in mushroom culture. For instance, one successful
grower will gather dry droppings from horses, and still further dry them
by spreading and frequent turning under cover. Another, equally suc-
cessful as a grower, dispenses with all this trouble, taking stable dung

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 115

fresh from the stalls, and mixing in a fourth part of good friable loam,
piling it up for a week, then turning it over, and, if fermenting too
strongly, adding more loam.

A third grower takes his manure from an ordinary barnyard pile, and
mixes in a fourth part of loam. Other growers will not use manure
which has been fermenting, claiming that it will not produce mushrooms
or a continuous crop. Another system is to take any good stable manure,
and, removing sticks, stones, very long straw, or otlier coarse material,
thoroughly mix and pile it in beds two feet high, thoroughly wet with
water and stamp down. After a week or ten days, by which time it is
quite hot, the pile is reworked and left for another ten days, then it is in
condition to be made into beds of the proper form and seeded. Some-
times four to six weeks are taken in the preparation of the manure, a
leading object with most cultivators being to have it half decomposed,
completely mixed, but not wet.

Possibly the best system for the amateur to pursue is to prepare his
manure pile under cover, as in a shed or cellar, making his pile one-fourth
loam and three-fourths of the best stable manure he can get, horse dung
predominating, which should be piled first, to allow it to lose its fiercest
heat, the loam helping to solidify the mixture. At spawning time the
heat in the beds sliould range from 60° to 80°, never above 85°. The
heat of a bed may be reduced by opening holes with a crowbar, forcing
it down to the very bottom. One bushel of spawn broken into lumps of
an inch in size is sufficient for 100 square feet of bed surface. The beds
can be made on the floors of cellars, sheds, or under the benches of a
greenhouse, or on raised benches like shelves in a closet.

717. Q. Why is the Lima bean so called? UmaBean.
A. It is supposed to have been first found at Lima. Certainly as a

novelty it was introduced as from there. It may have been a native of
Peru or an original production in its present form, or it may have been
developed from some other bean as a consequence of some peculiar condi-
tion of climate in Peru. At the present day both white, black and spotted
Limas are cultivated in that country.

718. Q. What was the color of the first variety of tomato cultivated ? First
A. It was red, and was first cultivated in Europe in 1596. The first Tomato.

catalogue reference to the yellow tomato was by Landreth, in 1820. The
yellow sorts are generally of the best flavor.

719. Q. Do some plant bugs eat up other plant bugs? insectivorona
A. Yes ; the lice on cucumber vines and on melons are eaten up in ^"S^.

large numbers by a species of lady bug, and some species of flies eat the
larvae of the asparagus beetle. There are many insects which feed on
each other.

720. Q. Is it true that the sugar corn grown in the State of Maine is Sugar Com.
sweeter than the same variety of corn grown in Virginia?

A. Undoubtedly; and a consequence of the long days of July and
August. In Maine, the evening twilight lasts till 9 and 10 o'clock, and

116

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Radish.

Effect of
Selection.

Cabbage
Idee.

Hearing of
Insects.

Electric
light.

Hybridiza-
tion.

Sight of
Insects.

Asphyxiation
of Insects.

Grain
Insects.

the morning twilight begins a little after 3 o'clock. In fact it is only dark
for four or five hours This results in the development of a degree of sugar
far greater than possessed by any corn which can be grown in Virginia.

721. Q. Which is the best Long White radish ?

A. Lady-finger is three to four inches long, pure white, very brittle
and early of maturity.

722. Q. Does careful selection over many years successivelj'' weaken
the seeding qualities of vegetables ?

A. Yes ; all high-class vegetables, like animals, being by intense selec-
tion weakened in perpetuative powers.

723. Q. Is a field afiiicted with cabbage lice upon a crop likely to be
affected with lice the next year?

A. Yes, unless the Winter is severe, in which case not an insect may
appear the succeeding Summer. If then they appear they can be kept in
partial check by kerosene emulsion, the previous season demonstrating
the necessity of being prepared to fight them immediately upon their first
appearance.

724. Q. Do garden insects hear?

A. Yes, to a slight extent. The sound-producing insects all make
their noises by abdominal joints, never through their mouths.

725. Q. What is the effect of electric light on growing plants?

A. Electric light seems to take to a degree the place of solar light, the
plants continuing to decompose carbonic acid, to extract oxygen, and to
perspire. A plant's health depends very much upon the quantity of car-
bonic acid decomposed ; consequently the electric light is valuable as ex-
tending, as it were, the hours of daylight.

726. Q. Will cabbage and turnip plants, blooming alongside of each
other, hybridize?

A. There is little danger of hybridization occurring under natural con-
ditions, even if a field of cabbage and one of turnips be immediately ad-
jacent, but a hybridization will occur if an intense effort be made to-
effect it.

727. Q. Is the sight of insects well developed ?

A. No ; very imperfectly. They are to a large extent guided in their
movements by sense organs with which man has none to compare.

728. Q. Is there any gas which I can use to kill bugs on my garden
plants ?

A. You can use the vapor of bisulphide of carbon, provided you can
procure air-tight vessels of paper, tin, or glass to completely cover the
plants. Under these coverings, placed over the plants, introduce one
tablespoon ful of the liquid, which will evaporate and asphyxiate all in-
sects within an hour. The breathing apparatus of insects pervades the
whole body, and poisonous vapors penetrate simultaneously the entire
system. Don't inhale the vapor, as it is a rank poison.

729. Q. What is the best course to adopt to kill insects in dry wheats
corn, or other grain or seed ?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 117

A. Treatment with fumes of bisulphide of carbon. The grain, how-
ever, if to be used for milling, must be thoroughly aired, otherwise an
offensive odor will remain. The work must be done in an air-tight room
of a size corresponding to the amount of the seed to be treated. Four
quarts of bisulphide is sufficient to treat four hundred bushels of grain at
one application. The exposure to the fumes should be from ten to twenty
hours. No fire should, in any case, be allowed near the room in which
the treatment takes place, as the vapor is highly explosive.

730. Q. How long should I wait for seed to sprout before condemning Unvitai
the seed as unvitai ? Seed.

A. That depends on the age of the seed, the kind of seed, the time of
sowing, the condition of the soil when sown, and the subsequent condi-
tions of atmosphere, and how shallow or how deeply put in. Any one of
these conditions being very unfavorable might prevent germination of
perfectly vital seed. Some people are entirely too quick to jump at a
conclusion that because seed don't come up that it is unvitai. They
know too much, based on a very small experience.

731. Q. "Why do I have so much trouble in securing a good stand of Parsnips,
parsnips ?

A. The seed is always very light and slow to germinate, even under
the most favorable conditions. When the soil is dry, and still worse,
baked by the sun, the seed is especially slow to sprout ; but, left alone, it
will generally come in time. Many crops are given up by the planters
entirely too soon — they should have patience.

733. Q. Why are New Jersey cantaloupes sweeter than those grown Jersey
farther South ? Cantaloupes.

A. A section two hundred or three hundred miles farther north of a
more southern section enjoys a longer daylight and twilight during July
and August, just as in extreme Northern regions, approaching the North
pole, the sun does not set, but shines continuously the twenty-four hours.
This condition of extended daylight is favorable to the development of
sugar. Visitors to Canada in August never fail to praise the Montreal
melons for their delicious flavor. The seed, taken from the melons and
planted in a more southern locality, will not produce melons equal to the
originals ; and generally Northern seed is not all vital, due to imperfect
pollination. New Jersey cantaloupes unite all the good qualities of form,
size, color and flavor. Jersey sands seem to be the home of the canta-
loupe.

733. Q. When does the pollination of squash, melon, cucumber, and Pollination.
flow^ers of all other vine plants of like character take place?

A. Nearly always early in the morning, and generally through the
agency of insects. Some time may elapse during the passage through the
style to the ovules, but it gets there finally. The female flower of the
cucurbit family generally produces an embryo fruit or ovary before fecun-
dation. Their fruit, if not fecundated, either produce unvitai seed or most
generally drop off". Vine crops are retarded in pollination when frequent

118

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Keeping
Sugar Corn.

Under-
ground
Grubs.

Classes of
Insects.

Insects in
Glass House.

Cabbage
Heading.

Vital
Melon Seeds,

Cabbage
liice.

foggy mornings occur during the period of blooming, tlie water wetting
the pollen and the succeeding hot sun burning it.

734. Q. I buy my Sugar corn seed always about January 1, and when
I come to unpack it in February 1 often notice a musty smell about it.
How can I prevent this ?

A. Sugar corn is very full of oil, which becomes rancid if the seed is
not dried thoroughly. Received in January, or even in February, it
should be immediately taken out of the original packages, bags or boxes,
and spread out, not over four inches deep, on a cool floor. If this pre-
caution is not taken there may be much complaint from planters that the
vitality proved to be low, when its failure to sprout was entirely the fault
of the merchant or dealer.

735. Q. What are the various articles which I can use to kill grubs and
worms under the surface of the soil ?

A. Kerosene emulsion, kainit, bisulphide of carbon, all are effective.

736. Q. How many classes of insects has a gardener to flght?

A. 1. Those known as external feeders, comprehending all which bite
and eat vegetable matter.

2. Those known as sap-suckers, which puncture vegetable tissues and
extract the juices.

3. Those known as internal feeders, which exist within the stems of
plants.

4. Subterranean insects, which eat vegetable matter beneath the surface.

5. Those which destroy the dry seeds, either from the exterior or in-
terior.

737. Q. How can I best kill lice and other insects on melon plants in
my glass house ?

A. Fumigate with tobacco twice a week. Don't wait till damage is
done, but smoke before the lice curl the leaves. Mites and mealy-bugs
can be knocked off the vines by a hard stream of water. Bisulphide of
carbon, when it can be applied to plants under a bell glass, is very effec-
tive, but the chemical is explosive and poisonous. Suli^hur fumes are an
invaluable agent in destroying mildew and red spider. There is no ex-
cuse for failure to kill insects inside of a glass house.

738. Q. Why do cabbage plants sometimes fail to head, though fully
old enough and planted out early enough ?

A. Because of a want of nutrition. Cabbage plants sufficiently fed,
and given time enough, will always head, provided the variety be of a
heading sort.

739. Q. Is a melon seed from a fruit in edible condition perfectly de-
veloped ?

A. Quite sufficiently developed. Allowed to remain in the fruit till it
decayed, the seed would probably more fully fill out and become heavier,
and retain its vitality for a year or two longer.

740. Q. Is there a reliable remedy which can be used to rid cabbage
plants of lice 1

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 119

A. Kerosene emulsion is probably the best — nothing is a positive
cure.

741. Q. What is the effect of the successive use for years of but one Commercial
kind of commercial fertilizer? Fertuizerg.

A. The land will gradually decrease in productive capacity. Any, or
all, commercial fertilizers used for years successively without stable man-
ure or green crops plowed under will in the end be disappointing.

742. Q. My lettuce, which promised a big profit, nearly all decayed i^ettuce
before maturity. What is the cause ? ungi*

A. No doubt a fungus, for which there is no efTective remedy, the let-
tuce leaves being too delicate to resist treatment. The only remedy is to .
avoid that field the next year.

743. Q. Which is the most productive third early pea of excellent Bioomsdaie
quality for private or market garden ? ^®*'

A. The Bioomsdaie pea is phenomenally productive and in eating
qualities surpassed only by the Landreths' Extra Early, having its size,
color, flavor and general appearance when cooked. It matures its
pods for table sixty -fi^e days from germination and continues to bear for
ten days a profusion of pods containing nine to ten peas in a pod.

744. Q. Of tomatoes now in general cultivation which is the most Best
showy as respects color, size and shape ? Tomatoes.

A. The Stone ; but several of the Bioomsdaie Hybrids are superior to it
in productiveness, earliness and shape.

745. Q. What vegetables are there which can be grown in this country Unusual
and which are really worthy of general culture, but which are not so cul- ^ ®^®****^*'**
tivated ?

A. Swiss Chard beet, the thick, marrow-like ribs of the leaves of
which are eaten when prepared like stewed celery. Broccoli, which some-
times succeeds where cauliflower fails. Brussels sprouts, which if not
destroyed by lice will grow to perfection wherever the cabbage will flour-
ish. Dandelion, the leaves furnishing an excellent salad. Sorrel, the
long-leaved, very popular in France and Germany as a salad. Cos let-
tuce, a form which should be better known.

746. Q. How many kinds of insects are there feeding upon garden Number of
vegetables, and how many sorts of rusts are there which efl'ect a lodg- insects and
ment upon garden vegetables ? ^** *'

A. Vegetables, like men, are subject to so many diseases that it is a
wonder they ever arrive at maturity. To enumerate the number of in-
sects would be difiicult, especially as the number is always changed by
the apparent disappearance of some and the unexpected appearance of
others. So also with fungi, there being increase and diminution by con-
ditions of moisture, heat, and previous condition of soil.

747. Q. What is the most intensive branch of commercial vegetable intensive

a Culture.

growmg ?

A. Winter culture under glass as specially applied to the growing of
tomatoes, cantaloupes, mushrooms, cucumbers and cauliflowers.

120

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Omameiital
Flowers.

Bordeaux
Mixture.

Bordeaux
Mixture and
Paris Green.

Poisoning by

Bordeaux

Itlixtui'e.

History of
Bordeaux
Mixture.

Time to
DriU.

748. Q. Why cannot I succeed in Virginia in growing ornamental
flowers with the same success as I did in England?

A. In England the climate is damp, while in Virginia it is dry, the annual
rainfall in Virginia not being over one-third of as many inches of water.
Some seasons annual and biennial flowers do admirably in the vicinity of
Philadelphia, other years they are miserable failures, all depending upon
the climatic conditions in June, July and August.

749. Q. Will the repeated application of Bordeaux mixture poison the
soil?

A. No records of any injury, the copper sulphate being neutralized by
the lime.

750. Q. Can Bordeaux mixture, a fungicide, be mixed with an insecti-
cide, and both applied at once ?

A. Yes ; Paris green or London purple can be mixed with Bordeaux
mixture — one pound of the arsenite to 100 gallons of Bordeaux — and used
to good efi'ect. As the mixture is very tenacious, care must be observed
not to apply it immediately before the ripening of fruit, as rain will not
entirely wash off" the application, and some poison might remain on the
fruit or vegetable.

751. Q. Is there danger of poisoning members of the human family
through fruits or vegetables which have been sprayed by Bordeaux
mixture?

A. None whatever, so far as any records go ; but it is best to avoid
risks, and as maturation of fruits or vegetables approach to decrease to
one-half the strength of the solution.

752. Q. What is Bordeaux mixture? When was it introduced and
what is it used for ?

A. It was introduced among the grape growers of Bordeaux, France,
about 1878, but not brought into prominent notice until six to seven years
later, when it was largely used in the treatment of black rot and downy
mildew. This fungicide is now in more general use in the United States
than in any other pai't of the world because American cultivators as a
mass are more progressive men than foreigners. Much confusion exists
as to its preparation. The general standard now may be taken as six
pounds of good copper sulphate, free from iron or zinc, four pounds of
strong, fresh quicklime, twenty-two gallons of water. This mixture,
which may be diluted by the admixture of two or three parts more of
water, is used for spraying fruit trees, and all garden productions for the
destruction of any vegetable fungous growth.

753. Q. When drilling garden seeds is it best to drill before or after a
rain?

A. If the drilling is done before rain the seed may lay without sprout-
ing for days or even weeks, and the land baked hard as a brick, or if the
seed sprouts from a little moisture it may subsequently die for want of
more moisture. If rain quickly follows the drilling the germinating con-
ditions may be all right, but the seed may be washed out of the drills or

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 121

may be covered deeply by flooding and the stand be unsatisfactory. On
the other hand, drilling after a rain is best, because germination follows
immediately and uniformly with little risk of a setback to the crop.

754. Q. Is it a saving in labor and time to have long or short fields on Plowing and

a farm ? Cultivating.

A. It is decidedly economical in time to have a farm laid out in long
fields, but it is seldom appreciated. On an acre field of ninety yards in
length the time consumed in turning a plow and team on headlands is
over three hours out of a day of ten hours, but on a field 300 yards long the
time consumed is but one hour.

755. Q. How far does a plowman walk in turning over an acre of ground? Plowman.
A. If his furrow slices be nine inches wide he has to walk over seven

miles to the acre.

756. Q. Do garden vegetables possess any quality like sensation ? Plant
A. Most certainly ; their vital force in many instances being quite

animal ; and, more than that, they sometimes seem to possess intellect.
They collapse under chloroform ; they perish under many poisons which
destroy animal life ; they possess a circulation, which sometimes can be
seen, their pollen unerringly performs its functions. In cases of vege-
table irritability there are many plants, notably aquatic, which act more
curiously than the Sensitive plant ; indeed, so briskly locomotive as to
make it difticult to determine whether vegetable or animal. In the case
of the so-called meat-eating plants some of the flowers display extreme
irritability when meat is brought near to them, while they are entirely
passive upon the approach of all other objects.

757. Q. Are not yellow ruta bagas and yellow carrots more nutritious ^'"t*> and
than white ruta bagas and white carrots ? r**'* ^

A. As a rule, vegetables of deep colors are considered richer than those
without color. But this is probably a fiction ; the most sugary beets used
in Europe for sugar-making are white. The sweetest of all table beets,
the Bassano, is nearly white.

758. Q. How can I kill the last crop of potato bugs, so that I may par- Potato Bug.
tially rid my fields of the pest for next year?

A. After the potato crop is harvested take a portion of the small, un-
salable tubers, and chop them up in halves and quarters and dust them
well with Paris green. Broadcast these poisoned pieces over the potato
field and they will soon be covered with bugs, all of whom will be killed.

759. Q. How can I protect my watermelon patch from crows, which Crows.
plug the fruit ?

A. Dissolve a quarter ounce of strychnine in four quarts of water and
into the solution put one-half bushel of corn. Let it soak for ten hours.
Spread the soaked corn over bare spots in the melon field and the crows
will not come back for a second dose.

760. Q. Is there such a thing as a rust-proof Wax bean, and will not the Rust-proof
so-called Rust-proof Wax bean rust under certain conditions ? If so, what Wax Beau,
is the nature of such conditions ?

122

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Radish —
Poor Crop,

Fungicide.

Agrricultural
Discovery.

A. All beans will rust under conditions of damp atmosphere. The
disease, as it is called, is a fungous growth, which may be partially routed
by the application of Bordeaux mixture, but it must not be applied to
marketable beans

761. Q. I have a patch of radish growing from a remnant of your seed
left over from last year, when the style of the roots were perfect, but this
year the same lot of seed produces roots of all shapes.

A. This will sometimes happen, and is a consequence of field conditions
or local influence ; each case has its own explanation. We cannot be held
responsible for these variabilities.

762. Q. What is the best fungicide?
A, Bordeaux mixture, by all odds. Any one can make it and apply it.

When a pump or syringe cannot be had, it can be dashed on the plants
with a broom dipped repeatedly in a bucket.

763. Q. What is the latest agricultural discovery?
A. That the roots of the leguminous family develop corpuscles which

absorb nitrogen from the air and thus enrich the soil for the feeding of
succeeding crops. The eflFect of leguminous plants is not new, but the
manner of their storage of nitrogen is a new discovery, first announced in
1886 by Professor Hollriegel.
Green Crops. 764. Q. Where I came from, in Germany, the soil of whole districts
has been raised from poverty to fertility by plowing under green crops of
lupines. Why is it not done in parts of Virginia?

A. Because the lupine will not thrive in Virginia for want of sufficient
moisture in the air and soil. Try cow peas, which will do perfectly well.

765. Q. Is not cauliflower an uncertain crop ?
A. Sometimes, but not always ; for localities are known where it is

uniformly a success — so much so that three and four fine crops can be
successively grown on the same field, while, curious to say, other fields
not far distant and apparently of same character and quality prove to be
not adapted to the crop. A salt atmosphere is particularly favorable to
the perfection of cauliflower, but in itself is no assurance of success ;
favorable soil is an equal necessity. These two are not all, for supple-
mental to them must be a moist, cool atmosphere during the heading sea-
son. It is easy to grow cauliflower leaves — they will grow on any cab-
bage soil — but to produce good heads of cauliflowers more is required than
pertains to the most famous cabbage-growing sections.

766. Q. Why are more sports found in a poor crop of cantaloupes or
watermelons than in a good crop, both good and poor patches grown from
seed out of the same package ?

A. The seed being the same, the unfavorable circumstances producing
the poor crop, which circumstances may have been too early or too late
planting, want of moisture, want of fertility, insect attack or fungous
growth, are the causes of a variation of uneven growth of vine, unequal
development of fruit, all resulting in a variation of shape, flavor, or other
usual or normal qualities.

Cauliflower.

Cantaloupes.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 123

767. Q. When potatoes of different sorts are grown side by side, will Potato.
the mixing or hybridization between the flowers of distinct sorts produce

any appreciable change in the tubers?

A. No effect whatever, the seed in the seed-balls only being affected.
Every potato is like a graft or bud from the original parent, and pollina-
tion don't affect it in the least.

768. Q. Does a rank growth of vegetables induce a tendency in them Qualities of
to take on new qualities ? Vegetables.

A. Yes ; it does. The most intense development of qualities of approved
color, form and flavor are best perpetuated in half-starved plants. On the
contrary, a luxurious growth causes plants to sport in all directions, to
run off at tangents, generally to the bad.

769. Q. I find in my lettuce seed some sort of an insect which spins a Lettuce
web, causing the seed to adhere in lumps. Why did you send me unclean ^^ect.
seed?

A. Nearly all oily seeds stored under conditions favorable to the devel-
opment of eggs will hatch out insects. Many of these insects will spin
webs or otherwise cause the seed to adhere in lumps. Nearly every seed
has its insect aflinity, which deposits eggs in the immature seed while
standing in the field. The grubs from these eggs will hatch out under
conditions favorable. The pea bug and the bean weevil are familiar ex-
amples. Lettuce seed, cabbage and turnip and vine seed all have their
insect enemies.

770. Q. Why is it that such seeds as I have to keep for over a few Humidity
months in my store here at Summerville, Ala., lose so much of their ^^^^^^s
vitality ? ^**^*-

A. Because of the moisture in your atmosphere swelling the germs, to
be afterwards dried by change of air and successively swollen and dried
several times, so that vitality is seriously weakened. This condition
applies in various degrees to all those sections of the Gulf States where
forest moss luxuriates. Where the moss flourishes the most vigorously
the conditions stimulating its growth are intensely destructive to seed
vitality, all this the result of moisture in the air blown in from the warm,
damp waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

771. Q. Among the Yankees, Winter squashes have a great celebrity, winter
and I have eaten them in Boston with relish, but down here in Carolina ^i"**'*'
am disappointed. Why is it ?

A. Altogether climatic. With you in the South they grow too fast and
become coarse, stringy, tough and are deficient in sugar. They do best
in the North.

773. Q. Will corn grown from grain taken from points and butts of ears Corn.
degenerate ?

A. Not in one year ; but if such selection be continued for two years or
more a change would be very noticeable. The practice even for one year
is not to be encouraged.

773. Q. Which is the standard variety of late cabbage ? ^**®

^ J & Cabbage.

124:

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Phonograph
Pea.

Squash Vine.

Clover.

Cultivation

During

Drought.

Weeds on
Lawn.

Cucumber
Beetle.

Cabbage for
Florida.

A. Landreths' Large Late Flat Dutch is the unit of comparison by
which all other late sorts are graded. None exceed it and few equal it.
Variations of this cabbage have been given all sorts of names, but new
names make it no better, while the selection is often made by men who
do not know what constitutes a good cabbage.

774. Q. Which is one of the best of the very large-podded peas?

A. The Phonograph, almost as large podded as the Telephone. Quite
as early and productive and in every way its equal, in fact far sweeter in
flavor.

775. Q. What is the matter with my Hubbard squash vines ? They are
nearly all dying.

A. No doubt they are dying at the root, either from an insect attack or
from a fungus, probably now too far gone to do anything to save them.
Another year, when the plants are just beginning to run, treat them at
the root, both with Bordeaux mixture and an insecticide.

776. Q. Is it advantageous to sow ordinary Red clover with Crimson
clover, that the Crimson may have a succession ?

A, No ; the Crimson to be any good should form a dense mass the first
Spring, and such a growth would smother out the much less developed
plants of the common Red clover.

777. Q. Will frequent horse cultivation of a crop in dry weather tend
to provide the crop with more moisture at the root than if left without
cultivation ?

A. Yes ; the soil kept loose absorbs more moisture than it loses. Keep
the horse cultivator going even if it kills a few plants, the others will be
benefited to more than compensate for those injured by the culture.

778. Q. For twenty years weekly, during Summer, I have cut my lawn
with a horse lawn mower and no weed has gone to seed or risen over two
inches in height. This Summer I was in Europe, and upon my return I
find my once beautiful grass a wilderness of all sorts of weeds. How is it?

A. This is one of the conumdrums of horticulture. It is always so
with any field not kept in control, be it grass or fallow. The seeds have
been there all the time, a part sprouting every year, but formerly the
young weed plants were cut off soon after germination. On this
occasion they were not so cut off, but attained full size, for weeds nearly
always grow quickly.

779. Q. Does the little, striped cucumber beetle come out of the land,
or do the seeds of the cucumber contain the beetle?

A. No, not out of the seed, but from the earth. Lime and salt, when
not applied in too large a dose, are beneficial. Kainitis good, so is nitrate
of soda. Don't overdo the medicine.

780. Q. Which is the best cabbage for Florida and the Gulf States, for
July planting?

A. Reedland Early Drumhead, as it stands the sun without burning or
wilting, and has proved itself in every way adapted to the prevailing
conditions of the Gulf atmosphere.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 125

781. Q. What is the best spraying apparatus? Spraying
A. We decline to take sides on this question. Many are the best, if the '^pp**"**'*^'

manufacturers are to be believed. That one is good which throws the
liquid to a distance and with force and well subdivided. Spraying to do
any good must not be done in a hurry, but done efficiently. It must be
done at the right time, and the mixture correctly prepared and continually
kept in agitation, that the parts may be kept in a perfect uniformity of
suspension or admixture. The aim in spraying should be to cover every
leaf with minute particles of the fungicide or insecticide, dropped on
them so lightly as to remain and dry there, leaving the destructive prin-
ciple behind. If put on in large drops it runs off and no practical results
are attained.

782. Q. What is celery blight ? Celery
A. Different developments of fungi, generally contracted in the seed BUght.

bed ; consequently the seed beds should be sprayed with Bordeaux mix-
ture and the field plants also, but not when approaching maturity, as that
might be dangerous to consumers. It is difficult when the plants are
large to treat them, as the blight or rot affects the centre of the plants.
Less blight occurs when the celery is bleached between boards than when
bleached by banking in earth.

788. Q. What is the disease or rust occurring on beans and known as Bean
anthracnose ? Anthracnose.

A. It is a parasitic fungus attacking any part of the tissues of the root,
stem, leaves or pods of either bush or pole beans. It appears in the
forms of ulcers, or sunken black and rusty spots, and is very contagious, a
diseased pod or leaf quickly inoculating another. For instance, a basket
of green pods, some diseased, others healthy, may in twenty-four hours,
by contagion, all become diseased during the period of transportation.
The disease can be transferred from place to place by a hoe or other im-
plement. Wet weather is particularly favorable to the spread of this dis-
ease. Soaking the seed beans in fungicides fails to do much good — better
results are attained by a weak solution of Bordeaux mixture applied to
the plants every ten days. Too m«ch Bordeaux mixture dwarfs the bean
plants, or any other plant.

784. Q. Is the anthracnose the only disease affecting beans? Bean

A. No ; there are several others, prominent among which is a bacterial ■^^*^^^*^°°^*
disease known as the bean blight, under which the foliage becomes
yellow, spotted and soon dead. Another, known as the bean rust, is
the outward sign of an attack of fungi which develops inside of the tis-
sues of the leaf, and breaks out in the form of a discharge of rusty spores
all capable of reproduction. Bordeaux mixture is the most satisfactory
remedy to keep these in check. It will not stop them from originating.
The scientific men have accomplished much in ferreting out the character
of these diseases and are diligently endeavoring to find preventives, but
nothing yet has been found which might be termed dead sure to stop

126

QUERIES AXD ANSWERS.

SoiliDg.

Cantaloape.

Cos Lettuce.

Watermelon.

Long Green
Cucumbers.

Earliest
Cucumber.

Lettuce
Trans-
planting.

Ruta Bagas.
or

Swedes.

these bean diseases. Of course the fungi can be killed, and so can the
bean plants.

785. Q. What is meant by soiling ?

A. Feeding cattle, kept up in stalls or pens, food consisting of green
stuff, as rye grass, millet or corn, taken off in sections from a field planted
for the purpose. To cut for soiling the crop is always grown very thickly
and it is fed when in full vigor of growth. At first care must be exer-
cised or horses or cattle will overfeed.

786. Q. Which is the superior in quality of cantaloupes, those of green
or yellow flesh ?

A. As a rule green-fleshed are the best in texture and best in flavor.
Yellow-fleshed sorts are generally tough and meaty — the green flesh
being more crystalline.

787. Q. Is Cos lettuce treated the same as other sorts of lettuce ?

A. No ; the erect leaves must be tied up with string, straw or grass.
Thus treated the interior leaves become blanched to snowy whiteness
and become brittle as glass. To those liking an absolutely pure, white-
leaved lettuce the Cos has no superior.

788. Q. What are the indications of ripeness in a watermelon ?

A. The spiral, wire like tendril at the stem end of the melon is brown,
the white bottom on the earth side of the melon has become woody, and
upon gently thumping with the back of the finger nail various melons,
the sound will be found in unripe ones to be clear and bell -like, seeming
to run down and through the melons, while in ripe ones the sound is dull,
heavy and is not transmitted through the melon, because of a change in
the character of the interior. By the tapping system an expert can dis-
tinguish ripe from unripe melons in an instant.

789. Q. Are there two sorts of Long Green cucumbers ?

A. Yes ; the Long Green as ordinarily sold and the Long Green Turkey.
The first is like an Early Frame, the second is slimmer and twice the
length of Frame, sometimes twenty inches. The Turkey is a remarkably
good sort, fine for pickling green, and when larger, very showy as a
slicing sort.

790. Q. Which is the earliest long cucumber?

A. The Landreths' First. Not only early as the very short sorts, but
exceedingly long. Not so long as a Long Green Turkey, but two weeks
earlier than the Turkey and several days earlier than Spine or Frame.

791. Q. Is it necessary to transplant lettuce to incline it to head?

A. Not absolutely necessary, but of decided advantage, as the tempo-
rary check to vitality and the deeper setting in the earth all conduce to
tiie development of a heading tendency.

793. Q. There are a great many ruta bagas offered to planters, which
sort is the best ?

A. None can be compared to the Bloomsdale Swede. It is the earliest,
roundest, largest, smoothest, best colored and most showy. Without any

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 127

neck, with few root fibres, and the best "Winter keeper of all forms of
Ruta Bagas,

793. Q. I only want to cultivate one sort of cauliflower. Which vari- Cauliflower,
ety do you recommend ?

A. The Snowball. Early and reliable in a cauliflower country. If
you are not in such a locality it is not worth while to try and grow them
in the open field. Of course they can be grown under glass anywhere
under proper conditions of treatment.

794. Q. A portion of my lawn, which I did not keep mowed down, is Sorrel.
full of sorrel. How can I get rid of it ?

A. Broadcast air-slacked lime at the rate of fifty bushels to the acre —
the land is sour — that will sweeten it.

795. Q. When drilling ruta baga seed, radish, spinach and other small Drilling.
seeds, should not the man pushing the drill straddle the row so as not to
tramp on the freshly placed seed?

A. No ; let him walk right on top of the drill mark. If he had four feet
he would not do any injury. Where he tramps the seed will be up first
if the weather is dry. This indicates how advantageous rolling is, pro-
vided the ground be not wet and provided there be no rain for one or two
days.

796. Q. Which are the most showy varieties of cantaloupes for exhibi- cantaloupes,
tion purposes ? Showy Sorts.

A. The Large White French and the Large Black Paris. Tested in the
trial grounds of the Rural New Yorker, they were pronounced in Septem-
ber, 1894, the most remarkable ever seen for size, general appearance,
and quality, and most highly recommended to the public.

797. Q. Which is the largest white flat onion ? Onion.
A. The Bloomsdale Pearl. Early, large, flat — very mild.

798. Q. Which spinach will stand the longest in the garden without spi^ach.
shooting to seed ?

A. The Ever Ready ; the leaves very thick, dark and sturdy, and only
shooting to seed long after other sorts have completely dried up.

799. Q. Among onions, which is the earliest to make sets? Onion.
A. The Bermuda Red.

800. Q. My turnip field, which two days ago was fine, the plants being xurnip Fly.
one inch high and thick in the rows, is to-day all eaten up by a black

bug. What can I do ?

A. Nothing but drill another field, it may be eaten up also — you will
have to run that risk. The turnip fly, a jumping beetle, is at times ex-
ceedingly destructive, eating the plants when from one-tenth to one inch
high. After the plants develop the rough leaf they are comparatively
safe. There is no remedy against this insect, as it often destroys the crop
the day after hatching out, generally destroying it before the insect is
known to be present at all.

801. Q. Is it best to spread and turn under long-strawed barnyard gj^j.^^.^
manure in the Autumn, or pile it for further decomposition and for appli- Manure.
cation in the Spring?

128

QUERIES AND ANSWERS,

Peat.

Cantaloupe.

Forcing
Lettuces.

Fungicides

and

Insecticides.

Cabbage
for Autumn.

Weeds on
Tennis Court,

"Weeds

in General.

Good Roads.

A. Better pile it for further fermentation, provided it be piled and
attended to so as not to burn or fire-fang, otherwise nearly all the valu-
able properties will leave it. If this attention cannot be given it better
spread it and plow under in the Fall.

802. Q. Is peat valuable as a fertilizer ?

A. Yes, to a small extent ; but principally as an alterative, and as an
aerator to heavier or lighter soils. It pays for digging and hauling on
one's own farm at odd times, but it has no commercial value.

803. Q. What do you consider one of the best citrons or muskmelons?
A. The Annie Arundel cantaloupe or muskmelon — good size, oval to

pointed, well ribbed, green in flesh and of exquisite flavor ; a good shipper.

804. Q. Name one of the best forcing lettuces.

A. The New York Experimental Station has two or three times an-
nounced that Landreths' Forcing was one of the best. The Virginia
Solid Header is an excellent one.

805. Q. Can I plant my garden crops with confidence that, through the
practical application of scientifically compounded fungicides and insecti-
cides, I will be assured of my ability to keep the plants healthy ?

A. No ; the treatment of plant diseases is met with at every turn by
unexpected checks and unlooked-for changes in conditions. The treat-
ment against insects and fungi is at the most palliative. The scientists
are always most sanguine, but the practical farmer and gardener know
well how often their treatments fail to attain the results which they were
so certain of securing

806. Q. What is the best variety of cabbage for Autumn sowing?

A. For early Fall the Reedland Early Drumhead. For Winter sow
Market Gardeners' Large Late Plat Dutch.

807. Q. I have a dirt lawn tennis court in which weeds are continually
growing, and write to inquire how to prevent them from appearing ?

A. Spread a half bushel of salt on the court and two bushels of air-
slacked lime. These applications will destroy weed seeds upon germi-
nating and drive off" worms, grubs and other insects.

808. Q. Where do the weeds come from ?

A. From your own carelessness or that of your predecessors. Not one-
quarter of the weed seeds which ripen upon a cultivated field germinate
the next year. Those which do, are mostly killed, but those seeds which
do not germinate just lay in the ground awaiting favorable opportunity.
To these seeds laying dormant are every year added a fresh supply, so
that your soil — all soils — are thoroughly stocked with seeds ready to spring
into life under favorable conditions. To many seeds these conditions may
not come for years. To some not for twenty years, but when the condi-
tions do present themselves the weeds come up with the certainty of taxes.

809. Q. Is the so-called good roads agitation, which will increase the
taxes of farmers, in their interest ?

A. Farmers as a rule are blind as bats. They are so afraid of taxation
as to stand in the way of their own interests. Farmers, rather than

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 129

repair a mud hole at the county's expense, still more at their own, will
drag along through it for weeks. Not only one hole but a score, if, in-
deed, the whole length of a frequently traveled road is not in a wretched
condition — dragging along day by day, wrenching their wagons, breaking
their harness, injuring their horses and souring their tempers. They are
afraid of doing something which may add to the comfort of some one who
did not contribute to the improvement. It is this penny-wise and pound-
foolish policy which prevents farming from being as profitable as it should
be, and which brings ridicule so much upon the farming community.

810. Q. What is the best shipping watermelon ? Watermelon,
A. If to withstand rough usage on railroads the Kolb Gem, but it is shipper.

the poorest in quality of any to be found in market. The taste of the
whole melon-loving community has been debased by the use of these
miserable Kolb Gems. The best watermelon, all things considered, is
Arkansas Traveler, color, black green, rind very tough and woody, but
extremely thin, flesh deep scarlet, and edible to within half an inch of the
outside, interior always solid crystalline, exceedingly juicy, and sugary to
the most remarkable degree, and yet the rind is hard as wood, fitting it to
bear long transportation and rough usage.

811. Q. I am a canner of peas and find it difllcult to put up a perfectly peas
iiniform grade, in fact I am surprised to find so great a difference in the for Canning.
same variety of peas ?

A. The fault is probably your own. You possibly do not buy the
green pods in the same condition one time with another ; or perhaps you
buy too many at a time, and the last of the lot before you get to it is hard
and off-color. Don't always blame the seedsman — look a little at home.

812. Q. I want to put down a two-acre lot in grass for my cows. Pasture
"Which kind or variety of grass is the quickest and most permanent ? Grass.

A. Blue grass is not quick, but by all odds it is the best. On a lime-
stone soil it will remain good for fifty years.

813. Q. What is the best shipping cantaloupe? Cantaloupe.
A. Strongly webbed or netted sorts will stand abrasion during

transportation. This quality, however, is no measure of flavor. But
both for shipping and eating, none are superior to Anne Arundel.

814. Q. I have just dug my potatoes and they are covered with scabs. Potato Scab.
What is the cause ?

A. The injury may be from several causes : the tubers at one period of
their growth may have been overcharged with juice which burst the skin,
and nature endeavoring to heal the wounds produced scars or the scabs
may be the result of a fungous growth upon the skin. This could have
been diminished if not nearly all prevented by giving the planting stock,
after cutting, a bath in corrosive sublimate.

815. Q. What are the best varieties of lettuce for Autumn use ? liettuce.
A. Bloomsdale Early Summer, Virginia Solid Header, and Reliable.

816. Q. What do the commercial manure men mean by available phos- Phosphtai-ic
phoric acid ? Acid.

130

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Fhosplioric
Acid.

Tomatoes
Sunburned.

Imported
Cabbage.

Onions
Staggy.

Rye, Winter
or Spring ?

Wood Ashes.

A. They classify phosphoric acid in three forms : 1. Soluble. 2. The
Reverted, slightly soluble. 3. The Insoluble. The third gradually be-
comes available to very slow-growing plants, but it is not slightly active
as is the Reverted, or as the first, which is altogether active. It would
be best for purchasers to insist upon having the analysis of the soluble
alone, as distinct not only from the Insoluble but also distinct from the
Reverted.

817. Q. "What is the matter with my tomatoes? The sort is Beauty, and
very large and perfect, but nearly all have a big lemon-colored spot on
one side.

A. They are sunburned. To prove it examine those covered with
leaves, which you will find without the yellow spots. It is a good plan to
sow buckwheat upon a tomato patch when the plants first come into
bloom to protect the fruit against sunburn.

818. Q. I bought in St. Louis three pounds of so-called Late Flat
Dutch cabbage seed, which in the bed and afterwards in the field
looked all right, but now in September the plants have lost half of their
leaves.

A. No doubt you got imported seed. Late varieties of imported cab-
bage seed never do well in this country. You probably bought it at a
cheap price and you have gotten your reward. The imported sorts lose
their leaves in time of drought. No reliance whatever can be placed
upon them, for our sun is too hot except in the far Northern tier of States.

819. Q. What is the cause of my onions growing staggy or stifl!" necked.
Is it the fault of the seed or climatic condition ? The seedsman from whom
I bought the seed. Red Wethersfield, says it is due to the wet season.

A. Both wet and very dry seasons will tend to develop the growth of
stags in onions, even from the very best seed. Too much moisture
makes them so rampant they having no time to stop to bulb, and on the
other hand a very dry season don't develop in them vital force enough to
make bulbs ; but there is another cause which often results in a staggy
growth, that is in the sowing of imported seed from Italy or other cheap
sections of Europe. The market gardener who purchases cheap onion
seed or get it from unproved parties deserves to have a crop of stags.

830. Q. What is the difl'erence between Winter and Spring rye? Can
the Spring rye be used for sowing in the Autumn ?

A. Yes, with a fair prospect of standing the Winter, if it be mild. A
first crop of Spring rye sown in the Autumn of course would not possess
that hardiness of constitution which it could acquire if the system was
continued for several years. Winter rye sown in Spring might not ripen,
might only produce empty heads on account of an iusuflicient develop-
ment previous to the setting in of hot weather. For example, Virginia
Winter oats sown in Pennsylvania in April does very well but ripens
three weeks later than Spring oats.

831. Q. What effect has the application of wood ashes upon lawns?

A. The potash of wood ashes makes the grass a deep green and strong

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 131

in root, but it is not so stimulating to leaf production as guano or nitro-
genous manure. It is best applied in Winter, as in Summer it is very
likely to burn the leaves of the grass. Applied in "Winter, 1000 to 2000
pounds to the acre, the rains dissolve it and wash it into the soil, where it
gradually becomes assimilable as plant food to be drawn upon for use in
the Spring and Summer. It is quite continuous in effect.

822. Q. Do local climatic conditions have much influence upon the Climatic

., f. 1 . o Conditions

growth of plants ? as Affecting

A. It is both curious and very instructive to investigate the effects of ****n*'*'
climate upon garden vegetables grown from seed. lu fact a removal of
but a few miles from a locality is in some cases sufficient to produce
marked results, not because of a change of soil, for that can be mechani-
cally manipulated, at least on small patches for garden purposes, but
entirely because of change in atmospheric conditions. Thus, for instance.
Long Island fiirmers grow very profitable crops of cauliflower of most
inviting form, size and color, and with no more care than bestowed upon
a crop of cabbage, whilst no success whatever can be expected with a
field crop of cauliflower in the vicinity of Philadelphia, only one hundred
miles distant, even though the same seed be used — all attributable
entirely to a difference of climatic conditions of the two localities. The
influence of climate is also observed in the case of the onion, as in Con-
necticut there are grown, direct from the seed, thousands of acres of prof-
itable field crops of onions unrivaled in form, size and color, but the same
seed sown in Pennsylvania will only make sets, and poor ones at that,
often only stags. Again, Philadelphia-grown onion seed sown in the
vicinity of Philadelphia will always make sets, but it is never profitable
to make big bulbs, the climate is against it ; but in all other sections this
same Philadelphia seed will develop bulbs of full marketable size.

823. Q. What is humus, and is it of much value? Humas.
A. It is a vegetable and sometimes partially animal mold, and is

generally a black powdery substance in the last condition of decomposi-
tion. It may have been wood, straw, leaves, peat, or all of these and
more, exposed for a long time to moisture and the action of air. A good
example of vegetable mold turning to humus is that carpeting the ground
in old forests, a spongy covering obstructing evaporation and absorbing
rain and snow. Humus is dissipated by slow combustion in air, and in
decomposition forms nitric acid. Soils are fertile in proportion to the
humus they contain, and it preserves them in a loose state for air and
water to enter ; the loss of humus consequently results in a drying up and
hardening of the soil. It is valuable, as under the influence of microbes
and alkalines the humic matter is oxydized and a part transformed into
nitrates. Without humus in the soil no plants of the legume family, and
they comprise peas, beans and clover, can flourish. Possibly the reason
some soils fail to grow clover is because of the exhaustion of the humus
in them.

824. Q. Why is it that a large quantity of onion seed of European imported

Onion.

132

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

A Seed,
What Is It?

growth is so unreliable in this country, generally making stags or thick
necks ?

A. There are several causes ; many varieties of high reputation in
Europe never doing well south of Canada. The varieties not acclimated
will not stand our semi-tropical sun ; some other sorts which sometimes
do well have proved to be unreliable because too often grown in climates
not favorable to the retention of their desired qualities — these causes and
others result in stags, bad shapes, mixed forms and colors, and very
often disappointment, and loss of crop.
New 825. Q. Are new sorts of potatoes, developed from the true seed col-

Potatoes. lected from seed balls borne on top of the vines, more healthy than
potatoes grown from the eyes of tubers of established sorts?

A. Often so, but not always. Seeds to produce healthly plants of any
kind must be grown from healthy plants ; consequently, if true potato seed
is picked off a vine of a potato plant which is unhealthy or running out, the
seed itself will be disposed to run out or develop some weakness. But the
seeds will vary, some will produce vines strong and desirable ; but the
majority from seed taken from unhealthy plants are entirely unreliable as
to constitution.
826. Q. What is a seed ?

A. A seed is a ripened ovule, made vital or able to perpetuate by the
mysterious action of pollen working upon the female organs of the
flower from whence the seed sprang. Nearly all seeds have two coats
which surround the kernel, which latter, the kernel, may be the embryo
alone, or it may be surrounded by a protecting and food substance
termed the endosperm, variably farinaceous, oily, fleshy, corneous, or
horny. The embryo is that part of the seed which starts into growth and
develops the young plant, in fact it is the young plant in miniature. The
location of the embryo on the seed is variable according to the species.
In corn and wheat it is not in the interior, but on one side and on the
surface.
Onion Thrip. 827. Q. What can I do with my onion field on which a little insect has
almost destroyed the crop by eating the soft bark of the young plants ?

A. If the insect referred to has eaten the cuticle of the leaves so that
they appear covered with minute whitish yellow spots almost touching,
making the field almost appear white, it is the work of the onion thrip.
It will also eat melon, squash, turnip and a number of other plants. Try
solution of whale oil soap or kerosene emulsion.
"Winter 828. Q. In this part of Virginia we grow white Winter wheat, but the

Wheat. millers all want a flinty hard sort, and I want to know if I can profitably

raise far Northern Spring wheats, which are all flint}^ by sowing them in
the Autumn ?

A. You can ; and it is being done in many localities. They stand the
Winter when not very severe, and the second year, grown South, do
better than the first, because of having been acclimated, but by the third
season the grain loses its flinty quality, becoming mealy.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 133

829. Q. After removing my cotton crop the fields became covered with Green

a growth of green stuff, and I write to inquire if it would have any value Manuring,
as a green manure?

A. I\Iost certainly. By all means plow under the weeds and grass. To
burn them is a most foolish practice. Plowed under before the seeds
ripen, no matter what kind of weed, they will to a small degree fertilize
the earth, and are valuable in loosening it so that air and moisture can
more readily penetrate it, and the roots of cultivated crops more freely
ramify. The continued application of commercial fertilizers will harden
and bake any land, consequently green manuring should be resorted
to whenever possible.

830. Q. What is the average percentage of the vitality of farm seeds ? Seed vitality.
A. The government of Switzerland has established a Seed Control

Station at Zurich, and during the year 1892 made nearly 6000 official
tests of vitality. The average was, of

Red Clover 88 per cent.

White Clover 77

Alsike Clover 78

Orchard Grass 81

Fox Tail .63

Blue Grass 55

The Austrian Seed Control Station in 1892, paying special attention to
the subject of Sugar Beet seed, established an official standard of 80 per
cent, of germinating clumps as indicative of excellence.

831. Q. Are all the vegetable oils of the same nature? Vegetable
A. No ; they nearly all differ, and are distinct in turn from the essential **'^**

oils of the same plants, the essential oils being all volatile. Fixed fats
and oils are found in many agricultural seeds, notably in rape, or colza,
flax, hemp, cotton, castor beans and peanuts. All these contain from
10 to 50 per cent, of expressable oil. The essential oils are obtained by
boiling and distillation, and it is these oils which give the odor to plants.

832. Q. My attention has been called to the condition of the leaves of Mining Flies.
my beets and radishes, all of which are channeled out or mined by some

worm. How can I stop it?

A. The injury is done by the larvae of some one of the mining flies.
There is no remedy to apply to the present crop. The only course is to
attempt to destroy the insects after they drop to the earth to remain all
Winter. This may be partially done by oil, salt, lime.

833. Q. Have you a table giving the number of plants to the acre of Plants
those sorts of garden vegetables which are usually or sometimes started *** Acre.
under glass for transplantation into open ground ?

A. The number of plants set to an acre depends on the distance be-
tween the rows and the spaces between the plants in rows, some market

134

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Orig^in of
some Double
Flowers.

Soil
£xhaustion.

Loss of

Soil

Fertility.

Koots,

Various

ICiuds.

gardeners setting more than twice as many as others, dependent upou
strength of soil. The following is an approximation of the quantities :

Cabbage 10,000

Cauliflower 10,000

Pepper 7,000

Tomatoes 3,000

Egg Plant 3,000

834. Q. How do gardeners obtain double flowers of ornamental plants?
A. A double flower is one in which some or all of the stamens or pistils

are changed to petals or flower leaves, or a flower in which the normal
number of flower leaves is greatly increased. The change results in the
loss of power in the plant to develop seed. It is often entirely brought
about by starvation of the growing plant, sometimes by debility in the
seed, a consequence of age or exposure.

835. Q. What proof is there that plants exhaust the soil ?

A. A good proof is that the soil in pots or tubs is exhausted by plants
remaining in the pots or tubs for a considerable time, the effect being
smaller foliage and flowers, and weak branches. As these conditions can
be relieved by the application of manure it is clearly demonstrable that
the soil was exhausted.

836. Q. How do soils become exhausted ?

A. Partially by the loss of nitrogen in the soil. Large amounts of
nitrogen are lost by natural soil drainage, the rains carrying down the
nitrogen to a depth beneath the reach of roots. This especially occurs on
fields not covered with crops, for when so covered the crop evaporation
keeps water up near the soil, but when bare the water sinks, taking the
nitrogen down. This is one argument for catch crops, that is, temporary
crops, quick growers, as Scarlet clover, or Cow peas. These cover the
ground, stopping drainage, and the leeching away of nitrogen, and if the
catch crops are well selected they add more nitrogen through their
growth. Nitrogen also becomes exhausted partially through a diminution
in humus, which by a chemical action and change aff'ords nitric nitrogen.
Nitrogen, however, is not the only food constituent which subsoil drain-
age removes, for there may be a loss of phosphoric acid and potash also.

837. Q. What are the names and distinctions of the fleshy, earthy
stems of plants ?

A. They are all classed as roots, but they are distinguished from roots
proper by producing regular buds or bearing scars indicating formed
leaves. A rhizom is a thickened starchy root stem, as illustrated by the
calamus or by the wire grass. A tuber is an enlargement of a bud of an
underground stem illustrated by the white potato. All tubers are rich
in starch. A bulb half in and half out of ground is an abbreviated stem,
formed of the basis of thickened leaves termed scales, illustrated by the
onion. Bulblets are small bulbs oflTset from large bulbs, often seen on
the outside of hyacinths. Corms are like bulbs but solid or without

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 135

scales. Roots, a term so frequently used in agriculture, indicate those
solid fleshy portions of plants ■which grow partly in and partly out of
ground, as beets, turnips, or carrots. The out-of-ground and underground
portions of beets have somewhat distinct characteristics. Nitrogenous
materials are more concentrated in the underground parts, while sugar is
found mostly in the above-ground portions.

838. Q. Why do the flowers of some garden vegetables retain their Retention of
freshness so much longer than others? Freshness.

A. Some plants pollenize much easier than others, and nature seems to
give a physical strength to certain flowers to retain their freshness while
awaiting pollination. It has been observed that quick-withering flowers
retain their freshness for unusual periods if not pollenized, seemingly
awaiting the event for which they were created, but as soon as the pollen
grains touch the pistils the flowers immediately lose their freshness.

839. Q. In the case of turnip seed, is new crop better than old crop? Turnip Seed.
A. If the old crop is not older than one year and was well harvested

and since well kept, it is as good as new — in fact better, as it will sprout
more uniformly, being more susceptible to a slight degree of moisture.
New crop turnip with some persons seems to have a charm, but it comes
in late, seldom ready before the lOlh of July, and what is gained in vital-
ity is lost by delay in planting. Of course two-thirds of what turnip
seed is sold as new crop is old crop ; not always of the preceding year,
however, for sometimes it is old enough to vote.

840. Q. Is there any way besides trapping by which I can rid my farm Moles.
of ground moles?

A. Try injecting into the mole runs, at distances often feet apart, a gill
of liquid bisulphide of carbon ; the poisonous fumes may kill the moles or
drive them away. Another remedy worth trying is to place small pieces
of meat with strychnine upon it in the runs.

841. Q. Is there any standard weight for a bushel of onion sets ? standard
A. No ; and there cannot be, for the reason that sets vary in weight ac- Weight.

cording to size and density, and they decrease in weight constantly from
time of harvest to time of planting, which may be a period of six months.
The only fair and just way of selling onion sets is by the bushel, and they
should be sold by a stroke bushel, for that measure is the same every-
where, a heaped or rounded bushel varying more or less according to the
spirit of the measurer.

842. Q. What is the Irish shamrock ? Shamrock
A. It is the White Dutch clover, common everywhere. WhiteClover.

843. Q. A friend in Brazil sent me some watermelon seeds from fruit „

-L • T-. Foreign

said to be the best m Rio, but upon trial I find them little better than seed.

pumpkins?

A. Just the experience of every one. The writer has repeatedly got
the best of sorts of all seeds from South America, and they seldom prove
of any value in Pennsylvania because of the change in climatic con-
ditions.

136

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Latitude
Affecting
Garden
Seeds.

Pollination of 844. Q. How do Water plants growing under water eflfect the pollina
Water Plants tjon of their flowers ?

A. Sometimes the male flowers are borne on short stems, and when
perfected detach themselves and rise to the surface, where they meet the
female flowers. At other times they are borne on long stems rising to
the surface. The female flowers are always borne on long stems or
peduncles reaching to the surface of the water where the pollination only
takes place. As a rule water plants will only grow where the flower
stems can reach the surface.

845. Q. What latitude or climate is best suited for the production of
garden seeds

A. It is well-known that garden peas do best under the atmospheric
influence of the Great Lakes, as along the Canadian shores of Lakes
Ontario and Erie, and along the American shores of the same lakes, or
within the influence of lake air. Sugar corn, on the other hand, grown in
New England has long been proverbial for its high sugary qualities and
retention of type, qualities which it loses in the West, the sugar corn grown
there becoming thicker and altogether larger and more mealy in the
grain, instead of retaining its qualities of lightness, and corneous, and
oily character. Vegetables for the production of small seeds develop best
in the sections indicated by New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, as
there the full flavor of the vegetable is retained, and outward appearances
of the seed stock remain unchanged, which is not the case when the same
vegetables are grown on the richer soils of the West. The West produces
very showy mammoth vegetables, but Eastern seeds grown on slower
soils are more true in their disposition. The district referred to, styled by
the Census Bureau the "Pennsylvania District," has a better climate for
the full perfection and full retention of typical qualities of shape, size,
color, flavor, as its climate is very favorable to insuring perfect pollina-
tion, consequently a higher vitality in the seeds than from districts
farther North, South, or West.

846. Q. Is there a seed adulteration law in the United States, as in
England?

A. No ; but there should be to prevent like frauds as held in check —
only in partial check, however — by the English law which was passed
about 1870, and which laid heavy penalties for adulteration with dead
seeds. Before that date it was a common practice in England when seeds
fell in vitality to a percentage too low to sell, to roast them in kilns to de-
stroy all remaining vitality. Kilns for such purposes were established in
various parts of England, and they did a thriving business. Any kind of
turnip, cabbage, radish, beet, or other seed of no value, because of
low vitality, could be killed and mixed with some high-priced variety of
the same family, thus lowering the cost of the whole. In the case of
clover, quartz rock was ground into sand, graded to size, colored like
clover, and used as an adulterant of clover. While the English law pro-
hibits the sales of adulterated seed in England, there is no law to prevent
adulterated seed being sent to America.

Adulteration
of Seeds.

QUERIE3 AND ANSWERS. 137

847. Q. What can I do to eradicate the wild carrot ? Wild Carrot.
A. Pulling up the plant or cutting off below the surface of the ground is

the only remedy.

848. Q. What are the merits of Dwarf Essex rape? Essex Rape.
A. It is a good, healthy, broad-foliaged, palatable plant for feeding cattle

or sheep, producing twenty to thirty tons of green stuff to the acre. It
grows three feet high, and is highly recommended, especially for sheep
feeding. It covers the surface so densely as to smother out all weeds and
to kill twitch or quack grass. It should be sown in drills or rows at
twenty- four to thirty inches apart, and at the rate of two pounds to the
acre.

849. Q. What is the substance termed pollen ? Pollen.
A. Taken as a whole, it may be described as a dust of microscopic

parts or grains of defined shape, varying according to the family of plants
producing it. It is the vitalizing portion from the male organ of a plant,
and is intended by nature to be brought into contact with the female
organs of flowers, which occurs by its falling upon them, or by being car-
ried by insects. It retains its vitality for varying periods, in some cases
but for a day, in other cases for months. It can be carried by the wind
for many miles and thus produce many curious hybridizations. When a
grain of pollen reaches the mouth of the pistil, which is frequently moist,
the pollen grain immediately develops a long tube which penetrates, seem-
ingly by some mysterious instinct, the pistil no matter what its length, till
it reaches its base, when some hidden operation occurs necessary to the
development of seed which will perpetuate the species. The passage of
the above-described tube from the lip of the pistil down to the ovules at
its base may occur in a few minutes, or may take days, or weeks, accord-
ing to the species of plant. Sometimes the distance is equal to 9000 times
the diameter of the pollen grain, a familiar example being found in the
long silky threads of corn sometimes nearly two feet in length. Pollen
grains are produced in great numbers, often a single flower producing
100,000 grains. It is calculated that the pollen produced on an acre of
wheat amounts to fifty pounds.

850. Q. What is the influence of size and weight of seed upon the Seed as to

growth of plants ? Size and

A. Full plump seeds will generally sprout quicker than smaller seeds ^ ***"*^*
of the same kind, and seeds under size will generally produce weaker
plants than those from plump heavy seed, but plants from the small seeds
will generally be found to mature a degree earlier and occasionally be
quite as productive. The plants from the plump seeds will generally be
more vigorous in foliage, as they obtain a better start immediately after
germination.

851. Q. Down here I cannot obtain all the stable manure I require and commercial
want to know what you consider the best commercial fertilizer? Fertilizers.

A. As there are over 1000 brands of commercial fertilizers made in the
United States, it is impossible to say what is best, for so many are good,

138

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Barnyard.

Cockle.

Germination
Cause.

Clover Seed.

Watermelon s

Nitrogen
Source.

and so much of value depends on costs of freight. In your locality the
best is that one which produces the most telling effect for the least outlay
of cash, and that information you can best get by conferring with your
neighbors, for their experience is far more practical than anything the
writer can suggest without a knowledge of your soil conditions.

852. Q. How many loads of barnyard manure should I put on my gar-
den of one acre, and when should I apply it ?

A. Seven to ten tons to the acre broadcasted in the Spring and plowed
under as soon as spread. Barnyard manure so old and rotten as to be
short like compost is already reduced to half its value, and on the other
hand when so long as to be like straw is but of half value.

853. Q. How can I prevent cockle in wheat?

A. Sow clean seed, or if you cannot purchase absolutely clean seed
make it so by sieving, riddling, or hand picking. Of the crop grown
from this seed take a portion of a field, one to twenty acres, as may be re-
quired, and pull out by hand every cockle plant, and cut; off every head
of rye till the stock is uniformly pure.

854. Q. What causes seeds to germinate ?

A. Moisture and temperature supplemented by oxygen. Of moisture
various amounts are required, most seeds requiring an absorption of over
their weight in water. Some must be completely soaked in water, and
others only have the smallest quantity. Moisture penetrates the seed,
swells the albumen, dissolves dextrine, and is the vehicle which conveys
nutrition to the young plant in the seed. Of temperature there is an
equal variation. Wheat will sprout 45^ F., but the most favorable range
of vegetable seeds is from 75° to 90°. Peas and onion seed will sprout at
a moderate temperature. Beans and melon seeds require a high tempera-
ture. Low temperature retards the formation of lateral rootlets, buds
and leaves. A high temperature causes their rapid development. Oxygen
appears to be necessary to sprouting seeds to change the starch into dex-
trine and then into sugar. The oxygen is obtained both from the air and
the water.

855. Q. How much clover seed is annually saved in the United States?
A. The late Census report gives the clover crop as 2,753,000 bushels

annually, and the grass seed crop in the aggregate as 3,000,000 bushels.

856. Q. My watermelons all have big round brown spots on top, most
seriously injuring their salable qualities. What is the cause ?

A. Sunburn. Next year broadcast buckwheat before the vines come
into bloom. By the time the melons are ripe the buckwheat will have
risen above them, partially protecting from the sun.

857. Q. How do soils obtain nitrogen from the air?

A. It is theorized — really believed — that a part of the free nitrogen of the
air enters into the cycle of plant growth through the agency of bacteroids,
the product of miscroscopic organisms. The cryptogamic plants on or
near the surfoce of the soil, flourishing more on damp soils than on dry,
collect and assimilate ammonia to an extent about equal to the amount

QUERIE3 AND ANSWERS. 139

present in the soil before their growth. There is a continuous loss of
nitrogen in the soil, not alone through the demand upon it by cultivated
plants, but by leeching down, or by natural soil drainage and by evapora-
tion.

858. Q. On my farm are lots of wild parsnip infested at seed time with Web Worm,
a web insect. It may get on other plants. How can I destroy it ?

A, It is almost impossible to destroy this worm. Tlie writer has tried
everything to save patches of twenty acres of parsnip at a time and with-
out success. Your best plan is to mow off the parsnips before they shoot
to seed and thus starve out the insect.

859. Q. In 1894 I bought from your house 1500 pounds of Jersey encumber
pickle cucumber and drilled nearly all of it, getting a crop as fine as^*"**^**"'
respects form and productiveness as ever seen in this locality. This Spring

I drilled what seed I had left over, about 300 pounds, and cannot recog-
nize the product as from the same seed, but I know it was, and write for
an explanation.

A. Climatic altogether, the type or strain is just the same, but the con-
ditions of growth have been different : more or less rain or drought, cold
or heat ; a variation in the degree of vivifying sunshine ; more or less
fertility of soil, influenced in both cases by preceding crops ; insect, or
fungous ravages above or under ground ; variations in periods of drill-
ing— all these and as many more influences determine results.

860. Q. What manure should I apply to my onion crop ? I can't get Manure
stable dung. for Onions.

A. Previous to drilling the onion seed, broadcast 400 to 500 pounds to
the acre of dried blood, dried meat, or flsh, or guano, to give ammonia or
nitrogen ; and 500 to 600 pounds wood ashes to the acre, to give potash.
Superphosphate is not so necessary as the nitrogen and potash, which
makes tissue ; for where grain or other seed is not in view, phosphoric
acid is not demanded so much as the other two components of vege-
table food.

861. Q. I have two lots of seed of Zig Zag Adams Early Table corn, corn

one grown in Pennsylvania, the other, a far better looking sample, grown Variation.
in Illinois. Why is this?

A. Exactly so. The rich soil of the West will always produce the most
showy grain, the largest and heaviest ears, the tallest stocks, but all at
the sacrifice of earliness. If you want a horse corn get seed off of prairie
soil, but if you want an Early Table corn get it off of the older soils of
the East.

862. Q. How big do you grow watermelons in Jersey ? Watermelon
A. The writer has seen them of 100 pounds, but such are unsalable. Size.

No one will take a hundred-pounder as a gift, and anything over fifty
pounds sells slowly because the experienced one knows that it is coarse in
flesh. The forty-pounder is big enough for any one family. Big things
in vegetables are never the best. Don't be influenced by size — look for
quality.

140

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Potato 863. Q. Some worm is in the stalks of my potato patch boring them

stem Borer. fj-Qm end to end so that they are drying up. What can I do ?

A. You can't do anything. The pest is most likely a grub known as
the potato stem borer, a worm about a quarter of an inch long. They
begin their work in June and frequently eat out the entire heart of the
stems. Of course they reduce the crop, and there is no remedy known to
destroy the grub while working within the stem. After harvest burn all
potatoes vines and everything else upon the field.

Shallots. 864. Q. In what way does a shallot differ from an onion?

A. A shallot seldom produces seed, and its bulbs when planted divide
into a number of cloves which remain attached to a common disc, and
finally become as large as the original bulb. The true shallot grows about
an inch in diameter, is pale gray, and is much elongated, but there is a
bastard form nearly round.

Potato Onion 865. Q. In what way does the Potato onion differ from the usual form
of onion ?

A. It does not produce either seed or bulblets, and is only propagated
by cloves formed underground, same as in the case of the shallot. If
well-developed cloves are planted in September, fair-sized edible onions
may be harvested in April, but if left in the ground several weeks longer
the bulbs will split, producing many small ones, the largest of these in
time producing cloves, the smallest forming edible bulbs. Potato onions
are very diflicult to keep when taken out of the ground, as they decay
rapidly.

866. Q. Describe the difference between Top onions and ordinary
onions.

A. Top onions of large size are grown from sets or bulblets produced
the preceding year on the top of high stalks sent up from large onions.
There are two forms, those producing bulbs with one heart and those
of three to five hearts. Only the form producing the single-hearted
bulblet is valuable, the others splitting up into many undersized plants
which never reach a good size and seldom ripen down their tops. The
single-hearted sort is worth three times the price of those having divided
hearts, which are next to valueless except as scullions.

867. Q. How does garlic differ from the onion ?

A. The garlic bulb, which is pungent and strong in flavor, is a com-
pound one, comprised of six or more cloves within a membranous skin
or envelope, generally white or rose color. It is propagated by cloves
produced on the top of high seed stalks after the style of the Top onion.

868. Q. What is the distinction between a leek and an onion ?
A. An onion is bred to develop the edible portion as a round or a flat

bulb, but in a leek the plant has been bred to develop numerous thick
leaves, enveloping one another at the base and for a considerable distance
above it, forming a thick fleshy neck of edible quality. Tlie leek pro-
duces black seed similar to onion seed.
Corn, gg9 Q Is "White Flint corn of any use except for hominy purposes ?

"White Flint.

Top Onion.

Garlic.

liOek.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 141

A. Very valuable for making a white meal ; also excellent for stable
use as a feed corn. It is a sort early, bard, a good ripener and a fine
keeping variety. All Flint corns are very nutritious, as they contain
much oil.

870. Q. How late can I plant Sugar corn with a reasonable certainty of Sugar Oorn,
making a crop of roasting ears — and what is the best variety for this pur- ^*** Planting
pose? We have fro^t October 15th to 20th.

A. The special variety known as Landreths' Sugar corn will mature
when planted in the Spring in about eighty days from germination ; but
sown for an autumn crop it does not develop so rapidly, as the rainfall
and temperature of the nights are not so forcing, the plant taking quite
ten or fifteen days more to develop edible ears. In May and June
Spring-planted corn grows with great rapidity, but under the cooler
nights of September it almost stops growing at night, while early in the
year an early crop does nearly all its growing at night. Therefore, to
ripen for table by the 15th of October, it will be necessary to plant about
the 15th of July. A quicker but smaller sort is the Crosby, which might
be planted as late as the 25th of July.

871. Q. Which is the flower of Indian corn, that on top of the stalk or Tassel
that on the end of the ear ? of Com.

A. Both. That on the top of the stalk, called the tassel, is the male
flower ; that at the end of the ear called the silk, is the female. This
latter is composed of filaments or long silky hairs extending from each
grain to the outside of the husk of the ear; Some of these threads are often
eighteen inches long. Each thread or hair has an opening or a mouth to
receive the invisible pollen from the male, and unless each thread so re-
ceives a grain of pollen no seed possessing a vital germ or full-size will
develop on the spot to which the thread is attached. It is estimated that
the male flowers orcorn are so fertile in pollea as to produce nine thou-
sand pollen grains to each thread of silk — yet only one grain is needed to
each thread.

872. Q. I am too far away from a big town to obtain large quantities Stable
of stable manure, and inquire if I can manufacture anything to take its Manure.
place ?

A. Yes ; keep pigs. Keep them in pens, numerous pens, that they can
be changed from one to the other ; those adjoining a barnyard not too big,
say 30 by 90 feet, with an adjoining field of one to two acres, in which
they can run in occasionally for exercise, and while the pens and yards are
being cleaned. Do not let them run wild, but keep them in closely de-
fined enclosures. Into the barnyard, which should be dished to the
centre to hold water, dump all kinds of manure-making material, as
straw, corn fodder, weeds, leaves from the woods, swamp muck, saw-
dust, anything that will decompose or hold fertilizing liquids. Do not
let any of the manurial juices run away. Into the yard dump materials
hauled in so that the pigs will tramp them down and root them over and
over. Frequently fork them over, and at the end of six months it will be

142

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Ranners in
Feas and
Beans.

surprising how much exceedingly valuable material has been accumu-
lated. Experience on Virginia plantations, so located that stable manure
cannot be obtained, prompts these remarks, as 150 pigs kept in three
barnyards have annually produced an immense quantity of exceedingly
valuable manure. The value of the meat of the pigs should more than
pay for their feed, the manure being all profit. Of course such a piggery
should be kept distant from the farmer's dwelling on account of offensive
smells and flies.

873. Q. What causes runners in peas and beans?

A. Sometimes perfectly true types of peas and beans will send up what
appear to be running tendrils, or will produce what appear to be late
vines, both due to the accidental location of some seeds over lumps of
manure, or due to the conditions of deep or shallow rooting, or to a rainy
season, all these being purely accidental fluctuations in the apparent
character of the stock. Runners, however, are generally due to an unse-
lected stock, to a bad strain of blood. All peas and beans, if neglected,
will become partially wild or rampant. They can only be kept within
prescribed limits by constantly throwing out all vines in which any indi-
cation of a departure from the true type is observable. A disposition to
grow wild is inherent in all types of peas and beans, just as it is in the
human system ; and when not checked by selection, that disposition
develops so rapidly as to completely change the character of the stock in
three or four years.
Germination. 874. Q. In planting garden seeds of various kinds I sometimes find that
seed from the same package planted at different dates gives varying
results as to the number of seeds that sprout. Can you account for this?

A. If the seed is from the same package and the germinating qualities
seem different, it is obviously due to soil, or to atmospheric conditions, or
to your system of treatment of either soil or seed. For example : If,
after preparing the land in one instance, the seed is sown at once in the
damp soil, it is likely to sprout at once ; but if in the other instance after
the lahd is prepared it be left to dry and bake from one to two days, or a
week or more, before sowing, then the seed will be slow to germinate, if
indeed it does not fail altogether.

875. Q. What soil is adapted to bean culture?
A. It is an old saying that any field is good enough for beans, but that

is a mistake, for this crop profits as much by sowing on good soil as any
other. On strong soils the crop sometimes reaches thirty bushels of dry
seeds to the acre, but often on thin soils not more than six or seven.

876. Q. You sent me last month a lot of Golden Wax beans with very
little white upon the dry seeds. Now I get another lot from you nearly
all white. Can they both be true ?

A. Yes ; they may differ very much in the extent of coloring on the
dry seed and yet both be equally good when in edible pod. In fact,
there may be a half-dozen degrees of coloring in as many lots, due par-
tially to the stock seeds planted, but principally to the soil on which They

Bean Soil.

Variation
in Beans.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 143

were grown. Red Valentine beans differ also in degrees of color and in
shape and plumpness, as some are grown on heavy soil, others on light
sand ; some as an early crop, others as a late crop ; yet all may be
equally early and good in quality of edible pod. If there is any choice
between lots of Red Valentine beans the small misshapen ones are the
best, without respect to the depth of coloring.

877. Q. How is it that two lots of Bloomsdale Ruta Baga seed received Size of Seeds.
from you a^t intervals of ten days were quite different in color and size of

seed?

A. We grow our Ruta Baga seed on many different fields, some being
sand and gravel, others clay, and these in three different States, conse-
quently the crops are ripened at different periods and exposed to variable
fluctuations of soil conditions and more or less heat and rain. No sane
man could expect that such seeds could be of uniform color, or plump-
ness, or indeed appear to be the same thing. The grade or quality of all
is the same as all are grown from pedigree roots,

878. Q. Does pollination in the case of garden vegetables occur with Pollination.
equal certainty both in Northern and Southern climates ?

A. It is only absolutely pertain , that is, certain up to the normal degree,
in climates of intermediate temperature and conditions. Burning heats
or extended droughts of tropical countries interfere partially with the
process, so also do cool to cold nights of Northern latitudes. Under ex-
cessive and long-continued heat the stamens and pistils dry up prema-
turely, and under conditions of too low a temperature at nights they do
not develop to such a degree as in districts where the nights are hot.
There the pollen is produced in perfection, and is so light that pollination
is certain to occur.

879. Q. My section in Indiana has always been celebrated for the excel- Flavor in
lent flavor of its cantaloupes, but this year no melons for twenty miles Cantaloupes,
around me have the usual good taste. Can you explain this ?

A. Nothing unusual in this ; it often happens, but it is hard to explain.
Probably due to a want of sunshine, or too much rain, too much drought,
or to some unusual climatic influence unexplainable. It may not occur
again for years, but just such conditions are certain to be experienced in
time by all melon growers.

880. Q. Can watercress be grown in the absence of a running stream of -Watercress,
water. If so please give me directions ?

A. Yes ; it is often grown during Winter in vegetable forcing houses.
It requires a moist atmosphere and lots of watering, and must be grown
in a cool shady position. To start the seed it should be sown in pans or
trays, and after the plants are two inches high pricked out at four inches
apart. The watercress belongs to the nasturtium family. Under glass,
or in a garden, watercress never reaches the vigor of plants grown in a
running stream.

881. Q. Why do radishes sometimes become pithy and tough ? Radishes.
A. Radishes well grown are grown quickly, and under those circum-

144

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Stances never become pithy and tough till they reach a size undesirable
for table use. It is a mistake to wait for radishes to grow big, they should
be eaten small, when a little over one-half an inch in diameter ; then they
are bright, crisp, of good flavor and attractive. On poor, hard soil, or soil
infested with grub worms or fungi, they never can be expected to grow
fast nor to be good, either large or small.

StartingSeeds 882. Q. How can I best start my seeds in the house to be afterwards

for removed to the garden ?

Subsequent

Transplant-
ing.

A. When it is desired to hasten the development of plants, they may be
sown in the conservatory or in boxes within the house. Those who have
greenhouses hardly need directions, but for those who have had less ex-
perience we drop the following hints :

Procure shallow boxes, trays, or broad pots from two to four inches
deep. The bottoms open for the free passage of water, else the earth will
bake and become sour. Seeds will not germinate satisfactorily or thrive
in a wet soil.

Prepare a mixture of one-third leaf mold cut fine, one-third clean sand,
and one-third finely pulverized stable manure, moisten the mixture
thoroughly, and fill into the boxes to within a half-inch of the top — gently
patting down the surface to a level. Upon this distribute the seed, and
cover just out of sight, by sifting over the seed the finest dust procurable,
settling the seed down with a fine spray of water shaken from a brush, a
heavier application baking the surface.

Place the boxes where they will remain at a temperature of between
60° and 70°, applying water with a brush or fine rose when the surface
becomes dry.

When the seedlings are half an inch high, they may be transplanted to
other boxes, placing the tiny plants about one to each square inch. When
these become so large as to crowd each other, they should again be trans-
planted to the garden, or to other boxes according to the season.

883. Q. Give me some directions about sowing flower seeds in mj
FlowerSeeds. garden ?

A. Flower seeds being usually small and delicate, the land to receive
them must necessarily be carefully prepared, otherwise the cost of pur-
chase and labor of sowing will be expended in vain. Large stones, clods,
and other material out of place, should be removed after the earth has
been deeply dug and fertilized ; but the earth should not be made so fine
as to become pasty under moisture.

The best results will generally be obtained by the beginner by concen-
trating the crop, or sowing all the varieties in one plot or bed, or a portion
of ground, whatever its size may be, sufficiently large to hold all sorts
placed in parallel rows at one foot apart, and this concentrated plantation
can be carefully weeded, and otherwise attended to during the early stages
of growth.

Afterwards, when one or two inches high, the young plants can be
removed, on a rainy or cloudy, damp day, to permanent positions ; here

Sowing

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 145

the earth must be carefully prepared for their reception, being especially-
enriched by a previous application of very short, well-rotted stable manure
or compost.

In the after-culture the most important matter is to keep the clumps
■well thinned, for crowding will defeat all other preparations, while space,
■which at first seems four times too much, will serve to develop robust
plants, which, by their ample leafage and well-developed flowers, will
amaze people not familiar with the conditions necessary to successful
plant culture.
884 Q. How far North are garden vegetables cultivated. Far North

A. Some time ago 21ie PhiladelpMn Record newspaper company sent Gardens,
an expedition to Alaska, and among the reports was the following : Upon
arriving at Sitka, nearly 5000 miles away from Philadelphia, and in lati-
tude 57 degrees, as far north as the highest part of Labrador, the Record
men strolled along Lincoln street, which is Sitka's only business thor-
oughfare, and read on one of the most prominent signs in that place that
Landreths' Extra Early Peas were on sale within.

885. Q. Are not some of the descriptions of vegetables offered by some „

,, ,.,, . ,..„ Extravagant

seed merchants very highly extravagant m word pamtmg ? Advertising.

A. The Rural New Yorker, in its issue of July 9, 1892, thus refers to a
new variety of cabbage : "Here is a new variety of cabbage, which, if
our readers have any faith in the first announcement of its presentation to
the public, may excite general interest. We print the advertisement as
received, omitting only the name of the introducing firm :

" ' The Extravaganza Cabbage (Munchausen Stock), Of all the varie-
ties of cabbage which have ever been ofiered since the world was made,
especially those described in the picture seed catalogues of the present
day, no sort ever equaled this cabbage for every good quality which
trenchant words can express, or the fertile mind conceive, and we would
say no cabbage of the future can possibly ever equal it, had we not a
variety lying back to introduce next year which we are going to advertise
as infinitely the superior of the Extravaganza, and we expect every year
to have a still better one than the year preceding.

" 'We are getting up a picture of the Extravaganza, which, by com-
parison with other well-known objects purposely placed near it, will show
that this cabbage is as big as a tobacco hogshead, and the description
which will accompany the picture will prove, if words have any power,
that its flavor is as sweet as sugar, its texture as fine as satin, and its habit
exceedingly early or so rarely late, or so something else, as to eclipse
every cabbage ever before known, and, above all, its freedom from tlie
attacks of insects is phenomenally remarkable : indeed, an insect which
simply flies over it falls dead within twenty yards. To the market gar-
dener it is a boon, as it sells itself, its laughing face beaming with such
benevolent expression as to win the admiration of every purchaser at
once.' "

886. Q. Will it pay to grow turnips especially for feeding to cattle ? Turnips for

Cattle Food.

146 QUERIES AXD ANSWERS.

A. "In this country the turnip and the ruta baga, or ' Swede,' as it is
familiarly called, is more generally cultivated for stock-food than any
other root — not that it is the best, but because it can be so readily grown,
and at small cost. While beets, mangolds, carrots, kohl rabbi and parsnip
demand an entire season to mature, the turnip is of so quick growth in
our climate, that within a few weeks only after sowing abundant supplies
may be in hand.

"The writer cannot, however, but maintain that, though at some
increase of labor in the production, no expenditure on the farm may, in
the long run, pay better than an annual crop of mangolds and carrots,
even if raised only in sufficient quantity to alternate with the ruta baga,
and thus the food be varied ; a change which the milch cow, the stall-fed

ox and the sheep crave equally with man

" Nothing we know of is so efficient, considering the small cost of time
and money. Seventy to eighty days will malvc the crop, and at a cost
not exceeding three dollars per acre. The preparation of the soil and
climatic adaptation of the locality is an important prerequisite to success,
both as respects the productiveness of the crop, and its cost, for it is mani-
fest that, however valuable and desirable may be any object we seek, the
cost of obtaining it may be disproportionate to its value ; such is especially
the case with all products of the soil." — Landreth Farm Notes.

Hay Meas- 887. Q. Give me a rule by which I can measure or estimate the weight

urement. ofhayinamow?

A. Hay in a mow ten feet drop, put in in good order, and not too ripe
when cut, ought to average one ton to each 525 cubic feet. The com-
pression increases rapidly as the height increases, and a mow of the same
hay, fifteen feet drop, would probably turn out a ton to 475 cubic feet, if
not even to 435 feet. All such guessing, however, is very hazardous, and
it is always safer to buy or sell only by actual weight.

Horse-Badish 888. Q. To get horseradish must I SOW seed or get roots?

A. This plant, seldom producing seed, is propagated from sets cut from
old roots, and in market garden culture nearly always planted as a suc-
cession to a Spring crop which by time of removal leaves the horse-radish
well established. The sets are planted in rows of about two feet by eighr-
teen inches frequently among Spring cabbage. Holes are made with a long
planting stick into which are dropped the horse-radish sets to a depth that
the crown will be three inches under the surface. It will only succeed in
highly fertilized land, and each year should be i)lanted afresh. In garden
culture the sets are sometimes planted in the upper end of round drain
tiles sunk into the ground and filled with earth, the radish roots being thus
directed straight downwards. Yield about 150 bushels to the acre. Sets,
per doz., 15 cts. ; per 100, 50 cts ; per 1000, $4.
Cheap Seeds. 889. Q. "What do you mean by cheap seeds ? What are they ?

A. Sometimes they may be passable, but nine times out of ten they are
worthless. They are cheap because grown purely as speculative crops,
grown generally from seed stocks, cheap and bad to commence with, and

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 147

the crop resulting left to bloom and seed without the removal of hybrid
or cross-bred forms, thus tlie mixed blood of the parent stock is developed
to an increased percentage in the offspring.

The papers of the day are now discussing investigations and develop-
ments respecting adulterations of drugs, but the frauds cannot exceed in
extent those practiced in some quarters by the seed trade. So great was
the adulteration of seeds in England that Parliament passed an Act a few
years ago fixing heavy penalties for such frauds, but they still continue,
and are common in every country of Europe.

The least objectionable fraud is the process of cheapening prices by
mixing into new crops a proportion of old seeds heated till all vitality is
destroyed — such mixed stock will vegetate only to the extent of 50 per
•cent., often much less.

The vitality or germinating power of seeds is not, however, the most
important question to the gardener, for if seeds fail to sprout the first cost
is the principal loss. Tlie quality of the vegetables seeds may produce,
is the all important question, and that can only be determined when, per-
haps, it is too late in the season to remedy an imposition.

Better every grain should be dead than mixed or hybridized. The
critical gardener considers well before he makes his purchases, and to
the experienced planter nothing is so suspicious as " cheap seeds "

890. Q. Tell me something about watermelon culture ? -^ ^ ^
_y , , , Watermelons

A. Watermelons do well upon sod ground, or upon land prepared for

their reception by plowing down a crop of Winter wheat or Winter rye,
the sod or grain aerating or keeping loose the soil. When the apple is in
bloom the seed is planted in hills at ten feet apart in each direction. Two
large shovelsful of well-rotted stable manure dug and tramped into each
hill and covered with earth.

The cultivator should be prepared with quite four pounds of seed to the
acre that he may have a reserve for replanting in case of destruction of
his plants by insect depredations or beating rains.

One vine alone to the hill should be allowed to. attain perfection ; with
four hundred and fifty hills to the acre, there should, be nine hundred
first-class melons.

Philadelphia commission merchants pay for prime melons, as a highest
price, forty dollars per hundred ; as an average price ten dollars per
hundred. They cease to be profitable to the trucker when bringing less
than four dollars per hundred. First-class melons are always in demand,
but the market is frequently overstocked with small fruit.

Much of the melon seed offered throughout the country is the product
of immature and deformed melons remaining in the field after all the
choice fruit has been selected.

891. Q. What is the cost of bisulphide of carbon ? Carbon

A. Any druggist can obtain it and sell it at a price of about 15 cents ^**"^P^"®*
per pound, and it can be had in tin cans of five, ten or twenty pounds
«ach. It is explosive and very injurious to breathe.

148

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Garden Plan. 892. Q. I have a piece of land 150 feet long, about one-sixth of an acre,
and would like you to send me a diagram plan for laying it out.

A. The varieties and quantities here named ■will cost about $11.75. The
rows are arranged so as to be worked by horse cultivator. The six-foot
bed of small vegetables will have to be worked by hand.

WIDTH 48 FEET.

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Cantaloupes.

2444 3 3 333 3 2>^2>^2>^2i^6
DISTANCE OF ROWS APART IN FEET.

893. Q. IIow are citrons planted in Jersey?

A. Cantaloupes or citron melons, as they are termed in Jersey, do well

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 149

upon sod ground or upon land prepared for planting by plowing down a
crop of Winter wheat or Winter rye, the sod or grass aerating or keeping
loose the soil. Two ounces of seed to 100 yards of row.

The seed is planted at about corn-seeding time or when the apple is in
bloom, in hills about four-and-a-half feet in each direction. Twoshovels-
ful of well-rotted stable manure being tramped into each hill and covered
with earth. The large long melons like the Reedland Giant and Casaba
are generally sold by the hundred ; melons of the ordinary form and size
are sold by the basket of one-half to five-eighths bushel capacity.

Philadelphia commission merchants pay as a highest price $1.50 to $2.00
per bushel. As an average price forty to fifty cents per bushel. Canta-
loupe melons are frequently a drug in the market.

894. Q. Why did you say seed purchasing was a matter of confidence ? confidence in
A. Because it is so. The man who buys dry goods or groceries, corn or seed

cotton, can, to a very considerable extent, judge of the quality and value of ^a^'ciiasing.
the article. This is not the case with seeds. Simply because a dealer says
a certain cabbage seed he holds in his hand is Large Late Flat Dutch, it does
not follow that it is so. He may have been deceived himself. No one
can tell till valuable time and labor have been expended on the crop. No
other commodity but drugs is so entirely a matter of confidence. It be-
hooves every one to get their supplies from dealers of recognized repute,
men who have a reputation at stake. Cheapness at once is suflScient to
raise a doubt both as to vitality and quality. Good seeds have a value —
they cannot be cheap in the common acceptation of the word. The rather
inelegant though expressive phrase, " cJieap and nasty," applies to seeds
more than to any other commodity.

895. Q. What is darnell ? Darnell.
A. It is Cheat or Chess, a plant somewhat of the appearance of wheat,

but never, as some people think, developing from wheat. Darnel is
hardier than wheat, which sometimes when Winter killed is succeeded by
darnell, and ignorant people think that the wheat has turned to darnell.
Cheat whenever grown under a heavy crop of wheat never reaches over
a few inches in height, and is not noticed, but when given a chance by
the Winter killing of the wheat rises to a height of one to two feet.

896. Q. Will you furnish me a table showing the relative periods of Maturity of
maturity of different sorts of peas ? Peas.

A. In our trial grounds the past season we tested 125 samples of peas
from various sources, comprising nearly every variety at home and
abroad of any note. Twenty feet of row was given to each trial. All
were planted the same day, and upon equal conditions in every respect.
The stocks of each were the best obtainable. Landreths' Extra Early were
the first to bloom and first to ripen for the table, fifty days from sowing,
or forty-seven days from germination. This variety has, under other
conditions of heat and rainfall, ripened for table thirty-eight days from
germination. It has been in cultivation by us for over sixty years, and
has never been excelled in earliness or delicacy of flavor. All the Eng-

150

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

lish varieties proved of deflcieat vitality, while tlie American stock again
illustrated the fecundity of seeds ripened under our more tropical sun.
We give below a report of our tests last Spring, the varieties classified in
order of maturity :

Maturity
of Peas.

1
2
3

4
5
6

7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47

Landreths' Extra Early. . . .

Alpha

Kentish Invicta

Caractacus

Ringleader

William 1st

Dickson's First and Best. . .

American Wonder

Carter's First Crop

Tom Thumb

Advancer

Carter's Early Dwarf

Blue Peter

Premium Gem

Challenger

Pride of the Market

Daniel O'Rourke

Tall Sugar

Eugenie

Dwarf Sugar

Sharp's Invincible

Stratagem

Bijou

Telegraph

Laxton's Supplanter

Sunrise

Market Favorite

Fill-Basket

Dwarf Blue Imperial

McLean's Wonderful

Forty-Fold

Champion

Hero

Telephone

McLean's Dwarf Prolific. . .
Bishop's Dwarf Long Pod .

Laxton's Supreme

Irish White Marrows

Veitch's Perfection

Dickson's Favorite

Black Eye

Ciilverwell's Giant Marrow

Marvel .

Huntingdonian

John Bull

Veitch's British Queen

Emperor of Marrows

April 25

EDIBLE.

NO. OF

June 13

49

" 15

51

" 16

52

" 18

54

" 18

54

" 18

54

" 18

54

" 19

55

" 20

56

" 20

56

" 22

58

" 22

58

" 23

59

" 23

59

" 23

59

" 25

61

" 25

61

" 25

61

" 25

61

" 25

61

" 26

62

" 28

64

" 29

65

" 30

66

July 1

67

" 1

67

" 1

67

" 2

68

" 2

68

" 2

68

" 4

70

" 4

70

" 4

70

" 5

71

" 5

71

" 5

71

" 5

71

" 5

71

" 7

73

" 8

74

" 8

74

" 8

74

" 8

74

" 8

74

'• 10

76

" 12

78

" 14

80

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 151

897. Q. Do the Landreths grow garden seeds on more than one farm? i-andreth
A. The Landreths court investigation— they have nothing to hide. ^'arms.

No seed merchants in America cultivate upon their own lands, quarter as
many acres annually as they do, in cabbage, turnip, Summer radish,
"Winter radish, beets, egg plants, kale, parsnip, pepper, spinach, tomato,
onion sets, and seeds of many other families of vegetables.
The Landreth seed farms owned in fee simple by the firm are :

Bloomsdale . . . 500 acres. Reedland . . . 146 acres.

Monaskon . . . 222 acres. Granville . . . 473 acres.

And rented from the estate of David Landreth :

Georges . . 78 acres. Hunton's . . 185 acres. Bellemont . . 200 acres.

On these particulaf farms, in Summer, are sometimes employed a force
of two hundred hands, and in harvest time the force is increased to four
hundred and fifty hands,

898. Q. What is meant by Pedigree Seeds? Pedig^ree
A. Strong believers in heredity endeavor to grow from seed of fixed Seeds.

habit. Intensely careful selections of many years have established types
"which are almost fixed, and are called " Pedigree Seeds."

Heredity is most fixed when plants are cultivated upon the soil and
under the climatic surroundings of their place of origin, while on the
other hand, very radical departures are made when the same plants are
grown under changed conditions of soil and climate. This is noticed in
the enlarged and coarse development of cabbage grown in Oregon or
California from Pennsylvania seed, or in the deterioration of the edible
qualities of watermelons grown in the South from New Jersey seed. Any
Eastern seed taken to the Pacific slope will, in a few years, so depart from
its original type as to be hardly recognizable under its original name.
The most marked effect of soil and climate is on some of the vegetables of
Japan, many of which are products of Landreths' seed sent to Japan by the
United States Patent Office on the occasion of the expedition of Commo-
dore Perry to Japan in 1847. Those seeds were the first of the kind ever
introduced into that empire. We have since received and tested many
Japanese seeds of vegetables bearing what we have taken to be a trace
of the original American parentage.

As respects heredity and the art of crossing two or more varieties whose
superior qualities, if united, would be desirable, much has been accom-
plished, and in the future various astonishing results will, no doubt, be
developed, for the number of hybridizers, all working out different lines,
will certainly produce a multitude of interesting results. While the
greater part, however, of so-called new sorts are the results of chance
admixture in the field, the seed grower is now ceasing to be a mere plodder-
on in the steps of his ancestors, but is entering into his work physiologi-
cally, if not scientifically, and the work of the hybridizer is now so
multiplying varieties and subvarieties as to confound the unintelligent
seed planter. While the meritorious alone will stand the test and be per-

152 QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

petuated, other inferior subtypes will be offered under most extolled de-
scriptions never to be heard of again. The best opportunities for hybrid-
izing are in the union of domestic plants with others of like nature from
remote sections of the world, resulting in most striking development, and
generally most healthful constitutional qualities.
Transplant- ^^^' Q" ^ l^^^e some evergreen trees to transplant. When can I do it
ing Trees. best ?

A. Trees holding their leaves all Winter, hence termed evergreens, are
best planted in August and September ; the earth then beneath the sur-
face may be likened to a hotbed, so charged is it with heat, while the
Autumn rains moisten the surface and stimulate root growth. Plants
under these circumstances rapidly develop fibres which soon are able to
compensate, by the moisture which they take up, for the evaporation by
the leaves. The planting of such trees deferred till Spring often results
in failure, as the evaporation is then greater, and to an increasing extent
as the Spring develops, while the soil is cold and root formation slow.
Testing Seeds ^^^- Q- -^^ ^ ^ ^^^t ^^^ your seeds for quality ?

A. The Bloomsdale and Reedland testing grounds comprise various
plots of over nine acres of land. One acre is devoted to vegetables grown
from small seeds, as radish, lettuce, beet, carrot, onion ; all sown in rows
across the breadth of parallel beds eight feet wide with three feet alleys
between. On these beds are many hundreds of tests.

Another acre is devoted to trials of peas and beans all drilled in par-
allel rows, twenty feet of each variety, and all in the order of maturity as
near as it can be arrived at. These peas and beans are thinned to three
inches apart to permit perfect development, that the character may be in-
dicated. Half an acre is devoted to sugar corn, planted in hills four by
four feet, and in parallel rows. These tests are also arranged in order of
maturity ; the first early sorts many of them less than three feet high, the
late varieties eight and nine feet high. An acre is devoted to watermelons
and cantaloupes, the testing and judging of which requires much experi-
ence. One-half acre is devoted to squash. One-half acre to cucumber.
One-half acre is devoted to cabbage. One-half acre to turnips. Two
acres devoted to tomatoes. This last being of very particular interest,
comprising many hybrids or crosses of approved varieties, the best quali-
ties of several being united in one.

The test of insecticides being particularly interesting, more interesting
than instructive because of the conflicting results consequent upon condi-
tions of rainfall and heat after the application of the poisons.

The test of ornamental flowers of annual and biennial form embellish-
ing the whole with colors of dazzling beauty. The trial of grasses, all
very practical ; one bed of thirty different sorts in blocks of ten by ten
feet, having stood for five years, clearly indicating the relative periods of
desirability of each sort.

The seeds on trial in these experimental grounds comprise all the so-
called novelties or varieties ofiered in the catalogues of the many seed

Trial
Grounds.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 153

merchants of the United States, as well also as those recommended by
foreign seed merchants and growers as adapted to the American climate.
Ofttimes the same vegetable appears under half a dozen distinct names
and as distinct descriptions, only to be recognized as an old acquaintance,
sometimes of merit, at other times a sort long turned down. It is to in-
form ourselves upon the subject of relative merit and upon the subject
of name that we conduct so large an experimental ground as nine acres,
a very expensive little farm in itself, but worth ten times its cost.

901. Q. Give some information about the egg plant. Egg Plant.

A. This seed is generally sown under glass and transplanted to the field
two or three weeks after corn-planting season. The plants are set in
rows of five feet and at three feet in the row. The land cannot be too
highly fertilized for this crop — very short, thoroughly rotted stable
manure or similar preparation is best ; strong manure or hot, rank manure
is unsuitable.

Sow in hotbeds or other protected place early in the Spring ; when up
two or three inches transplant into small pots (which plunge in earth) so
as to get stocky well-rooted plants, and late in the Spring, or not till the
commencement of Summer, unless the weather be warm, transplant into
thoroughly worked, rich and recently well-manured ground. A good
plan is to open a deep, wide trench, filling it nearly with manure ; restore
the earth and plant therein, placing the plants three feet apart each way.
The seed does not vegetate freely ; repeated sowings are sometimes neces-
sary. It is almost useless to attempt the culture of egg plant unless the
proper attention be given. In growing the egg plant in the Summer and
Autumn months in Florida, great trouble is sometimes experienced in
getting a stand of plants owing to the excessive heat and beating rains.
This difficulty can be largely overcome by shading the ground where the
seed is sown. If sown in beds, the shading may be accomplished by
means of frames covered with seed-bed cloth, or by blinds of slats or
common boards prop'erly supported over the beds to cut off the direct rays
of the sun. If the seed is sown where the plants are to remain (a bad
practice) the shading may be done by using Palmetto fans or leaves,
placing them one each on the north and south sides of the hill, the tops
meeting over the seed. This plan is used by some of the most successful
growers in the Gulf States.

About 3000 plants are required to plant an acre. These plants should
produce an average of three to four fruits, weighing two to three pounds
each. Our selected seeds are always taken from fruit weighing eight to
ten pounds each ; we have had them of thirteen pounds in weight. Com-
mission merchants in Philadelphia pay the market gardener about, on an
average, one-and-a-half cents per fruit. The highest prices are eight and
ten cents per fruit.

Florida fruit arrives in Philadelphia the latter part of November, and
commands $6 to $8 per barrel crate. Earlier in the Autumn the market
is supplied by fruit from Jersey. Towards Christmas the price of Florida

154

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Cooking
Receipts.

Cooliing
Receipts.

egg plant rises to $10 per barrel crate and then declines by April to $6 to $8,
and by May to $5, after which they are liliely to arrive in a damaged
condition and be worthless. Egg plant fruit can be grated and canned
for Winter use.

902. Q. Please send me the directions for cooking garden vegetables
published in your Catalogue of 1880.

A. Asparagus — Stewed. — Wash, tie in bunches and place in saucepan
of boiling water. Cook slowly until tender. Serve with butter sauce.

Cold. — After stewing as above directed, and when cold, serve with
French dressing, or serve with Vinaigrette-sauce, made as follows : To
French dressing add onions, pickles, parsley and capers, hashed and
mixed well.

Beans — Green Beans, String — Stewed. — Wash and cut in half, and
put in saucepan of boiling water, add salt, cook very quickly, drain
through a colander and refresh with cold water to keep green ; put in a
frying-pan, add butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Dried Beans — Stewed. — Soak over night in cold water ; cook slowly
with salt pork, add an onion, cloves, salt and pepper. When cooked
thicken with melted butter and flour.

Baked. — Cook the beans as described above, add half gill of molasses ;
place in a deep dish with pork ; bake in moderate oven for an hour.

Bean Soup. — Stew with a ham bone or pork ; strain through a fine
sieve ; add a small quantity of cream and butter, and serve with fried
bread crumbs.

Be^ts— Boiled. — Wash, and boil till quite tender ; rub off the skin,
quarter and put into a saucepan, with salt, pepper, butter and a little
broth. Let the butter melt, and mingle well by tossing the pan. Serve
in a covered dish.

Pickled. — After boiling peel and quarter, refresh with cold water, cut
in slices and put in a jar half full of vinegar ; add salt, spices, slices of
onion, whole pepper, a laurel leaf and horse radish cut in small pieces.
Keep covered.

Broccoli — Boiled. — Boil in salt water until tender, and refreshing
thoroughly put into a saucepan with light butter sauce, with salt, pepper
and nutmeg. Place upon fire for a few moments and serve hot with a
little chopped parsley. Cauliflower and brussels sprouts may be treated
in the same manner.

Brussels Sprouts— Shewed. — Place in saucepan of boiling water, add
salt, cook very quickly, put them in a colander and refresh with cold
water, put in a frying-pan, add butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve
hot with a garnish of chopped parsley. They can also be served with a
light cream sauce.

Cabbage — Boiled. — Carefully prepare and cut in quarters ; put on the
fire with plenty of water, and boil, refresh and cook either with ham,
corn beef or salt pork. Cook slowly until tender and serve with meat.

Fried. — Use only fresh cabbage. Remove the outer green leaves.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 155

divide in quarters ; cut out any hard core ; wash carefully ; parboil Cooking
twenty-five minutes, press the water out and cool. Cut in small pieces, Receipts,
place in a saucepan and put in salt and pepper and fry to a light brown.

Pickled. — Cut raw cabbage very fine, add salt, pepper and mustard
seed • add boiling vinegar with onion and green pepper cut very fine.
Cover carefully.

Coleslaw. — Cut cabbage very fine, and serve with French dressing.

Sauer Kraut. — Use only solid heads shred very finely ; take a small
water-tight keg and line with cabbage leaves, sprinkling one-eighth of an
inch salt upon the bottom ; upon this place three inches of shredded cab-
bage, which cover with three tablespoonsful of salt well pressed down,
then another layer of cabbage and salt, until keg is full, when hammer
down with force. Small portions of herbs, chopped peppers and onions
are often added. On top of the upper layer of cabbage place a circular
head of less diameter than the keg, on which fix a heavy weight. When
fermentation begins skim off the scum, keeping the cover always in place.
To serve sauer kraut wash it well in warm water and drain thoroughly,
garnish the edges of the dish with carrots, onions, a bouquet of herbs,
some chicken or goose grease, and put the sauer kraut on top, adding salt
pork, sausage, or piece of bacon in the middle ; add salt, pepper, a glass
of white wine and a couple of apples cut very thin, a pint of broth, cover
and let cook for two hours. Serve hot.

Cauliflower — Boiled. — Wash, place in a vessel with cold water and
boil, empty, refresh, and boil again ; when nearly done, drain and add a
small quantity of milk and butter, and cook until tender. Serve hot with
cream and butter sauce.

Au Oratin. — Boil as directed above. Place tablespoonful of butter in
frying pan, when melted add teaspoonful of flour, mix thoroughly and
add one-half pint of milk ; stir continually until it boils, when add one-
half teaspoonful of salt and four tablespoonsful of grated cheese, Parmesan
is best, pour this over the boiled cauliflower, sprinkle a little bread crumbs
and bake in a moderate oven until light brown and serve hot.

Baked. — After cooking as described above, place the cauliflower in a
baking dish, add salt, pepper, nutmeg, cream sauce, bread crumbs, and a
littte grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese and small pieces of butter. Place
in a hot oven and bake until it has a brown color.

Cold. — Cauliflower can also be served cold with French dressing.

Carrot — Stewed. — Peel and slice, put in a saucepan with a little broth. Cooking
water, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Boil an hour. Thicken with butter i^e**ip*S'
kneaded with flour, mix well and boil. Finish with butter, teaspoonful
sugar and chopped parsley. Serve hot.

In Cream. — Wash and scrape the outside, cut in small pieces, boil until
tender, refresh and boil again. Serve hot with cream sauce.

Celery — Stetced. — Trim off all defective parts and wash thoroughly.
Parboil five minutes or until tender and drain through a cloth. Cut
stems all same length and put in a stew-pan, with salt, pepper, butter.

156

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Cooking and white broth to cover ; let simmer for an hour. Drain the celery
Receipts. through a sieve or cloth, saving the liquor, to which add Espagnole sauce.
Skim the fat so as to form a sauce, press thoroughly through a napkin ;
place the celery on a dish and pour over the sauce.

Espagnole Sauce. — Take half pound clarified butter, add one pound
flour ; roast very light brown. Add onions, carrots, a bouquet of herbs,
allspice, a knuckle of veal and a ham bone. Let simmer slowly in sauce-
pan, then moisten with three quarts of stock to a thin light sauce. Let
cook for three hours slowly. Skim off the grease ; then strain the sauce,
and reduce with sherry or white wine, according to taste.

Salad. — Use the hard roots as well as stems. After washing well cut
the stems, both blanched and green, into small pieces. Serve with
French or Mayonaise dressing.

Corn — Boiled. — Wash and boil in plenty of water with a small quantity
of milk ; cook for twenty minutes.

Fritters. — Grate corn raw or cooked. For dressing take one pint of
milk, four eggs, two teaspoonsful of baking powder, half pound of flour,
salt, pepper, sugar, beat into light batter. Fry on both sides in pan with
hot lard, one tablespoonful of batter to each fritter.
_ Pudding. — Place half pound of Indian meal in three pints of boiling

milk lightly sugared. Cook for twenty minvites, add molasses, six raw
eggs, and spices, mix well together. Put in a baking dish and bake in a
moderate oven. Serve with vanilla or other flavored sauce.

Cucumber — Salad. — Peel and cut in very thin slices and soak in salt
. water for two hours. Strain till very dry. Serve with French dressing.

Sliced — Pickled. — Peel and slice fresh cucumbers and put in a pan and
let stand with plenty of salt to draw the water. Press dry and put them
in a jar, pour over cold boiled vinegar. Add salt, pepper and a few
slices of onions.
Cooking Egg Plant — FVied. — Peel the fruit and cut crosswise in slices of full

Receipts. diameter and of one-third of an inch in thickness, sprinkle salt between
the slices and set aside for a half hour, when remove the water, dry and
dip in butter and bread crumbs and fry in hot lard until brown.

Baked. — Peel the fruit and cut into small pieces. Place in a pan with
butter and sweet oil over a fire for three minutes, add salt, pepper, and a
little sauce or gravy. Take it from the pan and put in a baking dish,
coat over with bread crumbs and Swiss cheese and bake in oven till quite
brown.

Kohl-Rabi — Boiled. — Remove the skin, cut in quarters. Boil in salted
water with a little butter, drain, put in a saucepan with melted butter,
stir a few moments over the fire and add Espagnole sauce with salt, pep-
per, butter ; mix well and serve in a deep dish.

Mushrooms — Stewed. — Wash thoroughly, peel and cut off injured
parts. Place in porcelain stewing pan with salt, pepper and butter, and
two teaspoonsful of salt water, stew for eight minutes. Serve on toast.

Baked. — Clean thoroughly, remove the stems and fill the cavities with

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 157

stuffing composed of onion, tomato, parsley, chopped very fine. Add Cooking
salt and pepper, put in a saucepan with butter, stew for twenty minutes. Receipts.
Add crumbs of bread and thicken, fill the patties and spread crumbs upon
the top. Bake in a moderate oven a few minutes and serve with brown
sauce.

Onion — Stewed. — Remove the coarse skin, cut in slices and put in
saucepan with fresh butter and let simmer until a light brown, add some
Espaguole and a little Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and
cook for twenty minutes.

Baked. — Select largest and most perfect onions and boil for an hour.
Peel off outer portion and put each onion iu a buttered stew pan with
Espagnole sauce and broth ; sprinkle a little sugar and put a small piece
of butter on each onion. Place a buttered paper on the dish and bake in
a moderate oven.

Fried. — Wash, cut in thin slices, dip in cream, add salt, pepper and
roll in flour, fry in hot lard till crisp.

Okra — Boiled. — Wash and cook in cold water to a boil, refresh and
cook again with boiling water till tender. Add butter and salt and serve
with butter sauce.

Stewed. — Wash and cut off ends, place in stewing pan with a little
water, boil until soft, drain, season and serve with melted butter.

Vegetable. — Cut the okra iu small pieces, put in a pan with butter and
sweet oil, and let it simmer for three minutes, add tomato sauce, salt,
pepper and small pieces of butter.

Soup. — The okra for soup must be tender, which condition can only be
found when the pods are small. To prepare okra soup cut chicken into
small pieces, boil, refresh, add okra cut in small sections, rice and toma-
toes. Continue boiling till the chicken is quite tender, season with
pepper and salt.

Peas — Boiled. — Cook in salted water over quick Are until tender, re- Cooking
fresh, strain thoroughly, season with salt, pepper, butter and a little sugar. Receipts.

Soup. — Use split or fresh green peas, wash and put on fire with ham
bone, add onions, carrots, knuckle of veal. When the meat is cooked
remove it, and strain the soup through a fine sieve, add small quantity of
cream, butter, and season to taste. Serve with fried bread crumbs.
Soup not to be too thick.

Parsnip — Fried. — Boil until tender, remove skin, cut in slices, dip in
butter, roll in bread crumbs, and fry dry in hot lard.

Saute. — When boiled, cut in slices, place in frying pan with butter, salt,
pepper and hashed parsley.

Pumpkin — Pie. — Peel, cut in pieces and remove seeds, put over fire
with water and cook until tender, mash or pass through a sieve, add
powdered sugar, cream, allspice, nutmeg, six eggs, small quantity of
brandy, teaspoonful cooking ginger, mix well, bake in moderate oven with
one layer of dough.

Potato — Boiled. — Wash and cook in salt water in pot with cover.

158

QUEKIES AND ANSWERS.

Cooking
Receipts.

Cooking
Receipts.

When soft to the centre pour oflf all the water, and for ten minutes let
the pot, without lid, stand on the range to get rid of moisture.

Croquettes. — Boil peeled potatoes in salted water and put therh in oven
five minutes to dry. Turn them into a pan, add butter, salt, pepper and
nutmeg, mash quickly, pass through a colander, return to the saucepan,
adding four egg yolks ; put on the fire for a few minutes. Turn into a
dish and let cool ; divide into portions the size of an egg, roll in pulver-
ized crackers, dip in batter of beaten eggs, roll in crackers again and fry
to a brown color in plenty of lard.

Fried. — Peel and wash medium-sized potatoes, cut in one-eighths. Fry
them in hot lard until cooked thoroughly and of a brown color. Drain,
salt and dry in napkin before serving.

In Cream. — Take cold boiled potatoes, cut in small pieces, put in stew-
ing pan with cream sauce, salt, pepper, nutmeg and butter, care being
taken not to make the sauce too thick.

Lyonaise. — Cut cold boiled potatoes in thin slices, put in frying pan, add
butter, thin sliced onions, salt and peppej. Fry until brown. Serve
with chopped parsley.

Stewed. — Peel and slice cold boiled potatoes, put in a saucepan with
milk, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg, and let boil. Add parsley and
butter and mingle all well by tossing the saucepan until the sauce is
creamy. Serve hot.

Salsify — In Cream. — Boil until tender, cut into thin slices, add cream,
or butter sauce. Season to taste and garnish with chopped parsley.

Fried. — Trim and scrape the roots, boil until tender, drain on a cloth,
cut the roots into pieces, one inch in length, dip in flour batter and fry
crisp in very hot lard ; drain, salt and serve hot.

Patties. — Trim and scrape the roots and boil in salted water whitened
with flour ; drain and let cool ; cut in small squares or dice and put the
pieces in a good cream sauce, with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. Let
cook for two minutes. Next, fill the patties, bake brown, and serve hot
garnished with parsley.

Imitation Oyster. — Trim and scrape the roots and boil until tender, in
salted water whitened with flour; drain, and when cold mash, removing all
fibres ; add mashed potatoes and put in a stew pan with butter. Stir them
over the fire until very dry. Add a little salt, pepper and one or two
yolks of eggs. When cold, form in cakes shape of oysters, roll them in
cracker dust or bread crumbs, then in a batter of eggs and bread crumbs.
Fry in hot lard until brown on both sides, but not greasy. Serve hot.

Sea Kale — Stewed. — Pare the stalks, wash well and tie in bunches of
even size. Stew for twenty minutes, or until tender, in salted water,
thicken with flour kneaded with butter, drain on a cloth, untie, dish up
with a buttered white sauce on a large napkin.

Squash — Stewed. — Peel and cut in quarter pieces, place in pot with lit-
tle water, when cooked mash or pass through a sieve, add pepper, salt
and butter, mix well and serve hot.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 159

Tomato — Stewed. — Scald with boiling water to remove skin, cut in Cooking
small pieces, removing cores, place in stewing pan with butter, salt. Receipts.
pepper, cook for a few minutes, thicken with corn starch, or bread
crumbs.

Fried. — Cut in thick slices, season with salt and pepper, roll in flour, and
fry with hot lard until brown on both sides. Serve hot.

Turnip — Boiled. — Peel and cut in small pieces, boil until tender, mash,
add salt, pepper and butter, or serve in light cream sauce without being
mashed.

903. Q. At what date were Garden Seeds first grown for sale in this EarUest
country ? Seed Culture.

A. Possibly some were grown in colonial days, but there is no record
in existence of such culture, everything being imported so far as known.
The first recorded seed culture was by David Landreth, of Philadelphia.
1784, followed by John Mackejohn in 1792, by William Leeson in 1794,
and by Bernard McMahon in 1799, all of Philadelphia.

904. Q. Which seeds of garden vegetables are richest in albuminoids? Albuminoids.
A. Peas and beans, vegetable casine being found in them to the extent

of 20 to 30 per cent. In potatoes, vegetable albumen is found in large
proportion, and in wheat, vegetable fibrin.

905. Q. What proof is there that diversified farming is the safest to Profitable

pursue ? Farming.

A. The report of the United States census for 1890 shows that of the
farms sold on foreclosure 98 per cent, were those devoted to one or two
crops only, while on farms devoted to many crops only 2 per cent, were
thus sold out.

906. Q. When planting cucumber seed and other seeds of vines, how vine Seeds.
many should be planted in a hill and how many plants left to stand ?

A. The average number planted is six or seven, but more is better.
Farmers' boys use the following rhyme as to corn :

"Two for the wire worm.
Two for the crow.
Two for the blackbird.
Two to grow."

907. Q. I am thinking of laying out a lawn of about three to four acres Lawn,
around my house, and inquire what should be the leading idea governing

the plan?

A. As a rule lawns are planted without any artistic or practical plan,
and you do well to contemplate laying out the work after a defined system.
You will do still better to employ a landscape gardener to draw a plan just
as you would employ an architect to design a house. The first thing is to
decide on the number and directions of vistas or lanes of open views from
the windows, doors or porticos, and then stake them out and positively
adhere to keeping these vistas open. These vistas may be three or four or
more, giving views of distant counlrj^ of hills, valleys, water or other pleas-

16.0

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

American
Seeds.

Aatnmn
Cabbage.

Ijinseed Oil.

Cotton Oil.

Onien Sets.

ing objects, all displeasing objects being hidden by masses of evergreen
trees and shrubs, which should be evergreen so as to hide the displeasing
objects inWinter as well as in Summer. The spaces between the vistas to be
planted with trees and shrubbery, single specimens and groups. On these
spaces mark with stakes the position of trees intended to reach full devel-
opment, placing them far enough apart to admit full development. This
done, fill in the spaces with other trees to make an immediate eifect, but
to be cut out as rapidly as they encroach upon those intended for full
development. Few men have the strength of character to thin out lawn
trees encroaching upon each other, but those who do thin out from time
to time have shapely trees and a general effect to be admired, while the
timid souls have only a mass of shrubbery and trees, a constant advertise-
ment of their incapacity.

908. Q. Is there any particular merit in the seeds of garden vegetables
produced in the United States as compared with foreign seeds?

A. Yes ; most assuredly. They are in the first place acclimated and
enabled to withstand our hot suns, possessing an heredity fitting them to
American conditions — not so with seeds developed in the moist climates
of France, England or Germany; and in the second place, American seeds
are more vital, being ripened in a dry climate, ripened in the field and not
in a stack as are most European seeds ; and thirdly, American seeds are
grown by the most intelligent of American farmers, men who know what
other Americans want as to form and quality.

909. Q. What sorts of cabbage are most desirable for sowing in Sep-
tember to carry over Winter in cold frames ?

A. Among Pointed Heads, Select Jersey Wakefield, Landreths' Large
York and Bloomsdale Early Market. Among Flat Heads, Reedland
Early Drumhead and Early Dwarf Flat Dutch.

910. Q. What was the estimated value of linseed oil pressed in the
United States during the census year of 1890?

A. Over twenty-three millions of dollars, the product of sixty-two
establishments.

911. Q. Can you inform me the estimated value of the annual manu-
facture of tobacco, a very important agricultural product, into cigars and
cigarettes, snuff, and smoking and chewing preparations?

A. About two hundred million dollars.

912. Q. Under the census report of 1890, what was the value of cotton
seed oil and cotton cake ?

A. The value of the two was over nineteen million dollars, the product
of one hundred and nineteen establishments.

913. Q. How is it that of the two lots of onion sets received from you,
the first in September, and the other in December, the last were superior
to the first ?

A. Sets shipped early in September are not fully cured, consequently
they cannot be expected when packed for several days, or perhaps for two
or three weeks, in crates or barrels, to be secure against heating and rot-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 161

ting. Sets, no matter when received, especially if in early Autumn,
should always be immediately unpacked and spread out on a dry floor to
air, and all rotten ones picked out, as one damaged one will infect many
others. Autumn-shipped sets should be planted early as possible after
receipt to stop loss by decay, and to gain quantity of product through an
early start.

914. Q. What is the matter with the musk melons this year? Every Musk Melons
field, without respect to variety, is full of mixtures.

A. Your question answers itself. • It would be impossible for every sort
in every field to have been grown from mixed seed. A general effect just
as you describe is caused by a local condition of too much or too little
rain, heat or sunshine, or by a general attack of insects or fungi.

915. Q. About White Grocery beans. How are they grown and har- Beans.
vested ?

A. Any ordinarily good soil will grow beans if not subject to overflow.
They, however, do best on a clover sod, supplemented by 400 or 500
pounds per acre of good fertilizer. They can be sown by any ordinary
grain drill, every fourth tube feeding, or can be drilled by a bean driller,
which costs about $40. They must be cultivated and kept clear of weeds.
The vines can be pulled by hand or podded by a bean harvester. They can
be thrashed by a flail or by a grain thrasher. The production varies from
ten to twenty bushels, and the price, to the farmer, varies from $1.30 to
$2.00 per bushel.

916. Q. You wrote that the plant referred to in our letter was an Adventurous
adventurous plant. What do you mean by that? Plant.

A. Those which by accident become established in new regions. As
a rule but few survive in the uncultivated condition more than three or
four years. For example, after the Centennial Exhibition held in
Philadelphia, in 1876, quite 300 new plants were observed growing in
Fairmount Park, disseminated by seeds brought from various parts of the
world in the straw and hay used in the packing of foreign goods, but now
they have all disappeared. It is the same with insects, many new forms
were observed for several years subsequent to the Exhibition, but now they
have all disappeared.

917. Q. Do vegetables cultivated for their roots, as carrots, beets or Growth
turnips, make a root development immediately upon starting into growth of Roots,
or later on in their existence?

A. Only after complete establishment. All dicotyledonous plants have
at first a single descending axis called a tap-root, and this must establish
itself as a growing organism, rooted in the earth, and drawing nourish-
ment from the soil and through its attached foliage, before it begins to
lay up any superfluous tissue. Tap-roots are anchors, and the places of
origin of minute subterranean filaments or feeders. The swelling out of
tap-roots by the laying on of tissue is a development subsequent to a com-
plete formation of plant existence. For example : Take a very young
Scarlet Turnip radish and a very young Long Scarlet radish, and the first

162 QUEKIES AND ANSWERS.

has as long a root as the other, or take a Long Blood beet and a Red
Turnip beet, and the young turnip form has a root fully as slim and long
as the Long Blood, and sometimes under peculiar weather conditions they
are both slow to lay up tissue and seem to be of similar habit. Just the
same with turnips, flat sorts sometimes seeming to be going to make long
roots. A peculiarity of the tap-roots is that it is only the point or termi-
nal which extends, that is, the lengthening always being a continued exten-
sion of the newly formed point, consequently a tap-root never extends
after the point is cut off. The edible portions of the roots of beets, carrots
and turnips are really the upper part of the tap-roots, and while naturally
distended beyond other parts have been abnormally developed by hun-
dreds of years' selection.

Warranted 918. Q. Do you warrant your seeds ?

Seeds. ^ jq-^ . ^g j^j.g ^pj g^ foolish as to warrant as correct the results which

may be developed consequent upon all sorts of mismanagement of a crop.
All seed merchants have too many complaints of disappointments of crops
due to unfavorable soil and atmospheric conditions, and due to ridiculously
bad management and want of common sense, to warrant satisfactory
results.

Cane Sugar. 919. Q. How many pounds of cane sugar were produced in the United
States during the census year of 1890?

A. 301,284,000 pounds of sugar, and of cane molasses, 25,409,000 gal-
lons. The value of the sugar refined in the United States the same year
was one hundred and twenty-three millions of dollars.

Agricultural 920. Q. What is the value of the annual manufacture of agricultural

Implements, implements in the United States ?

A Over eighty-one millions of dollars.

Ece Plant ^^^" Q' •"■ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ pardon my hasty and perhaps testy complaint

Vitality. that the egg plant seed you sold me was unvital, for I have sprouted it as

you suggested and find it all right?

A. Certainly. We are pretty well broken in to groundless complaints,
as not only the planter of seed but the merchant finds it easier to write a
testy letter than to take the trouble to investigate. Your complaint is only
a repetition of hundreds just as groundless.

The most common experience in the way of foolish complaints, is the
claim so often unreasonably made that one of a number of varieties of
seed failed to develop as perfectly as on some previous occasion, the com-
plainant forgetting to award praise for the ninety and nine varieties which
gave satisfactory results. The gardeners expecting a venture in seeds to
be far more certain than any other business speculation, notwithstanding
that the influences bearing upon germination, plant nutrition, climatic and
physical conditions are beyond their knowledge and control. It is the
unreasonable claim of inexperienced and ignorant persons that if seeds do
not grow when put into the ground it is always because they are bad.
Now, this is a silly charge, for good seeds may in whole or part fail to
grow for very many reasons or causes; as, for instance, improper or in-

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 163

flufflcient preparation of the ground, unseasonable time of sowing, sowing
too deep or too shallow, insufficient moisture, excess of moisture, cold,
heat, depredations of insects under or above the surface, unfavorable
conditions of climate or atmosphere, deficiency or excess of natural
forces which we do not understand.

The writer has been called upon to view hundreds of poor crops which Complaints
the gardeners have claimed to be due to the sowing of unvital seed, but**^ vitauty.
generally he has been able to point out to the gardeners extended pieces
here and there where the germination had been perfect, proving that the
failure in other portions was due to imperfect preparation of land or bad
sowing, as respects time or depth of covering, for if the seed had a vitality
of eighty or ninety per cent, over one foot in a hundred feet of row, it was
equally vital all over the patch. Another class of complaints aie from
those who attempt to assure the seed merchant that every one of a num-
ber of varieties of seeds sold were of bad vitality. These unreasonable
people lay down the charge most emphatically, forgetting that such a
wholesale condemnation contradicts itself, for no seed merchant who ever
filled an order would send out seeds all of which were unvital ; he might
make a mistake with one, but not with all. It is clearly obvious that
when all the seeds of an entire purchase vegetate indifferently or entirely
fail, the fault is in the preparation of the land, the sowing, the soil, insects
or the season.

The seed merchant is frequently berated by a certain unreasoning class
of gardeners who lay all the blame of various failures of the seed upon
him, and when, on the other hand, the crops develop to unusual propor-
tions by reason of favorable conditions, the same class of gardeners want
a premium from the seed merchant for growing the best in their district.
No class of purchasers are so unreasonable as seed purchasers, for they
look for perfection in an article yet unborn. The cattle breeder knows full
well that young stock does not always turn out as he desires, plan he
never so wisely as to cross-breeding.

The seed merchant often receives complaint that a lot of cheap seeds
purchased at random gave as good results as a more costly article, the
complainant forgetting that he cannot rely upon cheap seeds, for the fol-
lowing year they may be villainously bad.

The gardener cannot manufacture vegetables or flowers, nor the farmer
grain or potatoes, as the mechanic makes an engine, or a shoemaker
a boot. The gardener has to trust to the hidden processes of nature as
developed by moisture, heat, chemical action and nutrition. He can only
help nature, and ofttimes is powerless to do that ; and when some natural
action fails, or he sows or transplants at an unseasonable period, he should
not lay the blame upon the seed merchant, unless well assured that the
seeds sold are positively unvital or positively untrue as to representation
of kind.

922. Q. What is the difference between corns known as Gourd Seed, Com.
Dent and Flint ?

164

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Manure.

Swede.

Fig Food.

A. The Gourd Seed has starchy matter covering the entire top or crown
of the grain, the bony and oily sides of the grain not extending up as high
as in the Dent nor entirely up to the top as in the Flint. This starch of
the Gourd Seed when the grain becomes hard and dry shrinks down,
leaving the top portion of the skin or cuticle of the soft grain to dry and
curl, which it does, in the form of a sharp or rough tooth-like projection,
something like the end of a seed of a gourd or squash.

Dent corn has less starch on the crown of the grain, and the horny or
oily sides extending almost to the top, the small amount of starch on the
crown when shrinking seems to draw down with it the skin or cuticle,
forming a depression or dent, hence the name applied to this type of corn.

The Flint corns, like the Pop, have the horny or oily sides running
clear over the top ; they possess little starch and consequently there is no
shrinkage as in the others to cause a collapse, as it were, of the skin or
cuticle.

933. Q. Can I purchase everything which vegetable crops require as
food?

A. Yes ; so far as can be determined by the analytical chemist and veg-
etable physiologist, but you cannot get the component parts in just that
condition in which they are most assimilable. There are unknown soil
influences always at work, influences of heat, of cold, moisture, light, de-
composition, combinations all the while changing the character of sub-,
stance natural to or applied to the soil, and fitting or unfitting them as
plant food.

924. Q. Are the leaves of the Bloomsdale Swede the same as those of
table turnips ?

A. No ; the foliage of a Swede turnip is smooth, a blue green, and
glossy like that of a cabbage, while the leaves of table turnips and some
round cattle turnips, both white and yellow fleshed, are yellowish green,
rough and fuzzy. These are styled rough-leaved turnips, while the
Swedes are spoken of as smooth-leaved turnips.

925. Q. As you advise market gardeners remote from stable-manure
supplies to keep pigs to make manure, I ask in what way does pig food
differ from cow food ?

A. The food for horn-cattle or sheep, ruminant animals, consists largely
of grass, hay, straw, roots, all containing considerable woody fibres.
Pigs want very little of foods containing indigestible woody fibre. They
require foods largely composed of grain, or other seeds, seed oil-cake,
tubers, all containing starch, sugar and nitrogenous matter, all very con-
centrated and digestible substances. Nevertheless the pig is a ravenous
eater and consumes a much larger proportion of dry substances, compared
with his weight, than the ox or sheep. The investigation of Dr. Lawes
shows that for each 100 pounds of live weight per week, the fattening ox
consumes over 12 pounds of dry substance, yielding Ij^^, pounds of in-
crease ; the sheep consumes 16 pounds of dry substance and yields 1^^

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 165

pounds of increase, while the pig will consume 29 pounds of dry sub-
stance and yields G^^% pounds of increase.

Dr. Gilbert says the fattening foods are more valuable in proportion to
their richness in digestible and available non-nitrogenous constituents,
but as the manure is most valuable when it contains a large proportion of
nitrogen there is an advantage in giving food rich in nitrogen even
though it may not be so fattening.

926. Q. What are slime molds ? SUme Molds.
A. The lowest order of fungi, consisting of a mass of slime growing

usually on other vegetable matter, as on leaves or wood, often on the roots
of cultivated plants. The study of the subject of root parasites in general
is being given great attention, for it is being discovered they are nearly
quite as common as leaf parasites.

927. Q. Is Clover hay, according to its analysis, more valuable than clover Hay.
Timothy hay ?

A. Most certainly. It is quite 25 per cent, more valuable, ton for ton.
It contains twice as much nitrogen as Timothy, and nitrogen is worth
fifteen to twenty cents a pound. Grow Clover hay yourself and you will
not need to raise or purchase so much oil cake for feeding. The estimated
average quantity of nitrogen in hay of Timothy is about 5 per cent., in
Crimson Clover about 10 per cent, and in Cow Pea straw about 16 per
cent.

928. Q. Can land be cropped continuously, and the product kept up, Fertilizer,
on superphosphates of lime?

A. It might, but the practice would be without reason. All crops re-
quire slightly dilferent food and some very distinctly diflferent, conse-
quently an answer to your inquiry depends upon the crops you would
purpose to grow. A continuous series of crops might be grown from
superphosphates, but what would be the advantage in thus adhering to
one fertilizer. It would be impractical and probably unprofitable.

929. Is it true that some plants poison the land so that others cannot Poisoned
grow ? ^a'^**'

A. Dr. Lawes says that it is so, after fifty years* close attention to the
subject. He denies that there are any injurious or poisonous excretions.

930. Q. Will you draw out a list of fruits arranged in the order of their Fruits

ripening? in Order of

A. Yes ; but the list can only be of such as are found most suitable in M*t""*y*
this section of eastern Pennsylvania.

Of Apples as follows :

Early. — Bachelor's Blush, Hagloe, Rose, Early Harvest, Yellow
Trampat, Red June, Astrachan, Summer Pearmain.

Intermediate. — Smoke House, Maiden's Blush, Gravenstein, Tall Pippin,
Orange Pippin.

jLo<e.— Fallawater, Ben Davis, Northern Spy, Smith's Cider, Baldwin,
York Improved.

166

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Fraits in
Order of
Maturity.

Nitrogen.

Rotation of
Crops.

Wheat.

Of Pears as follows :

Early.— Barilett, Doyenne D'Ete,

Intermediate. — D'Anjou, LeConte, Bossouck, Sickel, Angouleme.

Late. — Lawrence, Rutter, KeiflFer, Clairgeau, Sheldon.

Of Peaches as follows :

Early. — Mountain Rose, Arasden, June, Rivers, Crawford's Early.

Intermediate. — Stump the World, Old Mixon, Alexander, Reeves, Fa-
vorite.

Late. — Crawford's Late, Wonderful, Ward's Late, Lemon Cling, Free-
man's Late, Heath Cling, Foster, Susquehanna.

Of Strawberries as follows :

Early. — Bubach, Crescent Seedling, Jessie, Wilson.

Intermediate. — Sharpless, Charleston.

Late. — Gandy, Kentucky, Mt. Vernon.

Of Raspberries as follows :

Early. — Turner, Black, Doolittle and Rancocas.

Intermediate. — Souhegan, Marlboro, Cuthburt.

Late. — Gregg, Surprise.

Of Grapes as follows :

Early. — Moore's Early, Champion, Wyoming Red, Victor, Early Har-
vest.

Intermediate. — Worden, Concord, Empire State, Delaware.

Late. — Highland, Pocklington, Salem, Wilder and Niagara.

Of Blackberries as follows :

Early. — Kittatinnery, Lawson, Wilson, Jr.

Intermediate. — Snyder.

Late. — Taylor.

Of Cherries as follows :

Early. — Mazzards, Hearts.

Intermediate. — Biggareaus.

Late. — Morelloes.

931. Q. How much nitrogen do crops take from the soil ?

A. They differ ; but in a general way, according to Dr. Lawes, cropping
under an average rotation takes about 150 pounds each year, and about
that much more is lost by leeching down to the substrata. Dr. Lawes
estimates that "about 300 pounds a year has thus to be obtained from some
source or other.

933. Q. Who first advocated the agricultural system of crop rotation ?

A. Lord Townshend, in 1730, saw the system practiced in Germany,
and introduced it upon his Norfolk estate, a rotation of turnips, barley,
clover and wheat, raising his farm land from a sandy waste to great pro-
ductiveness and value.

933. Q. What has been the increase of late years in the acreage of
wheat production in the United States ?

A. In 1872 the area was twenty-one million acres, in 1876 twenty -eight
million acres, and in 1892 thirty-eight million acres.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

167

934. Q. When was it discovered that certain crops enriclied the soil ? Green

A. It was known in the days of the Romans. Varo, who lived 2000 Manuring.
years ago, wrote "certain things are to be sown, not with the hope of
very immediate profit being derived from them, but with a view to the
following year, because, being plowed in and then left in the ground, they
render the soil afterwards more fruitful." People of that day did not
know or even theorize on the reason, but simply worked from the results
of experience. The crops used by the Romans for this purpose was
lupins and vetches.

935. Q. Will you give me the relative customs rates on agricultural Tariff
produce under the two Tariff Bills, McKinley and Wilson? Kates.

A. Yes ; the small figures on the following schedule are the percent-
ages on the obsolete McKinley Bill, and the large black figures are the
present Wilson Bill ?

Com

Wheat

Rye

Oats

Barley

Buckwheat

Potatoes

Hay

Wool

Fruits

Hides

Eggs

Vegetables . . . Not otherwise specified

Tobacco

f.- < Cleaned.

^^^® I Uncleaned.

Sugar

Cotton

Beans (Dried) ^

Cabbage

Brown Corn

Hops

Onions

Straw

Flax Seed

Apples (Green)

WILSON BILL.

30 per cent.
30 '«
SO "
30 "
30 "
20

15c. Bush.
S2.00 Ton.

Free.

Kree.

3c. Dozen.

10 per cent.

$1.50 lb.

3.25 lb.

.35 lb.

•l^lb.

.8-10 lb.
40 per cent.
Free.

20 per cent.
Free.
Free.
8c. lb.
20c. Bush.
15 per cent.
20c. Bush.
20 per cent.

m'kinley bill.

15c. Bush, of 56 lbs.
25c. "
lOc. "
15c. **

30c. Bush, of 48 lbs.
15c. *" **

25c.' Bush, of 60 lbs.
»4.00 Ton.

.11 lb. wools of 1st class.

.12 " " 2(1 "

32 per cent, wools of 3d & 4th

classes valued at 13c. per lb.

Free.

5c. Dozen.

25 per cent.

$2.00 lb. cigar wrappers.

$2.75 lb. cigar wrappers if

stemmed.

35c. lb. all other leaf not
stemmed.
2c. lb. cleaned,
l^c. lb. uncleaned.
Free.
Free.

40c. Bush, of 60 lbs.
He. each.
$8.00 per ton.

.15 lb.

.40 Bush.
30 per cent.
30c. Bush of 56 lbs.
25c. Bush.

936. Q. Will soils, however manured, refuse to produce continuous and crop-sick
oft- repeated crops of the same plant ? Soils.

A. Yes ; this is especially the case with leguminous crops, but Dr.
Lawes for forty years has produced excellent crops of barley on the same
land, and an average crop of thirteen bushels of wheat for the same forty
years.

168

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Resistant
Grass.

Origrin of

Early

Com.

The Xiocust.

Shallots.

Onion Seed
Sowing.

937. Q. I am Secretary of our State Fair Association and want to put
down twenty acres in permanent grass within tlie grounds. What do
you recommend ?

A. That combination of grass seeds known as Landreths' Mixture for
Athletic Grounds, it being composed of grasses whicli will resist tramping.

938. Q. Are the extra early varieties of corn of northern or southern
origin ?

A. Everything in their habit points to a southern origin. They no
doubt were developed by persistent planting of early-harvested or half-
ripened seed. Plants of Southern habit do not shoot into growth so early
in the Spring relatively as Northern plants of the same genera. The
Southern plants not being so quick to respond to small elevations of
temperature. The long season of Southern latitudes develop an heredity
of long drawn out growth, while the quick, sharp, well-defined seasons of
the North shorten the periods of growtli. Southern plants removed to the
North and brought under the influences of Northern seasons thus become
earlier to sprout, quicker to grow and earlier to mature.

939. Q. How does the singing locust make its noise ?

A. In the old Middle States no Summer insect, except the mosquito, is
more in evidence than the Cicadae or dog-day locust, its song being
continuous from sunrise to sunset, consequent upon taking up of the
refrain by one insect as soon as dropped by another. The song is an
accompaniment of hot weather. The insect does not make its noise
through its mouth, but by the action of powerful muscles upon drums
located upon its body and abdomen. It may be often noticed the song of
the locust is suddenly terminated by a discordant note ; this is caused by
the attack and sting of the locust wasp — its deadly enemy — a great hor-
net which lives in holes in the ground into which it takes the dead
locusts.

940. Q. Are there two types of shallots ?

A. Yes. There is the true shallot, the oblong bulbs of which are gen-
erally encased in a silvery, filmy envelope and there is the false shallot,
the bulbs of which are not so encased and which are less oblong, quite
oval, sometimes nearly round, very solid and a coppery red, the outer
skins very delicate and easily torn off.

941. Q. At what time should onion seed be sown in the latitude of
Washington or south of it to produce early market onions for shipping in
the Spring?

A. Sow the seed in a seed-bed between August 15 and September 1
and when the young plants are three inches high transplant them. In
the removal from the seed-bed, the first operation is to loosen the earth
beneath them so as not to tear off any of the root fibres. In setting the
seedlings, place them in rows at eighteen inches apart and two or three
inches apart in the rows. The seedlings should only be put into good
soil, should be well fastened in, and the operation performed imme-
diately after a rain.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 169

942. Q. I have just purchased a farm iu Delaware and upon it find a Weeds.
varied assortment of weeds, which have for years held such undisputed
possession that they seem to resist my efforts to eradicate them. What

shall I do?

A. You must decide to become master of the situation, and the first
thing to do is to study the habits of weeds. Their seeds are so often so
thoroughly protected by envelopes of oily and starchy matter as to
retain their vitality for years ; some seeds freely sprouting when brought
to the surface after having lain for ten or twenty years following
an unusually deep plowing down, consequently the first important
thing is to prevent the ripening of weed seeds by destroying the growing
weeds, if not as soon as they sprout, certainly before they mature. This
can be done at various stages by the hoe, cultivator, plow, or by digging
out. A good plan to prevent weeds is to keep the land well covered
with strong growing crops which themselves take full possession of the
soil, as clover, rye and other top-heavy crops. A third good course is
always to plow the land after a crop is removed and sow it in something
to temporarily occupy the soil, if it only be a crop of broadcasted corn
which may reach a foot or two in height. A good farmer will soon put
a new face on any farm, be it ever so weedy, and no implement is so
eflfective as the hoe, and by it weeds can be destroyed in their earlier
stages ; but that eminent agriculturist. Sir Joseph H. Gilbert, says, that
upon visiting America he was told that no true-blooded American would
bend his back sufficiently to use a hoe.

943. Q. How is it that I now find so many new weeds upon my Mary- Weeds,

land farm which were not known in that section during my boyhood ^^^
, . Disseminated

days?

A. Because the seeds of wheat, oats, grass and clover are now

frequently the product of distant localities and with them come the

weed seeds of those remote sections. Seeds are often brought on the wool

or hair of live stock. For instance : A herd of Texas cattle might easily

introduce upon a Maryland farm a lot of weeds never before seen there ;

and in the bedding of cattle cars from distant western localities are

brought the seeds of many weeds. The whole line of the Pennsylvania

Railroad between Philadelphia and New York is now bordered with a

prairie grass the like of which was not seen twenty years ago.

944. Q. Can I grow in Florida the new tanning plant Canaigre ? Canaigre.
A. Yes. You can do it successfully in any loose and dry land south of

the latitude of Jacksonville. The plant is a native of Mexico, Arizona
and Southern California and belongs to the Dock family. It produces
tuber-like roots weighing from a few ounces to several pounds ; the
clusters sometimes weighing up to one hundred pounds. It is propa-
gated by the sets, about seven hundred pounds being required to plant
an acre. The planting is best done between the 1st of September and the
1st of November. A crop is estimated to range from forty to fifty tons to
the acre.

170

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Source of

Agricultural

Advice.

Peanuts. 945, Q. What is the annual production of peanuts in tlie United States ?

A. About four million bushels of twenty-two pounds each. For these
the consumers pay $10,000,000 annually. Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee
and North Carolina are the largest producers in the order named. The
African and Indian crop is over eighteen million bushels. Most of the
foreign product is used in making oil, the kernels yielding from 30 to 40
per cent, of oil, worth at Marseilles about seventy-five cents per gallon.

The cake from the oil presses in countries where it is pressed is worth
thirty dollars per ton as a food for cattle and pigs, and is considered
superior to any other form of oil cake.

946. Q. Is the agricultural chemist a better farmer than the practical
field operator, or upon whose advice can I place the most reliance ?

A. The agricultural chemist's observations into the components of
plants may be perfectly accurate, and if he was infallible as respects his
conclusions then indeed agriculture would be a science, and the chemist
could direct the farmer just how crops should be fed, but plants are not en-
tirely developed by chemical combinations or by mechanical measures,
for back of all these is a vital principle or force, an irritability and varia-
bility and selective capacity which man cannot control or fathom. The
agricultural chemist can only suggest foods from which plants can draw
according to their powers of selection, advanced or retarded by vital force.
Asparagus. 947. Q. When sowing asparagus seed in my garden what course shall
I adopt to hasten its sprouting?

A. Soak the seed for a night in tepid water, the temperature not ex-
ceeding 130O F. In the morning thoroughly mix the seed with damp
earth, and put the mass into a box or barrel, where let it stand till minute
white sprouts appear on the asparagus seed, when at once sow it in rows at
ten inches apart, if to produce plants for transplanting, or if to remain
permanently, sow it in ifews at five or six feet apart. It is far best to sow
in close rows, the young plants when two years old to be removed to
permanent locations.
Sugar Corn. 948. Q. Which varieties of Sugar corn most rapidly pass beyond the
edible condition, that is to say, harden the most quickly ?

A. The eight-rowed sorts remain the least time in edible condition, as
the grains are not compact on the cob. Such loosely covered cobs quickly
lose their moisture, and the grains their juice and palatability because of
the extraction of their moisture in the drying of the cob.
Beet Sugar. 949. Q. What is the annual product of beet sugar in Europe ?

A. In 1894-'95 the estimate was as follows : Germany, 1850 thousand
tons ; Austria, 1050 thousand tons ; France, 790 thousand tons ; Russia, 620
thousand tons ; Belgium, 285 thousand tons ; Holland, 90 thousand tons ;
other countries, 106 thousand tons ; a total of 4846 thousands. In the
United States the approximate manufacture for 1894-'95 was 267 thousand
tons.
Tomato. 950. Q. How long will a tomato continue to live and produce fruit if

protected from cold temperature ?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 171

A. Near the equator a tomato is said to live for many years like the
grapevine In this latitude there have been thousands of instances where
in glass houses tomato vines have been kept in bearing condition for
several years.

951. Q. Is salt good for land, and if so, why ? Salt.

A. It is not strictly a manure, but changes existing conditions and may
therefore be looked upon as an alterative. It also drives worms and in-
sects, and by its affinity for water keeps land moist.

953. Q. Is Carolina phosphate rock a good dependence upon which to Carolina
make a crop of garden truck ? Kock.

A. No, it is not. It is little better than a make-weight, or a component
of a manufactured Fertilizer, reinforced by the addition of better materials.

953. Q. Three weeks ago I drilled my spinach seed, but by reason of Spinach Seed
drought not a seed has sprouted. Will it grow when there is rain ?

A. Probably it will if the heat of the sun during the drought was not
sufficient to bake the seed. If the seed made an effort to grow and was
arrested by the drought it will not start again as wheat would do, for
spinach does not possess that quality.

954. Q. Does a thickly broadcasted com crop collect nitrogen ? Nitrogen.
A. Certainly, it obtains a little from the soil ; but neither the leaves of

corn nor the roots collect it from the air in the same quantity as do plants
of the clover, bean, or pea family.

955. Q. Which is the most important fertilizer on a wheat farm ? Phosphoric
A. Phosphoric acid, as the cereal crops draw largely upon it, and as it Acid.

is stored away in the grain which is generally sold off the farm, conse-
quently the drain upon the land is severe, and the phosphoric acid has to
be replaced by artificial application. Potash is taken up by grain crops
also, but the potash goes back to the soil in the form of straw, so also in
the case of clover, beans, roots, fed upon the farm, the potash goes back
to a large extent.

956. Q. Are Savoy cabbages superior to smooth-leaved sorts ? Savoy
A. They are incomparably better, in fact almost equal to cauliflower. Cabbage.

and they can. be grown where neither cauliflower nor broccoli can be
produced. They can be grown on any cabbage soil.

957. Q. Down here in Florida I have great difficulty In obtaining a Egg Plant,
good stand of egg plants. What do you advise ? How to

A. Advise the adoption of the Northern system of growing egg plants. ^''^ **^® Seed.^
In Jersey a market gardener sows his egg plants in a hotbed witn plenty
of bottom heat and gives the bed every attention experience can dictate ;
plenty of heat, rich soil, sufficient watering, sufficient air under the glass
at proper times, and he thinks well if he gets 50 pei cent, of the best seed
to stand, and only by greatest attention does he keep them free from
fungous attack, for if mold once strikes them then he has no recourse.
But in Florida the general system is to plant the seed in the open field,
often in nearly white sand, generally without any protection from the
sun. How can much success be looked for under such a system ?

172

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Liime.

Ruta Baga.

Turnips
or Beets.

Varieties
of Turnips.

Roots
for Cows.

Sugar Beets.

958. Q. Is lime found ia plants, and what benefit is it to plants ?

A. It is found in the straw of grain and more largely in straw of clover
and beans. The two last are very obviously benefited by the application
of lime. Dr. Gilbert thinks it is connected with the accumulative or veg-
etative processes of plants rather than with their maturing processes or
condition, as a largely increased accumulation of lime is coincident with
an increased bean and clover crop. Lime is therefore of much importance
to all crops, but especially to the leguminous. Many soils,- however,
possess enough natural lime without any artificial application.

959. Q. Why is the ruta baga considered a better feeding root than
White or Yellow Globe turnip ?

A. Ruta baga turnips or Swedes do not develop such a mass of leaf as
do White Globe turnips, though the Swedes give the greater weight of
roots, by far the larger part of the accumulation of vegetable matter being
in the roots. The measure of the value of roots is not in the weight of
water but in the weight of dry substance, and in Swedes the dry sub-
stance surpasses the proportion in Globe turnips, consequently the
Swede is the best feeding root. The Swede is not cultivated as largely
as it should be because it requires earlier sowing than round turnips, and
as at the proper season for drilling Swedes suitable land is not always
available under American systems of rotation, or under the no system so
common. Globe turnips planted later are more easily located on the farm,
as they may follow a grain crop, while Swedes have to be sown before
the grain is harvested. In any case it is not desirable to have roots too
ripe, as they will not keep so well through Winter and into Spring.

960. Q. What are the strongest rooting plants, turnips or beets?

A. The Sugar beet is a stronger rooter than the mangel, and both are
stronger than the turnip. The Sugar beet, a strong feeder, has widely
reaching and deeply penetrating roots, and absorbs freely, and lays up a
large amount of sugar, sometimes one-fifth part of its crude weight.

961. Q. Do White Globe turnips and Swedes require different soils ?
A. They do not absolutely require distinct soils, but upon light soi'is,

which do not produce much leaf matter, Swedes will do well where
Large White Globe turnips would fail, and on heavy land where Large
White Globe turnips will flourish, sometimes Swedes will be disappointing.
A too generous nitrogenous manuring for turnips of any kind induces a
disposition to make leaf, sometimes to the disadvantage of the root pro-
duct. Leafy roots are slow to ripen, but sometimes this is an advantage
as roots too ripe do not keep well during Winter,

962. Q. Are roots a desirable food to give milking cows ?

A. Yes ; they are like grass, they increase the quantity of the milk ;
mangels to a greater extent than turnips, and Sugar beets more than
mangels. Mangels are better in this respect than silage. Milking cows
require more and richer food than animals being fattened for market.

963. Q. Can I rely upon a crop of Sugar beets as a regular and con-
tinuous cattle food ?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 173

A. No ; cattle should have other food rich in nitrogenous substance.
The sugar or carbohydrates in roots renders them very valuable to cattle
for making meat and milk, but they are not sufBcient in themselves to sus-
tain the animal functions. Starchy foods are wanted as well.

964. Q. Is there a difference in the processes of growing turnip beets or Growing
other roots for cattle feed and for seed purposes ? Roots.

A. Some distinction, as in the case of roots for cattle the effort is to
develop the largest growth of the root and consequently the heaviest
yield to the acre. This is only accomplished by giving the crops the
benefit of the longest possible growing season. Early drilling is therefore
a necessity in the case of cattle roots, but not so when growing roots for
seed as then it is not desirable to have them too big or ripe, for such do
not keep so easily as less mature roots. The second season, when seed is
the object, it is best to plant out turnips and beets on heavier lands than
that on which the roots were produced.

965. Q. "Why is it that farmyard manure is so efficient? Farmyard
A. The immediate or first active part of farmyard manure is the urine ^*'*"^®'

or liquid portion of the application, then afterwards the very fine and
easily solved atoms of the mass, and then following the other parts in the
order of their condition. Various lots of farmyard manure are hardly
ever alike, never the same on distinct farms, seldom the same at different
periods out of the same yard, consequently their action is more or less
active and more or less constant. In all cases there are parts not avail-
able for two or three years and this is clearly proven by the long after-
results of an application of farmyard manure. In the processes of good
farming, stable or yard manure is largely made, carefully saved, and
judiciously applied, and as it is quite continuous in its actions, the fertility
of a well-managed farm is constantly increasing.

966. Q. Which are the finest types of sugar corn ? Sugar Cerm.
A. Those of twelve or more rows, as in them are found the narrowest

grains and tightest packing on the cob. With a diminution in the breadth
of the grains there is an increase in sugary qualities — long, narrow shoe-
peg grains being generally the sweetest.

967. Q. How many years ago was introduced the system of preserving Silos.
cattle foods in silos ?

A. Eighteen hundred years ago, Coesar practiced it when he made his
march from Italy to Germany, storing in pits as he passed through the
country large quantities of green fodder to serve as food for his animals
upon his return march.

968. Q. How can I dissolve five hundred pounds of bones? Bones.
A. Break them up into pieces small as a walnut and mix with an equal

quantity of wood ashes, also with thirty pounds of slacked lime, and
fifteen pounds of sal soda made fine. Mix the mass thoroughly and pack
into tight bins, boxes or casks, where water thoroughly so as to wet the
entire mass. Repeat this every three or four days and in three weeks the
bones will be found all melted down.

174

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Sleasaring
Land.

Blue Grass.

Pulverizing
Soil.

Subsoil
Plowing.

Wire Grass.

969. Q. Give me some quickly approximative rules for measuring sur-
face area of farm crops ?

A. Assuming that the area of an acre is equivalent to a space seventy-
yards long by seventy yards wide, or 4900 square yards, we will call it for
easy calculation 5000 yards. Now to measure any piece of land pace o3 in
yards the length and multiply that length by its width, and its area is the
whole, or more, or the fractional part of 5000. For instance, if the length is
sixty yards and the width thirty-four yards, it gives an area of 2040 square
yards, or two-fifths of an acre, or if the length is 180 yards and the width
83 yards, the one multiplied by the other gives 15,100 yards or three times
5000, consequently the area of the piece is three acres. To lay off a desired
portion of an acre or more pace off in yards to see what is the length of
the field, and multiply it by such number of yards in width as will make
the proper fraction of 5000, if the space is to be under an acre, or over
5000 yards if the space is to be over an acre. Purchase the little book
titled The Farmers Land Measurer, by James Pedar. Price sixty cents.
It is invaluable.

970. Q. Is not Kentucky Blue grass the best pasture grass ?

A. It is so most decidedly. It is especially vigorous and particularly
durable on soils of a limestone basis, in proof of which witness the per-
ennial pastures, pastures good for a hundred years in the blue grass
regions of Kentucky and Tennessee.

971. Q. Is it not bad practice to endeavor to pulverize the soil too
finely ?

A. No ; the soil cannot be worked too intensely in any farm prepara-
tion for cropping. Thorough cultivation is equal to an application of
manure. Try it in any field for any crop ; plow a section of a plowed
field once more and note the result. Jethro Tull, of Berks, England,
made himself quite famous in 1810 to 1830 by advocating thorough tillage,
and subsequently thorough cultivation and hoeing, entirely in place of
manuring, and while he did not prove his theory he demonstrated the
wonderful results that could be accomplished by an intense system of
working the soil.

973. Q. Is the practice of subsoil plowing beneficial to all soils ?

A. Only on soils having a hard understrata. If the subsoil is sandy
down to a depth of twelve or fourteen inches — that is as deep as a subsoil
plow can go — subsoiling will not be of any general benefit. The only ad-
vantage of subsoiling is to break up hard pan that surface water may pass
down, or subterranean water rise, and that roots may ramify.

973. Q. How can I eradicate wire grass?

A. First dig it out with forks and then work the land every week. It
is, indeed, best, to omit a year's cropping so that the field can be worked
weekly. Do not give the roots a chance to get any breath through the
agency of surface leaves. Destroy the leaves and keep them from devel-
oping, and the roots will die.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 175

974. Q. In what part of the cucumber, the skin or flesh.isthe poisonous Cucumber.
principle?

A. There is no poisonous principle. The cucumber is simply indiges-
tible to some people. Delicate people eat cucumbers with impunity while
others very robust cannot use them, their gastric juices do not contain the
proper elements to digest the fruit.

975. Q. Tell me how a market gardener should lay up cabbage in the Cabbage
Autumn to be drawn upon for market sales ? Preservation

A. Plow two furrow slices together, making a liigh ridge, and with a
shovel dig out the furrow, throwing the earth on top of the ridge, whicli
tramp hard. Into the open furrow stand the cabbages up perpendicularly,
side by side, roots down, and tramp the eartli hard against the roots, then
with a plow throw a furrow slice against them, covering up to just under-
neath the head. Shovel out this new furrow as the first, filling it with
closely packed cabbage as in the first instance. After thus filling several
furrows on one side of the ridge repeat the entire operation on the other
side. Cover witli eight to ten inches of straw, on which place poles or
rails to prevent it from blowing off.

976. Q. Is not rolling the land in many cases injurious? Kolling Land
A. Yes ; and farmers are finding it out. Who now sees one roller

where there were twenty that many years ago. A farm roller is a useful
implement in dry weather, but should never be used when the soil is in
condition to pack tightly.

977. Q. Is coal ashes good fertilizing material ? Coal Ashes.
A. Coal ashes are of no value in themselves, but are sometimes useful

in clay soils, as by their addition such soils are loosened or aerated. Coal
ashes generally contain a small quantity of wood ashes which give them
a little value as a manure.

978. Q. What is the relative value of sorghum as compared with field SorgUum.
corn for soiling purposes?

A. Sorghum, ton for ton, is the superior because its stalks and leaves
contain double the quantity of sugar found in Indian corn.

979. Q. In growing a crop of potatoes is flat culture or hill culture the potatoes.
better ?

A. Cultivation of the potato in hills was a system imported from Ire-
land and England, followed there by reason of the constant rains and wet
condition of the soil ; but here, under our warmer sun and drier atmos-
phere, flat culture is the best.

980. Q. Can I in any way prepare an Imitation of barnyard manure Barnyard
which will resemble it in action, and cost but little ? Manure.

A, You can make an apology for it by taking, say, two tons of swamp
muck, seventy-five pounds of nitrate of soda, one hundred and fifty
pounds of wood ashes, twenty-five pounds of common salt dissolved in
water, twenty-five pounds of fine bone meal, ten pounds of land plaster,
twenty pounds of Epsom salts, dissolved in water, and thoroughly mix
the whole mass, and let it lay for a week, when turn it over and let it

176

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Starch
as Food.

Celery
Preservation

Weeds.

Plant
Nutrition

lay for a month. This should not cost over five or six dollars, and will
be found quite efficient as a fertilizer, but not so quick in action or so
stimulating as barnyard manure, because its valuable parts are not so
comminuted, nor is it in so good condition for assimilation by plants as
that which has all of it before been within plant systems.

981. Q. In what does the value of the starch in corn, or in any food, con-
sist as a cattle-feeding substance ?

A. It serves the purpose of a fuel, animals eating it prepare it for
oxidation, after which it is in great part returned to the air through their
respiratory organs. The oxidation and assimilation of starch imparts
warmth to the animal and assists the digestion of all other classes of
foods.

983. Q. How can I lay up my market celery for Winter so it will keep,
and so I can get at it as I want to sell ?

A. "With a plow throw up a two-furrowed ridge and tramp it hard.
"With a shovel clean out the furrows, placing the loose earth on top of the
ridge, which pack down with the back of the shovel, then on one side of
the ridge stretch a line lengthwise and with a spade cut the earth down
perpendicularly, opening a clean trench five to six inches below the gen-
eral level of the ground, shoveling the loose earth on to the top of the
ridge. Make this trench of such a depth that when the celery plants are
stood up in it their tops will be even with the top of the ridge. In the
trench stand up the celery three or four stalks thick, pack them tightly
and fasten them in place with loose soil packed against the root by hand.
When the trench is thus filled, run a plow alongside throwing the furrow
slice against the celery, and open the new furrow close alongside with a
spade, the same as tiie first, and repeat the operation of packing in more
celery. On the other side of the original ridge perform the same opera-
tion. When this is done throw several furrows on the outside of both
sides of the celery bed. Cover the celery with five or six inches of hay
and that with four or five inches of long stable manure.

983. Q. Are weeds multiplying on the farms of the United States ?

A. Yes ; to such an alarming extent as to clearly demonstrate a want
of energy on the part of the American farmer, particularly as the most
troublesome weeds are foreigners, as, for example, the wild oat, ox-eye
daisy, thistle, burdock and wild mustard. Weeds are objectionable because
they extract fertilizing parts from the soil, drawing upon that food which
should be used by the cultivated crops. Weeds increase the labor of
working crops. They crowd a valuable -crop so that it diminishes pro-
duct, and they add to the labor of cleaning the grain crops for market.
Few weeds are of any use for either man or beast, generally being bitter
or acrid in taste.

984. Q. Where is conducted the best system of investigation into the
subject of plant nutrition ?

A. At the Dramstadt Experimental Station, where the tests are all
made in zinc tubs and pots, thousands of them, the largest about thirty

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 177

inches in diameter and forty inclies deep, the smallest pots about ten
inches in diameter. Tlie station grounds occupy about three and a lialf
acres, and are so arranged that the pots are moved by tram cars in the
open air on days not raining, but kept under cover during inclement
weather. While the conditions of pot culture are not the same as in the
open field, it is nevertheless the most exact system of research into the
growth of plants, soil exhaustion and soil drainage, as the pots can be
brought under the control and protection of the experimenter, while in
the open field all sorts of complications arise.

985. Q. What is the soil in relation to vegetation ? rpj^^ g^^^^
A. It is both a laboratory and a mine. Certainly our own rich, black

prairie soils are mines containing the vegetable accumulations of genera-
tions, but unfortunately by bad systems of cropping they are being ex-
hausted. Of course the soil is also a laboratory, for all applied manures
must pass through chemical changes and combinations effected to fit them
for food for plants. A very small portion of the commercial fertilizers
are, as applied to the soil, in a condition to be at once taken into plant
systems simply by being dissolved in water, they have to undergo more
or less change. If this were not so their action would be as quick and
transient as a flash of gunpowder, whereas they often take two or three
years to cease their activity.

986. Q. I never can grow a crop of perfect ears of sugar corn, the soft Corn Grub.
grain always being badly cut by a grub in the husk. Can I prevent it?

A. The moth lays its eggs on the ear when it is very small, and the
caterpillars are ready to enter the ear before it is half grown. Without a
trial in the case the writer would venture to suggest the enveloping of
the immature ear by bands of loose paper, or envelop them in loose paper
bags like grape growers envelop grape bunches, but it would be necessary
to permit the silk at the end of the ear to protrude, otherwise pollination
would not take place. This very exposure of the end of the ear might
defeat the effort to preserve it from the attacks of the grub, for it might
afford a fit resting place for a late flight of moths to deposit their eggs.

987. Q. Are there insects beneficial to agriculture ? Beneficial
A. There are thousands assisting in the pollination of flowers, and insects.

thousands of others destroying noxious species of insects. It is estimated
there are in the world twenty millions of species of insects, and it is cal-
culated that a million or more are advantageous to agriculture. About
ten thousand species of predaceous or parasitic insects are known in the
United States, but it will not do for the agriculturist to lay by and hope
for nature to send to his aid a flight of insectivorous insects to eat up
others, for the beneficial hosts are small in numbers as compared with the
injurious forms. The well-known snake feeder or dragon fly, so common
in Summer, is a showy representative of beneficial insects, as it lives upon
others, which it kills.

988. Q. What are the names of twenty or thirty of the most common weeds.

178

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Turnips.

Nitrogenous
Maniires.

weeds found among the crops of the ordinary farmer of the South Atlan-
tic States ?

A. The writer cannot undertake to name all or even the most promi-
nent, for those particularly noticeable in one section are less so in another,
but the following list alphabetically arranged will certainly include
many of the most troublesome :

Amaranthus or Pigwig.

Bone-set or Indian Sage.

Bramble or Blackberry.

Burdock.

Buttercup or Crowfoot.

Chickweed or Mouse Ear.

Cheat or Chess.

Cockle Burr or Clot Burr.

Corn Cockle or Agrostemina.

Catnip or Catmint.

Daisy or "White Weed.

Dock or Rumex.

Dodder or Flax Vine.

Dandelion or Taraxacum.

Garlic.

Lamb's Quarter or Goosefoot.

Milk Weed or Silk Weed.

Mullein or Velvet Plant.

Night Shade or Bitter Sweet.

Plantain or Buck Horn.

Purslane or Pussley.

Rag Weed or Bitter Weed,

Sorrel or Oseille.

Smart Weed or Knot Weed.

Shepherd's Purse.

Stramonium or Jimson Weed.

Thistle.

Wild Carrot.

Wild Mustard or Charlock.

Wild Radish.

Indian Mallow or Abutilon.

989. Why is it that you recommend the growing of turnips as a restora-
tive crop ?

A. Because they can only be successfully grown after a good manuring,
and after proper preparation of the land, the two operations being very
obviously in the direction of high farming, the manure applied, generally
barnyard manure, is only partially used by the turnip, a large proportion
being available to following crops. The turnip tops all go back on the
land either directly or as manure, and the roots, if used in the stable in
fattening stock, are to a large extent voided by the animals, this ex-
crement containing quite 70 per cent, of the nitrogen of the crop. Milch
cows retain a larger proportion of the nitrogen than beef cattle. The
turnip leaves which are returned, contain a large proportion of nitrogen
also, and are worth double their cost. Thus the thorough preparation of
the land, the manuring for the crop, the large yield of leaves from the
crop, cattle excrement returned, all go to bring up the land to a high
level of fertility and general condition. Consequently on farms where
turnips are largely grown for cattle food, the general character of the soil
is annually improved.

990. Q. What is the effect of large applications to cattle root crops of
nitrogenous manures, as rich barnyard manure, nitrate of soda and cot-
ton seed cake ?

A. They add very largely to the gross return, the tons harvested, but
the percentage of sugar, the fattening ingredient in the roots, is not so
high as in a smaller crop grown from less nitrogen. In other words.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 179

nitrogen produces large crops of roots aggregating a large amount of
sugar, but seemingly not in proportion to the nitrogen supplied. An
excess of nitrogen gives great leaf luxuriance, and keeps the plants unripe
late into the season. As an adjunct to nitrogen as a food to root crops,
potash is very important, the increase of sugar being much influenced by
the amount of potash.

991. Q. Can I get good crops of truck by using 600 to 700 pounds of super-
superphosphate to the acre ? phosphates,

A. Generally you can look for good results, but you don't get enough
potash in ordinary superphosphate. As a rule, years of use and almost
entire reliance upon superphosphate have brought about on garden soils
a potash impoverishment which seriously affects results. Potash is
required largely by corn, clover, potatoes, and is eagerly assimilated by
all garden vegetables, in fact it is never out of place. Don't adhere
entirely to superphosphates. Its makers don't profess to furnish much
potash. You can get potash in wood ashes, and it is safe to apply one
ton or fifty bushels to the acre, or you can get it in muriate of potash,
using 200 or 250 pounds to the acre. Nitrate of soda can be applied, using
300 or 400 pounds to the acre. The urine of animals is especially rich in
potash and should all be saved by absorbents placed in the barnyard, and
the manure pile should be kept under a shed and not be exposed to the
leeching effects of rain.

992. Q. Is the sweet potato of the same family as the yam. Sweet
A. No, they are of distinct genera, the sweet potato being, it is thought, Potato.

a native of Central America. In 1526 it was in general cultivation in St.
Domingo and other West India islands. Botanically it belongs to the
Convolvulus family of dicotyledonous plants. The edible portions are
true roots. In China there is an edible root somewhat resembling it but
of the Ipomsea family. The various species of yams cultivated in the
United States belong to the widely scattered Dioscorea family and are
believed to have been brought from Africa. They are monocotyledonous
plants, markedly distinct in this particular from the dicotyledonous sweet
potato, and the yams are distinct also in their flowers, as in them the
sexes occur on difi"erent plants, while in the sweet potato the sexes are
found on the same flower. The edible portion of the yams are under-
ground stems, while in the sweet potatoes they are roots. The distin-
guishing qualities between the sweet potato and the yam is too well
known to need description.

993. Q. Do most garden vegetable plants fertilize or pollenize them- Pollination.
selves.

A. A great many do ; but quite as many absolutely require the aid of
insects to carry the pollen from one flower to another, or to loosen parts
of the flowers of monojcious plants that fertility may take place. A
familiar example is found in the bean, pea, and clover plants, where the
visitation of an insect at the right time causes the stamens to discharge a
cloud of pollen. It is said that bees when visiting the flowers of beans

180

QUEEIES AND ANSWERS.

Vegetable
Growth.

instinctively alight or creep upon the flower, so that their weight causes
the pistil to protrude to receive the pollen. A hundred other instances of
equally curious character could be quoted. Prof. Beale, of Michigan,
has conducted experiments in the covering of flowers with gauze to pre-
vent the visitation of the flowers by insects, and reports in many instances
no seed set.

Sexes in 994. Q. What are terms used to indicate the sexes of vegetable plants?

Flowera. A. When the flowers have stamens alone, the vegetable plant is termed

a male or staminate plant. When with pistil alone, it is termed female or
pistillate. When both male and female organs are found on the same
plant, it is termed a moncecious plant. When the male and female organs
are found on different plants, it is dimcious. When unsexual or hermaph-
rodite flowers are on the same plant, it is termed polygamous. When,
male and female flowers are both absent, it is termed neutral.

995. Q. In Avhat form does the growth of vegetables occur?
A. By the laying on of cells or an increase of the whole plant. "Vessels

producing vessels and cells producing cells." In animals every part of
the frame and flesh is renewed from time to time, it being commonly
understood there is a complete change every nine or ten years, but in
vegetables, except in leaf and bark, there is no renewal of parts once
formed, the entire growth is in the line of new matter to be piled on top
or on the exterior of that already formed.

996. Q. Is it a good plan to sow grain with young grass for purposes
of protecting it ?

A. It is a bad plan, as the more vigorous grain smothers the tender
grass in the Spring, making it still more tender. Better get your grass
in early in the Autumn so as to give it a good start, and let it take its
chances, for if well started it won't need grain as a nurse.

997. Q. Why is the okra almost unknown in Northern markets?

A. It is preeminently a Southern vegetable, but it can be grown wher-
ever sugar corn will flourish. It is little cultivated, however, north of
Baltimore ?

Air in the 998. Q. Do roots of garden vegetables require much air ?

Soil. A. Yes ; just as much as leaves, as is proven by their death when

deprived of air or when grown in poisonous gas, as carbonic acid. This
shows one of the advantages of deep and frequent culture. Neither
leaves nor roots have organs corresponding to the lungs of animals nor
to the gills of fish, but they in some way absorb air and make use of it as
an absolute necessity. Air at the roots of plants is necessary to present
the water of the soil in best condition for absorption by the roots, as they
do not absorb water so much as watery vapor, hence air is necessary
among other things to absorb the water and prepent it in vapory form.
Seed 999. Q. Is there any Government control of the seed business for pur-

Control, poses of preventing fraud ?

A. No ! But there might be to advantage. Every department of
art or science has its humbug, and it would be strange indeed if

Sowing
Grass.

Okra.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 181

that one which is the oldest and most extensively practiced was free.
Agriculture and horticulture must be content to bear their shares,
for like in the treatment of weeds, cast out as many as we will,
some germs remain, and like weeds with the warm of returning Spring,
the humbugs are reanimated and spring up with smiling faces. Many
of the State Experimental Stations have for some years been engaged
in analyzing commercial fertilizers and publishing the results, all of
which has been very beneficial as indicating to the farmer fraudu-
lent brands, consequently fewer of such are now made than for-
merly. It is quite within the scope of the work of experimental
stations to take up the question of seeds and to publish sworn reports
of vitality tests of seeds obtained from various seedsmen, and the
results of microscopic examinations in search of weeds, imperfect and
moldy seeds ; and -subsequently reports of quality as shown in the
experimental garden. Such Seed Control Stations, as they are termed
in Europe, will certainly be established in this country as well as
abroad, as the work there is much appreciated, particularly in Germany
and Austria. No farmers, no market gardeners, or private gardeners,
as the Americans, sow so large a proportion of poor seeds, because
there are so many of such imported. Many European seedsmen seem
to think anything is good enough for the American market, some of
them sending here what they would not sell under their own names
in their own countries. The ordinary farmer or gardener purchases
the lowest price seed he can get, and consequently he gets lots of
weed seeds in his grass and clover, and the vegetable market gardener
often gets stocks much doctored. A low price for seed nowadays con-
demns it in the estimation of those who know, for if it is good it cannot
be priced below the normal value.

1000. Q. What is the object of bleaching celery ? Celery

A. Celery is bleached to get rid of the acrid quality which is always Bleaching^
present in the green chlorophyll situated in the leaves between the upper
and lower epidermis. The chlorophyll when green contains iron, an
essential to all green plants, and is acrid and bitter, but bleached it loses
the iron and its objectionable flavor with it, and becomes mild and sweet.

1001. Q. How late in Summer can I plant garden seeds so that I may

have a fair expectation of a crop reaching edible condition before frost? Seeding
A. 1. Average, and note down, the date of the first killing frost in your **"*****•
neighborhood.

2. Calculate, and note down, the number of days required from date of
germination to obtain edible condition required by Spring-sown garden
crops in your district.

3. As Summer and Autumn crops generally grow slower than Spring
crops, add ten or fifteen days to the usual number of days required for
Spring-sown crops and you have the number of days preceding the day
of frost required by an Autumn crop to develop into edible condition

4. In Pennsylvania the periods usually required for quickly developing

182

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Breathing
Pores.

Mangel
Wurzel.

Club
Koot.

Sugar
Corn.

Rotation.

garden vegetables to reach edible condition are about as follows : peas,
forty to fifty days ; beans, forty to fifty days ; corn, seventy to seventy-five
days ; cucumber, seventy to eighty days ; radish, eighteen to twenty-five
days ; spinach, forty to fifty days ; tomato, one hundred to one hundred
and twenty days. For Autumn cropping add ten to fifteen days to each
period.

1002. Q. How many breathing pores are there to the inch on the leaves
of most garden vegetables?

A. The pores are called stomata, and give passage to air, serving the
purpose of expiration and inspiration. On most plants there are one
hundred to five hundred thousand to the square incli.

1003. Q. In what way do Mangel Wurzel differ from Swede turnips ?
A. Mangels, which are large growing beets, have to be sown a month

earlier than Swedes, which are of the turnip family, the Mangels requir-
ing a longer period to develop. The Mangel roots deeply, and is not so
dependent upon frequent rains, as it has powers of accommodation to fluc-
tuating circumstances greater than the turnip. It is more leafy, and is a
plant requiring a higher temperature than the turnip. It is a gross
feeder, requiring a heavy dressing of manure, and is particularly devel-
oped in growth by nitrogenous food.

1004. Q. Part of my truck patch was last year affected by club root,
and as I am limited in capital I cannot afford to rent new land, now what
can I do to remedy the evil ?

A. In the Winter broadcast seventy-five bushels of air-slacked lime to
the acre, also one thousand pounds of kainit, and before seeding in the
Spring, apply to the acre four thousand gallons of water having in solu-
tion forty pounds of corrosive sublimate.

1005. Q. When was Sweet or sugar corn introduced ?

A. The Eight Rowed sugar corn was the first introduced, and while it
appeared generally in seed catalogues about 1840, and was in 1830 offered
for sale by one or two leading seedsmen, it was not till about 1850 that it
became generally appreciated as superior to the field corns used generally
for "roasting," as corn was cooked in those days, the varieties used
for table purposes being then the Early Canada, Horse Tooth and Tusca-
rora. But sweet corn was known many years before, as there are records
of its existence among the Indians on the Susquehanna river as early as
1779. Pure sweet corns are nearly all very oily, very little starch being
visible, the oily condition being expressed by the word corneous or
horny, and just as soon as this condition begins to breed out, such types
cease to be true sugar corn.

1006. Q. What is the benefit of rotation of crops?

A. A change every year of crops on a field, especially so that the crops of
same nature do not go back for five or six years, is higlily advantageous, as
the alternating plants if properly selected do not require the same quanti-
ties or conditions of plant food, and even if the artificial additions of man-
ure are only moderate in quantity, there may be through the processes of

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 183

soil decomposition an accumulation of some of the fertilizing constituents
needed by the first series of plants when the time comes to repeat the
series. Another benefit of the rotation of crops is that some of the crops
are nearly all returned to the land, while if the cultivation was contin-
uous of crops to be sold otf the land, soil exhaustion would be certain to
follow.

1007. Q. Are there many plants poisonous to the touch? Poisonons
A. There are several plants poisonous to nearly every one, and many^^******

others poisonous to persons of peculiar susceptibilities ; for example : the
poison ivy, sometimes called poison oak, a climbing vine, is harmless to
the writer, but many people cannot touch it, some can hardly pass it on the
leeward side, without being poisoned, on occasions when it has been cut
or torn, as it then exudes a caustic milky juice, which, brought in contact
with the skin, develops blisters. The poison sumac, a small tree grow-
ing in swamps and in damp places, exudes a sap which touching the
arms or hands of many people raises painful blisters. The cultivated
parsnip is poisonous to many people. There are many plants poisonous
when eaten, possibly forty to fifty distinct genera in the eastern United
States, but most of them no sensible person would think of eating for
none such are attractive. Animals sometime eat poisonous plants, and no
doubt many mysterious affections of horses and cattle may be attributed
to this cause.

1008. Q. Give me a table of the periods of time required by garden Maturity
vegetables to reach edible condition after germination ? of

A. Any data in this line is merely approximative, as the period is length- "*^®setables.
ened or shortened by conditions of moisture or heat, age of seed, vigor of
seedling, depending upon its physical condition and soil enrichment. The
following periods of days of time are intended to comprehend the earliest
and the intermediate, not the periods of maturity of the latest sorts :

Radish, 18 to 30 days. Squash, 80 to 90 days.

Lettuce, 35 to 35 days. Cantaloupes, 80 to 90 days.

Turnip, 40 to 50 days. Large onions, 80 to 100 days.

Spinach, 40 to 50 days. Carrots, 85 to 90 days.

Beets, 40 to 50 days. Watermelons, 90 to 100 days.

Peas, 40 to 60 days. Cabbage, 100 to 130 days.

Beans, 50 to 60 days. Tomatoes, 100 to 130 days.

Corn, 70 to 75 days. Pumpkins, 100 to 120 days.

Cucumbers, 70 to 80 days.

1009. Q. Tell me a simple remedy to destroy green worms infesting my cabbage
cabbage plants ? Worms.

A. When the dew is on them, best done at night, sprinkle very finely
pulverized salt over the plants. The dew will dissolve the salt, and the
salted water wherever it touches a green worm will kill it, but don't salt
the plants too much or they will be killed also.

1010. Q. Which kinds of field corn are the quickest and most certain to Com
germinate ? Germination.

184

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Pepper
Plants. ■

Com,
Early
Cultivation.

Vitality of

Cabbage

Seed.

Onion

Sets
Weights.

A. The Flint sorts are the quickest to sprout and the most reliable.
The softer the variety the greater the possibility of decay. The pop
corns may be taken as representative of the hardier sorts.

1011. Q. I have a one-quarter acre patch of pepper plants, very tall and
a mass of foliage, but not a fruit set. Can you explain this?

A. It is probably due to overmanuring, inducing too luxuriant a.
growth, the nourishment necessary to produce flowers and fruit being all
taken up in the formation of wood and leaf. Try root pruning by run-
ning a plow on one side, so close as to cut quite one-third of the roots of
every plant, this check may cause the number of blooms to increase and
fruit to set. While flowering and fruit-bearing is an exhaustive process
requiring a large amount of nourishment, it does not advance the process
to manure too highly, as it is generally the half-starved plants which are
most productive. It is very noticeable that vegetable garden plants of an
usual number of flowers are always weakest in growth, and conversely,
the very vigorous growers produce few flowers. It is just the same in
the animal kingdom, the herdsman well knows that a lean cow is the
most reliable breeder.

1012. Q. Did the early American Indians cultivate corn to any extent ?
A. The author takes the liberty of answering this query by making

some extracts from the pamphlet of Dr. E. L. Sturdevant, South Farm-
ingham, Massachusetts, " General Sullivan at the time of his expedition
against the Indians in 1779, destroyed twenty thousand bushels of corn
at Genesee, New York. De Nowville, in 1687, in the same region, des-
troyed twelve hundred thousand bushels. Fontienack, in 1697, employed
his army for three days destroying corn. In the Pequot War, in 1686, the
English destroyed 200 acres on Block Island, and in 1675 they harvested
1000 acres of corn in one place. General Wayne, in 1794, wrote of the
Delawares in Ohio, 'I never before beheld such immense fields of corn.'
In 1498 Columbus reported his brother as having passed through eighteen
miles of corn fields on the Isthmus. In 1520, the ships of Magellan were
supplied with corn at Rio Janeiro."

1013. Q. What may be considered an average of vitality of cabbage
seed?

A. In 1887 the New York State Experimental Station made tests of
164 packets of cabbage seed procured from fifteen diflferent seed mer-
chants, testing 33,800 seeds in samples of 100 each, and found the highest
test to be 94 per cent, and the lowest 48 per cent., the general average
being 76 per cent. To arrive at the various vitalities of same seed under
distinct tests the station authorities next took several distinct samples
from each lot and tested them, and found an average variation of 15 per
cent, to 20 per cent, between the lots of seed, due to some slight difference
in soil or atmospheric conditions. An illustration that little reliance can
be placed on tests unless reported at difl"erent intervals and under different
circumstances and the average result calculated.

1014. Q. What is the legal weight for a bushel of Onion Sets?

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 185

A. There is no fixed weight, and there could not be, for they are con-
stantly decreasing in density by evaporation of moisture. Two bushels
measured and stored away in September will not measure more than one
bushel in March. On October 1, the Bloomsdale Farm sets weighed forty-
four pounds to the bushel, as measured, but they are not sold by weight,
but by measure.

There are all sorts of ways of selling sets — some people give thirty-two
pounds, others a stroke bushel, others a heaped bushel, and prices vary
accordingly. As an example, $3.25 for a bushel of thirty-two pounds is
no cheaper than $3 for a bushel of forty-two pounds. By reason of
shrinkage they increase in value quite twenty to twenty-five cents per
month per bushel.

1015. Q. What is the annual quantity of potatoes imported? Potatoes
A. For the year ending June, 1894, the quantity was over three million ^^po^ted.

bushels, valued at over one and a quarter millions of dollars, Scotland
sending over one-half of the total quantity.

1016. Q. Will it pay me as a market gardener to devote one of my glass Market
houses to the Winter culture of tomatoes ? Gardening

A, It will if you are an expert in such work, or are quick to learn. ^^•^•^''
The house should be separated from others, as they might be sometimes
too high in temperature, and other times too low. The mercury in a
tomato house may vary from seventy to ninety degrees during the day,
should not fall below sixty-five to seventy-five degrees during the night.
There should be head room of quite five feet between the soil of the
benches and the glass to admit of space for the extension of the vines.
The plants should be set about fifteen inches apart and trimmed to single
stalks, these trained to sticks or cords. Early sorts should ripen fruit in
about 110 days from the germination of the seed. Natural pollination
of tomatoes under the conditions of glass-house culture is not sufiicient to
give a full crop, hence the pollination must be assisted by artificial means.
This can be done by jarring the pollen from the flowers into a spoon, and
thrusting into the spoon the stigma of the flower to be fertilized. It is
important that this be done thoroughly, as imperfect pollination results
in imperfect fruit and a small crop. When the fruit becomes heavy the
strain should be taken ofi" the plant by artificial support given to the
fruit. A plant should give about three pounds of fruit. For under-glass
culture try the three Landreth Cross-Bred Varieties, the Red Cross, the
Purple Cross and the Two-Celled Cross, all entirely distinct from any of
the standard sorts. Very early, very prolific, very deep in shape, very
solid and smooth.

1017. Q. Is the nutritive or feeding value of all turnips or all beets the reeding

same ? Talue

A. Very different ; not only between the families of turnips and beets, of
but between the sorts of each family, and still again between the crops of'^"^**'P*
the same sort grown on fields of different quality, or different manuring, Beets.
or grown after different periods of drilling, or under varying conditions of

186

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

solar light, and consequent upon diflferent degrees of maturity. Cattle-
feeding roots are largely composed of water ranging from 80 to 90 per
cent., consequently the nutritive value is measured by the amount of dry
matter which varies in white turnips from 7 to 9 per cent. ; yellow turnips
8 to 10 per cent.; Swedish turnips 10 to 13 per cent.; mangel wurzels 10
to 14 per cent. To be more exact, in the estimate of value must be con-
sidered the amount of sugar in this dry matter, and it may be approximately
stated as in white turnips 40 to 50 per cent., yellow turnips 40 to 50 per
cent., Swedish turnips 50 to 60 per cent., mangel wurzels 60 to 70 per
cent. Sugar is technically known as a carbohydrate, and as a cattle food
it forms fat.

1018. Q. I have a good crop of potatoes this year, having just put away,
my crop from seventeen acres of 3380 bushels, or 360 bushels to the acre.
Is that quantity often grown ?

A. No, it is not ; 800 bushels is a big crop of well-sorted, fairly
measured potatoes. On that quantity most farmers would be glad to com-
promise as a regular return for a term of years, but occasionally it is ex-
ceeded not only twice, but three times ; for instance, at the Chicago
Exhibition there was shown by New York State farmers samples of crops
certified to be grown from measured acres of the following varieties and
quantities :

Maggie Murphy, 810 bushels.

Ideal, 675 bushels.

Earls Rochester, 656 bushels.

White Flower, 640 bushels.

Albany Seedling, 574 bushels.

1019. Q. Name me some good sorts of potatoes, early, medium and
late.

A. For tery early. — Early Ohio, Irish Cobbler, Bliss Triumph.

For medium early. — Early Vermont, Reeves Rose, Holton Rose.

For late. — Freeman, Green Mountain, State of Maine, Peerless, Gar-
field, Rural New Yorker, American Giant, Rural Blush.

1030. Q. To what botanical family does the squash and pumpkin
belong?

A. They are not of one family, but of two distinct characters, the squashes
being of the genus Cucurbita maxima while the pumpkins are of the
genus Cucurbita pepo. Botanists classify them according to the forma-
tion of their leaves ; for instance, those of entire or undivided leaves are of
the maxima or squash family, comprising the Hubbard, Marblehead,
Boston, Mammoth, Fordhook, Chili, Red Turban, Bologne, Etampes,
Sweet Potato, Winter Crook Neck, and, strange to say, the Cheese and
Cashaw, ordinarily called pumpkins ; while on the other hand, those of
subdivided or cut leaves are of the pepo or pumpkia family, represented
by the Negro pumpkin, the Yellow Field, Nantucket, Golden Summer
Crook Neck, White Bush, the last two ordinarily called squashes. The
undivided or entire leaves of the maxima, while hairy on the surface and

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 187

on the leaf stalks, difFer from the cut or divided leaves of the pepo fam-
ily, as the leaves of this last are much more harsli and bear upon the foot
stalks quite stiff and spiny thorns. Another difference is that the maxima
or squash family, as a rule, develop thick, swollen, vpoody fruit stalks,
and their blossoms generally are lemon colored, while those of the cut-
leaf sorts produce small fruit stalks and the blossoms are generally orange
in color. This classification, made according to form of leaves, character
of spines and fruit stalks, mixes up familiar pumpkins and squashes to a
puzzling extent, as under it Early White Bush squash becomes classed as
a pumpkin and Cashaw pumpkin becomes classed as a squash. For
practical purposes the farmer's test is the best, and that is, when he can
stick his thumb nail into the rind after reaching full development it is a
pumpkin, when he cannot it is a squash, as its rind becomes hard as
wood. A close physiological relationship is indicated and determined by
the crossing of sorts, which will occur freely if they belong to the same
family, and seldom in cases where they are of distinct families.

1021. Q. Down here in Louisiana, large quantities of crude molasses iviolasses a
are allowed to goto waste, and I write to inquire the value of molasses as Cattle

a food for cattle and pigs ? ^*'**'*'

A. Forty years ago Dr. Lawes, of Rothamstead, conducted experi-
ments to determine the value of sugar as a food for pigs, and arrived at
the conclusion that sugar had tlie same high value as pure starch. Since
then Letimen, of Gottingen, has tried feeding sugar to sheep, and found
it of the same value as the non-nitrogenous ingredients of other cattle
foods. His experiments were satisfactory but developed nothing remark-
able with respect to the nutrition of sheep. Subsequently he tried sugar
on several lots of pigs, and found in all cases that its addition to the regu-
lar ration increased the amount of total food consumed and increased cor-
respondingly the weight of pork. The estimate of increase being three-
tenths of a pound of live weight for each pound of sugar consumed, or
stated in anotlier way, one pound of gain in meat was produced by three
and one-third pounds of sugar. By the results of these experiments it
would seem well worth while to utilize a portion, if not the whole, of
the molasses wasted. It might be used with some absorbent and kept in
silos. It should not, however, be used without caution, as it contains
various salts which might make it strongly purgative. In no case could
it be depended on as a complete and only food.

1022. Q. Is there more than one kind of mint? Mint.
A. There are three plants to which this name is applied :

1. Spearmint, a native of Europe, botanically known as Mentha viri-
dia. This is used for seasoning. It flourishes in a cool, moist soil and a
bed of it will last for several years.

2. Peppermint. This is cultivated largely for its oil, the census reports
showing about 6000 acres are cultivated in the United States.

3. Catmint or catnip is a plant distinct from the two preceding. It also
furnishes an essential oil, aromatic, stimulative and anti-spasmodic. It

188

QUERIES AND ANSWERS,

Germmation
of Lettuce.

flourishes in the Southern States, and by some is used in Summer drinks
as a substitute for spearmint, which is the proper article for such purposes.

1023. Q. Wliy is it that July and August sowings of lettuce seed so
frequently fail to germinate. I live in Florida, and Midsummer sowings
of lettuce are the most profitable. I attributed the failure to getting old
seed, but I have had the same seed to give good results sown at a later
period ?

A. This is clearly attributable to unfavorable conditions. You may
have put it into soil too dry to afford the necessary moisture to swell the
seed, or if swollen, the germ may have been parched by earth burning
hot, or you may have covered the seed too deeply, some lettuce seed
should never be covered, but just tramped or patted down. The follow-
ing is an exact copy of a letter received from a seed merchant to whom
the firm of the writer sold some lettuce seed.

"I regret exceedingly that I was misled by Truckers in regard to
the germination of your Royal Cabbage lettuce seeds, and I now find
that they were impatient, unreasonable and their reports entirely un-
true, as I sowed j^our seeds in a box, on the 2d of this month, and
I find them up well this morning, and besides, one of the men who
had this seed told me, not ten minutes ago, that his was up too thick and
that others in his section told him yesterday that it was now coming up
nicely, and I now write to apologize to your firm, as I feel very sorry
for what I said two or three days ago, believing as I then did, from the
reports of so many, that the seeds were worthless."

1024. Q. Furnish me with a list of two or three sorts of each leading
table vegetable suitable for a family garden in the vicinity of Baltimore.

Peas. — Extra Early, American Wonder, Bloomsdale, Phonograph.

Beans. — Red Valentine, Landreths' Scarlet, Pink Eye Wax, Pole
Lima.

Corn. — Crosby, Landreths' Sugar, Evergreen.

Cabbage. — Early Jersey Wakefield, Reedland Early Drumhead, Blooms-
dale Large Late Flat Dutch.

Carrot. — Pointed Horn, Ox Heart.

Celery. — Paris Golden, White Plume.

Cucumber. — First, Landreths' Choice, White Spine.

Egg Plant — Thornless.

Kale. — Bloomsdale Extra Curled.

Lettuce. — Forcing, Virginia Solid Header, Bloomsdale Reliable.

Watermelon. — Boss, Arkansas Traveler, Long Light Icing.

Cantaloupe. — Jennie Lind, Anne Arundel, Missouri.

Onion. — Bloomsdale Pearl, Bermuda Red, Hard Round Golden.

Okra. — Long Green Pod.

Parsnip. — Bloomsdale.

^a(Zi87t.— Landreths' Earliest, White Lady Finger, Wonderful Half
Long Red.

Spinach. — Bloomsdale, Ever Ready.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 189

Squas?i. — Extra Early Bush, Golden Summer.

Tomato.— ^xtrsi Early Richmond, Acme, T.T.T.

Turnip. — Early Dutch, Amher Globe, Bloomsdale Swede.

1025. Q. Are the original wild types of our cultivated plants generally Original

to be found ? Types.

A- Very few of them. The wild cabbage, celery and beet are met with
in Europe, the potato and tomato in South America, and a few others
elsewhere representative of our garden plants, but very few. Still less of
the cultivated products of the field, as there is no wild rye, wheat, oats or
barley, nor Indian corn in its original condition. Of the origin of plants
in general hardly anything is known, and very little to be surmised.
This much is known, however, strange to relate, that the United States
has furnished comparatively nothing of value among cultivated plants of
vegetables or cereals, the principal nutritious plants being the Jerusalem
artichoke and the gourds, both of little value, and among the cereals the
Wild Rice. The United States is not an exception in this particular, for
not a useful original plant has ever been obtained in Australia, or New
Zealand, or the Cape of Good Hope, nor from South America, south of the
Platte. These countries produce plants useful to savage man, but they
have never been improved by selection, as have the plants of Europe,
Asia, Mexico, Central America, Chili and Peru, plants probably no better
originally, but a clear demonstration that it was only among the higher
civilized people of early times that improvement by selection took place.

1036. Q. As in a late letter you urged me to adopt market gardening Lettuce.
under glass, let me ask you to what special crop would you advise me to
give special attention ?

A. To lettuce. It is in demand for fifty-two weeks in the year, and
always, when in fresh condition, will bring a good price. In Philadel-
phia, during the months of December, January, February and March,
good lettuce is sold by the commission men to the city storekeepers at from
$5 to $10 per hundred heads. It is generally highest in January and Feb-
ruary, and assuming that its average price then is $7 per 100 and the
freights and commission $2, it leaves $5 to the producer. When lettuce is
well grown sixty to seventy-five heads will fill a barrel. In growing let-
tuce it is important to get seed true to name and of strong vitality, and of
habits of uniform development, that sections of the forcing house may be
entirely cleared of crop, that the space may be promptly recropped with
a fresh setting of lettuce or radish. Two good sorts for forcing are the
Virginia Solid Header and Forcing, the latter the New York experimen-
tal Station has pronounced of high merit for under-glass culture.

1027. Q. Is ensilage a good food for horses ? EnsUage.

A. No ; it is likely to produce colic, and weaken them generally. The
digestive organs of horses are different from those of cattle, which are cud-
chewing animals. Indeed, ensilage for cattle is not always the best food,
as it sometimes has the same effect as brew-house swill, causing cows,
especially when fed too long upon it, and too exclusively, to become
unhealthy, to grow languid and to lose their hair.

190

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Vegetable

Forcing

Houses.

Potato.

Depression
in

Market
Gardening.

1028. Q. What are the general dimensions of the vegetable forcing
houses operated by market gardeners growing truck for Winter sales?

A. The writer knows of houses 240 x 30 feet ; 250 x 40 feet ; 400 x 40
feet ; 1600 x 20 feet. And possibly there are yet more extended areas of
glass entirely devoted to growing vegetables for Winter sale, as lettuce,
radish, cucumber, tomato, watercress.

1029. Q. Is not the potato one of the most healthful foods ?

A. No ; it might more properly be classed, as ordinarily served on
the table, as an unhealthful food. The reason is that the potato is com-
posed to a large extent of starch, which to become nutritious has to
undergo a sugary change by the action of the stomach juices, and this
change is particularly slow in the case of the potato, as it is a dense food
slowly acted upon by the digestive fluids, and consequently it remains for
a longer period in the stomach than rice or any other starchy food. This
retention in the stomach results in the partial decomposition of the starch,
the evolving of gases and formation of combinations which distend
and irritate the stomach and intestines, producing in some persons
dyspepsia and diarrhoea. Strong constitutions apparently resist the
slightest injurious influences from this cause, but nevertheless their diges-
tive organs are at the same time taxed to a greater extent than if the food
was rice, which, by the way, is not a quickly digested food. Potatoes as a
food are most objectionable when fried, most wholesome when baked.

1030. Q. What is the cause of the depression in market gardening?

A. Overproduction, and consequently overcompetition and lowering
of profits, the same cause as produces agricultural depression. Any
thoughtful market gardener clearly realizes the cause to be the opening of
the many and new truck-groioing sections, almost limitless, in the South
Atlantic and Gulf States, in the Middle Cotton States, and throughout the
entire Mississippi valley, all these throwing at all seasons into all the
markets of the country, especially the Northern cities, such an avalanche
of fruit and vegetables as to have almost completely obliterated the
profits of the Northern market gardener, and as well most seriously cut
down the receipts of the Southern truck farmer, the prevailing agricultural
depression having turned to market gardening tens of thousands of regular
farmers.

It might in this connection be asked. What has caused the agricultural
depression? and the reply is. The same overproduction; the result of
several causes. One, the opening up in our far-Western country of millions
of acres of new lands to foreigners to grow competing crops of wheat,
corn and potatoes, which they do at comparatively little expense.
Another cause, the development of field machinery, by which ten men do
the work of one hundred in the past, consequently every proprietor is
able to seed and harvest ten times the number of acres. Another, the
development of railroad transportation, by which the product of most dis-
tant parts is brought to the seaboard to compete with that grown upon

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 191

land in the old States held at $100 per acre as compared with $5 land in the
far West.

But an influence greater than the three enumerated is the scaling down
of American values of wheat, and by sympathy corn also, to the grain
prices of London, in which market are fixed the grain values of the world,
Jependent on the crops of Russia, India, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia
and South America. It is these crops which fix the value of our crops in
America, for if the price in London is low, and it generally is low, the
grain can be sent from Europe to the United States at a cost of six cents
a bushel, and yet cheaper if sent from point of production.

1031. Q. What will be the result of the agricultural depression? Agricultwrai
A. In our late letter to you we very briefly treated upon the cause of ^^P"*®*®^*"^*

the agricultural depression. The result is a problem which only time
can solve. But certain results are very apparent, notably the frequent
sheriff" sales and the abandonment of thousands of farms in all of the old
Eastern States, lands once high-priced, and yet, though depreciated, too
expensive to cultivate. Much has been written about the abandoned
farms of New England, but the same condition exists in the Middle
Eastern States.

In New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania can be seen thousands of
abandoned farms with broken-down barns and fences, tenantless home-
steads with weedy front-yards. The selling value of these farm lands is
only one-third what it was under the better times of twenty to thirty years
ago. And though rents may now be based upon the reduced value, they
cannot be paid out of the farm profits of ordinary agriculture, if the
farmer is of the condition of a proprietor and has to pay wages.

It seems manifest destiny that the day for big farms in the old States is
about over, and that grain, grass and dairy lands will be divided into
tracts of thirty to forty acres, and worked by small owners or renters, a
less intelligent, less progressive class, men who cannot aff'ord to, or who
will not purchase improved machinery, or be in anyway helpful in aiding
advanced agriculture. Each holder of this class, by the aid of his wife^
sons and daughters, doing all the work, no cash going out to employes,
people satisfied to eat what they cannot sell ; such people will lay by
money, but they do nothing to aid in the development of the science or
practice of agriculture. This is not a very cheerful prognostication, but it
may come true.

These remarks apply to ordinary farming, not market gardening, under
which more intensive system of culture forty acres is frequently enough,
as forty acres in truck requires the labor of five or six men and as much
outlay in manure, live stock and implements, ability and effort as five
times that average in crops of grain, potatoes and grass.

1032. Q. What is a practical proof of the activity of bacteria in the ^ .
soil ?

A. It has been proven by the Rothamstead Experimental Station that
nodules growing on the roots of leguminous plants, as peas or clover,

192

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

assimilate nitrogen both, from the soil and by fixation, and the evidence
of fixation of nitrogen has been i^roven by Dr. Gilbert in his experiments
•witli leguminous plants grown on land made free from nitrogen, but sub-
sequently inoculated with bacteria soil, the nitrogen obtained being only
from the air and through the active agency of the bacteria.

jjjp,^ 1033. Q. Which of all the counties in the United States is the leading

Agricultural one in agricultural produce ?

Counties. j^_ Lancaster, Pa It is thirty-three miles long by twenty-eight wide,

and comprises 928 square miles. Part of it has been cultivated since
1709, and yet it has not a single acre of worn-out laud. It contains
9070 farms, valued at sixty-nine million dollars, and produced last year
farm produce of the value of nine million dollars, or fifty per cent,
greater than any other county in the United States. A leading produc-
tion for years has been tobacco, of which in 1889 the value was one and
one-third million dollars. Lancaster county contains 325 grist mills, and
last year wintered forty thousand stall-fed cattle. The other counties
in the United States producing the highest value of agricultural products
is St. Lawrence, N. Y., producing six millions of dollars, but its area is
three times as large as Lancaster. Tlie third productive county is
Chester, Pa., one quarter smaller than Lancaster, producing nearly six
millions of dollars. The fourth county in production is Bucks, Pa. , one-
third smaller than Lancaster, producing five and one-half millions of
dollars last year. It is in Bucks county where is situated Bloomsdale
Farm.

Com Crops. 1034. Q. Maryland is not far behind, for I have just measured up my
corn crop of 1479 shelled bushels grown on seventeen acres. Is that
quantity of eighty-seven bushels to the acre often exceeded ?

A. Not often exceeded in general cropping, for eighty -seven bushels is
a most admirable product, but it is not as much as often grown in the
crack counties of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Lancaster, Chester and Bucks,
where there are many records of over 100 bushels, and as high as 127,
which was certified to by the Brandyne Club in 1874. In 1893, a Penn-
sylvania farmer exhibited at the Chicago Exhibition a lot of corn, part of
the product from a twelve-acre field which gave 1320 bushels, or 110
bushels to the acre.

Ensilage. 1035. Q. What is meant by ensilage ?

A. The principle involved is the preservation of green forage in cellars
or pits through the exclusion of air, the green stuff being put in so tightly
as to drive out very nearly all the air, and the material kept so com-
pressed as to continue to keep out very nearly all air. Some will remain,
but this, after a time, is changed by fermentation to carbonic acid gas,
filling all interstices, excluding other air and holding the green forage in
a bath of gas, in which condition all decomposition is arrested. The
forage changes its color in the pits, and a vinegary odor becomes very
perceptible, the material becoming more digestible than it was in its
green condition.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 193

It is the cheapest, most economical and satisfactory way of feeding
milking cows, not used exclusively, but in connection with a proportion
of cake meal, and with a proportion of dry hay or fodder. Cows thus
fed thrive well and milk freel3\ giving sweet milk, making good butter.
For this reason it is every day growing in favor, especially as it is so
palatable and easily digestible. The ensilage of the present day is made
from well-grown, well-matured, well-eared corn— of course taken in
green condition, chopped into pieces of about one and one-half inches in
length. White Sheep Tooth corn is the best for the purpose, being very
abundant in the production of foliage.

1036. Q. What is the object or work of the Agricultural Stations ? Agricultural
A. By their investigations they protect the farmer against sales of

fraudulent fertilizers and cattle foods. They study cattle diseases and
advise preventive measures ; they investigate the habits of insects
injurious to agriculture and designate methods of destroying them ; they
study thecharacter of fungous growths ; they inquire into methods of irriga-
tion and into meteorological and climatic fluctuations and results ; they
report on qualities of soils, qualities of new cereals, forage plants, vege-
tables, fibres and fruits, action of fertilizers, plant nutrition and com-
ponent parts of soil drainage. They do entirely too much to enumerate
in a short description of their work, which is an extensive line of research
in the laboratory and hothouse, in the stable and dairy, in the orchard,
forest and field. They do so much original work and collect so much of
the results of work of other stations as to be important bureaus of agricul-
tural information. Every State has one agricultural station ; Connecticut,
New York, Alabama and Louisiana, each two. In the aggregate they
employ nearly 600 persons, and in 1894 issued over four and one-half
million reports and bulletins. The first American agricultural station
was established in 1875 in Connecticut, but this was thirty years after the
establishment of the first German agricultural station, which was at Moec-
kern. One of the most interesting of the many advanced agricultural
stations in Europe is that of Darmstadt, largely devoted to pot investiga-
tions, into plant nutrition and soil exhaustion.

1037. Q. In what way did mankind find out what plants were edible? Edible
A. Such explorers as Livingstone, Hooker, DeCandolle and others, all Plants.

found that uncivilized man in all countries knows a long catalogue of
plants, more or less nutritious, others injurious, others destructive to
life. In Africa the natives in the wilder regions are guided to a great
extent by what the baboons and monkeys eat. All wild tribes through
pressure of necessity have learned a great deal as to the effects, stimu-
lating, nutritious and medicinal, of many of their native plants, and a
consequential step is the removal of these plants, or the planting of
their seeds by the natives near to their huts, and thus the first steps are
taken in the line of selection, to be further continued by subsequent
selections of the best types, till after a time a heredity of form, color,
size and flavor, is well established. "

194

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.

Plant

Adaptability
tu
Climate.

Crops in
164S.

Corn in
1654.

1038. Q. Do plants of warm latitudes adapt themselves to cold
climates?

A. As a rule only so far as to quicken growth, or shorten the period
of life. Corn, for instance, grown near the limit of its Northern
localities of production, no doubt was originally selected from Southern
stocks of a marked early habit. Fixed types of plants grown far North
do not acquire strength to withstand cold, simply a habit of quickly
maturing to escape cold. Many cross-bred plants, like some tobaccos,
for example, possess a precocity fitting them for Northern climates
better than the parents. Many natural conditions of plants can be
changed by climate ; for example, the plants of North America bloom-
ing and fruiting in their own appointed seasons change their habits
when taken to South America and Australia, where the seasons are
reversed.

1039. Q. "Why is it that corn grown in the cotton States when brought
as far North as Pennsylvania will not ripen ?

A. The planting of corn ripened under a Southern climate, in locali-
ties far North of its latitude of production, seems to completely upset
its natural habit, a common occurrence in vegetable life, as such corn
runs almost entirely to foliage, the function of leaf and stem develop-
ment being so stimulated as to completely displace the function of seed
production. The cause of this it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to
answer to the satisfaction of every one. It may be due to several
causes in combination, sometimes partially influenced by richer soil,
more generally to increased moisture, or more even distribution of rain
during the last half of the season of growth, a better conservation of
water, for in Southern localities the evaporation is greater, and transi-
tions of soil moisture conditions more marked.

A Southern corn under any circumstances takes a greater number of
days of growth to arrive at maturity, and when planted in the North
simultaneously with Northern corn continues vigorous longer than the
Northern sort, so much so as to be in a position to profit by August and
September rains which come too late to extend the growth of the
quicker maturing Northern varieties. Thus the formation of leaf
tissue in the case of Southern corn is still further continued till finally
the plant, yet in vigorous growth, enters the moister seasons of the
Autumn when nothing will arrest the growth but frost.

1040. Q. What kind of crops, if any, did the early Indians cultivate?
A. Campanius, a Swede, who explored the valley of the Delaware in

1642, wrote that among the Indians he found cultivations of hops, grape-
vines, plum trees, maize, calabash and a fibre like hemp.

1041. Q. What are some of the earliest references to the growth of
corn in Pennsylvania ?

A. In 1654, Peter Lindstrom, a Swedish engineer, surveyed the Dela-
ware river, and wrote that he met with extensive cultivations, by the
Indians, of corn ; the grain being of various colors, white, black, red, blue,

QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 195

brown, yellow and pied. That the yellow sorts were used for making
bread, but that the blue, brown, black and pied were used in brewing and
made a strong, dark-colored beer.
1043. Q. Will the flowers of tomato plants and potato plants mix ? Hybridiza-
A. Yes, they will pollenize in cases where the plants be grown under '**" ** * '®
glass and very practical eS'orts be made to effect cross-pollination, the potato,
tomato crossing with the potato and the potato with the tomato, but so
far nothing of any value has been obtained by such hybridization. The
living plants can also be grafted upon each other ; for instance, a potato
plant can be cut down to within an inch or two of the root and a tomato
stem grafted upon it, the above-ground plant being a tomato and produc-
ing fine fruit, and the below-ground plant being a potato, producing
potato tubers ; or to the contrary, a tomato plant can be cut down to
within an inch or two of the soil and a potato stem grafted upon it. Of
course the tomato root will not produce potatoes, but it will sustain the
potato top above ground which will produce potato flowers, seed bulbs
and sometimes abnormally developed small potatoes at the axles of the
stems. These experiments are only of value and interesting in a physio-
logical sense, nothing practical or of value can be expected from them.

D. Landreth & Sons -will at all times be

PLEASED TO RECEIVE QuERIES UPON AGRICULTURAL

AND Horticultural subjects, and invite such

CORRESPONDENCE.

INDEX.

A.

PAGE.

Actinism 33

Adaptability of Plants 194

Adulteration of Seeds 136

Advertising of Seeds 145

Advice, Agricultural 170

Adventurous Plants 161

Agriculture, 34, 54, 66, 74, 89, 90, 99, 113, 122,

192

Agricultural Societies 54

Agricultural Stations. ... 90, 176, 187, 193

Air in Soil 180

Air Plants 100, 105

Alfalfa 22, 52

Alluvial Soils 30

American Seeds 160

Analysis, Vegetable 64

Anthracnose 125

Artificial Heat 25,27,104

Artichoke, French 42, 106

Arsenic 78

Ashes 30, 130, 175

Asparagus 41, 46, 79, 86, 102, 170

Asphyxiation of Insects 116

Autumn Leaves 34

B.

Bacteria 45, 191

Barley 38

Barnyard Manure 32, 127, 138, 175

Beans, 14, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 56, 57, 58, 72,

74, 81, 88, 96, 97, 109, 110, 114, 115, 121, 125,

142, 161

Beets . . 15, 61, 75, 87, 106, 170, 172, 182, 185

Beet Sugar 15, 61

Beneficial Insects 177

Bermuda Grass 49, 58, 86

Bermuda Onions 43

Berries 29

Bisulphide 71, 147

Bleaching Celery 181

Blight 77

Bloomsdale Pea 119

Blue Grass 22, 49, 59, 86, 129. 174

Bones 83, 173

Bordeaux Mixture 46,81,120

Botany 90

Breathing Pores 80,182

Broccoli 2, 72

PAGE.

Buckwheat 38

Bulbs 2, 80

Butter Beans 59

C.

Cauliflower 39, 70, 87, 88, 122, 127

Cantaloupes, 7, 8, 86, 99, 109, 110, 117, 122,

126, 127, 128, 129, 143

Cabbage, 11, 12, 13, 33, 47, 53, 65, 75, 77, 81,

84, 88, 90, 93, 94, 96, 106, 110, 113, 116, 118,

123. 124, 128, 130, 160, 175, 183, 184

Canada Blue Grass 22

Carbon 31

Carrot 54, 137

Canning Vegetables 61, 62

Capital 64

Calico Bug 95

Cane 108, 162

Canaigre 169

CaroUna Rock 171

Carnivorous Insects 177

Carnivorous Plants 69

Cattle Food 164

Celery. . . .18,71,72,98,105,125,176,181

Chemical Action 30

Charleston Rock 31, 171

Chickory 71, 112

Cheat or Chess 76

Club Root 12, 58, 81, 182

Clouds 29

Clover, Scarlet 23, 77

Climbers 14, 48, 142

Cloche 76

Clover .... 23, 52, 76, 77, 108, 124, 135, 138

Climate 131, 136, 193, 194

Cow Feed 108, 192

Cow Peas 2, 58, 67, 76

Cows 172, 192

Corn, 16, 17, 38, 46, 63, 64, 89, 92, 93, 97, 101,
104, 109, 115, 118, 123, 139, 140, 141, 163,
168, 170, 175, 177, 182, 183, 184, 192, 193, 194,

195

Commercial Fertilizers, 31, 32, 44, 77, 83, 87,

89, 108, 137, 173, 179

Collards 47

Cotton Oil 160

Conch Grass 49, 52, 112, 174

Colors 54, 70, 75, 98, 121

(196)

INDEX.

197

PAGE.

Cotton 58

Cos Lettuce 75

Cold Frames 100, 103

Coffee 71, 112

Cockle 138

Cooking Receipts 154

Corn Consumption 38

Covering Seeds 59

Crab Grass 49, 52, 112, 174

Crows 45, 121

Cross Bred 31, 102

Cryptogams 105

Cucumber, 5, 6, 53, 60, 61, 81, 89, 103, 109, 110,
124, 126, 139, 175

Culinary Vegetables 2, 154

Cutworm 77

Cultivation 119, 121, 124

D.

Darmstadt Experimental Station. . . .176

Darnell 149

Dates 54, 81, 194

Dew 29

Degeneracy 76, 103

Discovery in Agriculture 122

Destruction of Insects 82

Division of Farms 85

Disease 78

Dissemination of Weeds 169, 176

Discrimination by Plants 104

Dodder 24

Drainage 27, 37

Drought 70, 72, 105, 124

Dry Soils 78

DrilUng Seeds 90, 120, 127

E.

Edible Plants 193

Egg Plant . . 40, 74, 92, 95, 114, 153, 162, 171

Elements 32

Electric Light Ill, 116

Emulsion 82, 84

Ensilage 173, 189, 192

Ergot 98

Errors in Seeds 85

Essential Fertilizers 64

European Vegetables 103

Exports, Agricultural 37, 38

Experimental Stations . . .53, 152, 176, 192

Exhaustive Crops 80,105,134

Exhalation 80,182

F.

Farms 35, 151, 159

Farmyard 32, 127, 138, 173, 175

Farm Division 35

Farm Labor 33

PAGE.

Fertilizer for Lawns 21

Fertility 34, 112, IJl

Fertilizers . . 47, 58, 64, 98, 108, 119, 137, 165

Fences 75

Fish Manure 47

Fibers 25, 37, 53, 97, 194

Firming the Soil 27, 72, 94

Fish Culture 93

Florida Rock 31, 171

Flax 37

Fluctuation in Prices 39

Flowers 73,120, 134

Flavor 95

Foliage 24, 34

Forcing Seeds 25, 137, 144, 170

Forcing Houses 102, 118, 190

Food 69, 82, 83

Fruit 1, 29, 37, 65, 105

Frost 28, 29, 34

Freshness Retained 135

Fumigation 118

Fungicides 46,53,81,120,125

Fungi, 12, 28, 46, 48, 49, 57, 58, 70, 73, 77, 78,

81, 87, 92, 98, 99, 101, 105, 106, 113, 114, 119,

122, 128, 165, 182

G.

Gardening, 17, 19, 30, 54, 57, 60, 65, 66, 80,
84, 102, 133, 144, 148, 181

Garden, Plan of 17

Garlic 140

Germination, 33, 44, 48, 58, 69, 80, 85, 88,
103, 138, 142, 183, 188

Germs, Fungous 105

Glasshouse 102, 112, 118, 190

Glucose 34

Gourds 3, 194

Grains 2, 24, 100

Grapes 100, 101

Grass, 21, 22, 23, 47, 49, 50, 52, 58, 59, 78, 97,
112, 129, 168, 174, 180

Greenhouse Cucumber 6

Green Manures ... 16, 45, 58, 111, 122, 167

Growth 98, 114, 180

Grubs 78, 79, 87, 118, 177

Guano, Peruvian 32, 77, 89

Gypsum 23

H.

Hammond's Thrip Juice 2.8

Harlequin Bug 74

Hay 22, 23, 38, 116, 165

Heat, Artificial 27,33,112

Hellebore 28

Herbs 50

Herd Grass 22, 23

198

INDEX.

PAGE.

Heredity 60, 103, 116, 151

Horse-radish 18, 146

Horticultural Society 54

Hotbeds 25, 27, 100, 103, 101

Humus 131

Humidity 97, 100, 123

Hybridization ... 3, 89, 100, 102, 123, 195
Hydrogen 31

Implements 34, 162, 192

Importations 37, 52, 185

Influence of Parents 60, 103

Inhalation 80, 182

Inoculation of Soils 45, 68

Inorganic Parts 31

Insecticides, 28, 34, 46, 56, 70, 71, 73, 82, 128,

147

Insectivorous Bugs 115, 177

Insects, 9, 13, 46, 57, 60, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76,

77, 78, 79, 82, 84, 91, 95, 96, 100, 101, 106,

113, 116, 118, 119, 123, 124, 133, 139, 177

Introduction of the Tomato 115

Ivy 103

J.

Japan Clover 52

Johnson Grass 49

Kainit 108

Kerosene 82, 84

King Crabs 103

Kohl Rabi 40

Labor on Farm 35

Lands 68

Land Sales 37

Land Values 34

Larvae 82

Latitude 136, 194

Lawn ...... 19, 21, 23, 111, 121, 159

Leaf Ratings 93

Leek 140

Legumes 2, 23, 58, 67

Lettuce, 41, 54, 94, 110, 119, 123, 126, 128, 129,

188, 189

Lice 81, 113, 116, 118

Licorice 104

Light 33

Lima Beans 14, 47, 57

Lime 28, 30, 31, 33, 46, 83, 172

Linseed Oil 160

Liquid Manure 33

Live Stock 39, 172, 192

Loam 30

PAGE.

Lobos Guano 77

Locust 68, 168

London Purple 28

Low Prices 35

M.

Machine Development 34, 162, 192

Maggot 91

Mangel Wurzel 15, 182

Manure, 15, 30, 31, 32, 33, 44, 47, 51, 53, 56,
58, 69, 77, SO, 83, 87, 88, 89, 101, 103, 108,
110, 111, 127, 133, 139, 141, 164, 173, 175, 178,

179
Market Garden, 18, 19, 60, 65, 66, 69, 185, 190

Marl 107

Maturity of Fruits 105

Maturity of Peas 150

Maturity of Vegetables 183

Measuring Land 174

Melon, 9, 48, 49, 56, 73, 82, 87, 113, 118, 159,

161

Mildew 48,87

Millet 91

Mining Flies 133

Mint 187

Moisture 97, 100, 123

Molasses 187

Mold 28, 48, 78, 81, 119, 165

Moles 135

Moon 33, 57, 98, 103

Moss 104

Mule Plants 102

Mushroom 43, 114

Mustard 92

N.

Nitrate of Soda 53, 75, 113

Nitrogen . . 31, 50, 69, 83, 138, 166, 171, 178

Nitrogenous Manures 170

Nomenclature , . 51, 74

Nutmeg Melons 7

Nutrition 69, 176

Nuts

O.

Oats 73, 108

Oats, Hay 47

Oats, Product 38

Offsets 2

OUs, Vegetable 133, 160

Okra 114,180

Old Seeds 44, 87

Onions, 43, 56, 73, 84, 86, 89, 90, 91, 91, 99,
105, 106, 127, 130, 131, 132, 139, 140, 160, 168,

184

Onion Sets 43, 46, 71, 75

Orchid Grass 22

INDEX.

199

PAGE.

Organic Constituents 31

Original Types 189

Origin of Plants 47, 189

Over-manuring 51

Oxygen 31

P.

Parasites 100, 105

Parental Influence 103, 151

Paris Green 28, 34, 56, 70, 73, 78, 82

Parsnip 117

Pasturage Grass 21, 59

Pea Bug 68, 70

Peach, Yellow 52

Peanuts 170

Pearl Sets 94

Peas, 3, 13, 14, 15, 45, 58, 61, 73, 76, 78, 87, 99,
104, 107, 108, 119, 124, 129, 142, 149, 150

Peas, Cow 2, &8, 67, 76

Peat 30, 128, 131

Pedigree Seeds 151

Peppers 184

Perennial Beans 57

Periods 54, 85, 88, 181

Permanent Pasture 21

Persian Insect Powder 28

Perspiration 103

Peruvian Guano 32, 77, 89

Phonograph Pea 124

Phosphate 31, 32, 83, 87, 179

Phosphoric Acid 129, 130, 171

Phylloxera 100, 101

Pickles 60, 61

Pigs 161

Plant Adaptability 194

Plant Constituents 31

PlantFood 69,176

Plant Origin 47

Plants to Acre 133

Plow 36,79,121,174

Poison 78, 105, 183

Poisoned Soils 165

Pole Beans 56

Pollen 3, 80, 117, 136, 137, 143, 179

Potash 31, 50, 83, 87

Potatoes, 4, 38, 48, 52, 62, 79, 81, 88, 102, 104,
108, 121, 123, 129, 132, 140, 175, 179, 185, 186,

195

Potato Seed 4

Prescription Grass 60

Preservation of Seed 113

Profits 67, 69

Puddling 110

Pulverizing Soil 174

Pumpkin 54, 186

Pungent Vegetables Ill

Q. PAGE.

Quarantining Plants 69

R.

Radiation 29

Radish . 10, 71, 74, 88, 89, 107, 116, 122, 148

Railroads 34

Ramie 25

Rape 137

Receipts, Cooking 154

Recuperation Ill

Red Top Grass 22

Resin 77

Resistant Grasses 168

Restorative Crops 178

Rhode Island Bent Grass 22

Rhubarb 72

Roads 128

Rolling 175

Roots • ... 18, 134, 161, 172, 173

Rotation 30, 166, 182

Runners 14, 142

Rust 14, 70, 81

Ruta Baga 86, 172

Rye 38, 78, 130

S.
Sap 27

Sales of Land 37

Salads 39

Salt 46, 54, 171

Sand Grass 47

Salting Cucumbers 60

Sand 70, 101

Savoy 75, 171

Scarlet Clover 23

Scientific Agriculture ... 90, 176, 187, 193

Seeds, Forcing 25

Sex 53, 60, 91, 103, 151, 180

Seeding 54, 90, 120, 127, 181

Seasons 54, 57, 85, 88

Selling 105

Seeds, 54, 80, 84, 107, 113, 123, 132, 135, 137,
143, 144, 146, 149, 151, 152, 159, 160, 162, 181

Selection 116

Sensation 121

Seed Control 180

Shipments of Fruit 29

Shamrock 135

Shallots 140, 168

Sick Soils 165, 167

Silos 173,189,192

Slugshot 28

Smut 73, 98, 99, 101

Snow 29

Soil, 30, 45, 58, 68, 78, 105, 111, 112, 184,

142, 167, 174, 177, 180

Soda 31, 75

200

INDEX.

PAGE.

Soluble Phosphate 32

Soil Inoculation 45,68

Soda Nitrate 53, 75, 113

Sorghum 104, 109, 175

Soiling 126

Sorrel 127

Sowing Seeds 144

Spinach 10,15,53,75,110,171

Sports 50, 60, 122, 189

Spraying 53, 81, 125

Squash ... 51, 54, 68, 81, 82, 123, 124, 186

Storage Corn 17

Stable Manure 30, 141

Steam Plowing 36

Stations, Experimental . . 90, 176, 187, 193,

Starch 80, 176

String Beans 57

Sugar Beets 15, 61

Sulphuric Acid •. 32

Sun 33, 102, 106

Subsoiling 35

Superstitions. ... 29, 33, 37, 57, 76, 98, 103

Sugar 34, 37, 111, 162, 170, 172, 187

Sunhouses 102

Sunburn 106, 130

Sugar Cane 108, 114, 162

Sunflower 113

Sweet Potatoes 4, 62, 179

Sweet Peas 73

Swedes 126, 164

T.

Tariff. 167

Tassel of Corn 141

Texas Blue Grass 49

Tennis Court 128

Testing Seeds . . 44, 56, 133, 137, 152, 163, 184

Thinning 85

Tillage 63

Tobacco 38, 55, 92, 160

Toads 48

Top Onions 56, 71, 86

Tobacco Soils 55

Tomatoes, 10, 50, 51, 54, 62, 77, 95, 102, 107,

108, 109, 115, 119, 130, 170, 195

Trifolium Incarnatum . . .... 23

Transplanting 76, 100, 110, 144

PAGE.

Trees 152

Trial Grounds 53, 152, 192

Tubers 2. 80

Turnip, 17, 56, 72, 79, 81, 99, 107, 110, 126,
127, 135, 145, 164, 172, 178, 185

Types 60, 189

Types, Original 189

U,

Unripe Seeds 73, 78

UnvitalSeed 85,117

V.

Values of Turnips 185

Variability 50, 60, 163, 189

Vegetable Analysis 64

Vegetables. . . 1, 2, 62, 65, 103, 119, 123, 188

Vegetable Garden 17, 19, 188

Vegetable Mold ... 28, 48, 78, 81, 119, 165

Vegetable Products 31

Vegetable Oils 133

Vegetation 33

Vitality, 17, 44, 56, 69, 73, 80, 93, 133, 137, 162,

163, 184
Vine Seeds 159

W.

Watermelon, 7, 9, 53, 89, 99, 110, 126, 129,
138, 139, 147

Water 29, 104

Wax Beans 46

Warranted Seeds 162

Washed Lands 68

Wash, Resin 77

Water Cress 143

Weevil 13,70, 71, 96

Weeds, 15, 23, 48, 91, 96, 110, 111, 124. 128,
169, 176, 177

Web Worm 106, 139

Weights 135, 181

Wheat 2, 3, 38, 48, 86, 97, 132, 166

White Grub 79

Wild Potatoes 4

Wintering Roots 18

Wood Ashes 30, 130, 175

Worms 51, 88, 106, 183

Wire Grass 49, 52,112, 174

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