for January, 1921 



443 



THE QUESTIONNAIRE 



Subscribers are inzited to make free use 

 of this department to solve problems that 

 may arise in their garden work. Questions 

 on the ordinary pursuits of gardening, that 

 can be readily answered by applying to the 

 usual reference books should not be re- 

 ferred to the Questionnaire. 



Can you tell me what is the proper 

 nutrient substratum, or what are the 

 chemical stimulants and their process 

 used to germinate the spores of mush- 

 rooms? Will a strain of mushrooms con- 

 tinuously propagated from season to 

 season, each time well selected, through 

 the tissue culture method show a more or 

 less "running out" or lower their patho- 

 genicity? — H. S., Pa. 



Can one ot our readers supply tlie de- 

 sired information? — Editor. 



Here and There 



BY WAY OF THE SOIL 



A few years ago in one of the Middle 

 West states the chairman of a Farmer's 

 Soil School predicted some remarkable 

 changes in our future farming. In sense 

 he said : 



"When I C( nsider tlie strides that science and 

 invention are making, I feel tliat the day is nut 

 far distant when the farmer will cease to he a tiller 

 of the soil. Our scientists will invent a means 

 whereby the elements of the soil can be put into 

 a tablet form and made suitable for human food, 

 thereby doing away with the bulky, laborious and 

 tinie-C'.nsnming methcd in feeding our millions. 

 Then the- farmer will no longer be a tillre of the 

 soil, a sower and a gatherer of the harvest. There 

 will be built alongside our creamery and cheese 

 factory .-'notlier kind of factory to which the farmer 

 will haid the soil rf his fields, out of which to be 

 extracted by human hand those life-sustaining ele- 

 ments which, because of human ignorance, must 

 now be withdrawn by plants. The problem of 

 production will then be eliminated, and the ever- 

 perplexing task of feeding ourselves will be re- 

 duced to the simi'lest and most efficient basis. 

 Then and only then can man concentrate his at- 

 tentirn on higher things, for it is written, 'Ccn- 

 sder the lilies of the field, how they grow; they 

 toil not. neither do they spin,' " 



There exists in the histor\- of mankind 

 no processes that are older, more universal, 

 more essential, or more noble than the 

 sowing of the grain and the gathering in 

 and the utilization of the harvest. The 

 growing of plants and the eating of them 

 by man and lieast is a part of creation, and 

 no human invention can alter the plan of 

 the God of the earth. The peoples of the 

 world can never subsist on the elements of 

 the soil alone. The human body, as well 

 as that of the beast, requires, most of all, 

 heat and energy-giving substances in form 

 of carbohydrates and similar foods — to say 

 nothing of the fact that the body requires 

 bulk in form of roughage. Energy foods 

 are not generated within the soil, lint arc 

 nianufaclui'ed for the most part within the 

 leaves of green plants out of water and 

 the carbon dioxide of the air through the 

 action of sunlight. It seems a part of the 

 Great Plan that the living body should 

 receive its energj- and physical power from 

 the sun by way of the green plant. Thus, 

 so long as carbohydrates are necessary to 

 keep the bodily fires burning, so long will 

 plants send their roots down into the 

 mineral world for those mineral elements 

 which are essential for their sustenance, 

 and which in turn arc put into fortns by 

 tlie plants to become building blocks in 

 animal bodies. Without the mineral world 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms could 

 not exist. 



We cannot grow wheat and corn with- 

 out soil. We cannot produce a single bale 



The 1921 Ten -Ten Book 

 Is Ready for You 



This, new Ten-Ten Book has all the good points of last 



year's, with a lot of new ones beside. 



Again we've listed the ten best of everything for garden 



use. 



You can make your selections without a lot of fussing 

 through arm-long lists. 



There's an illustrated index, a really interesting index, 

 where you'll find all your old gardeu friends and some 

 new ones. 



Both their common and botanical names are given. 

 With just the description anil prices you want to know 

 about. 



And you won't have to use your specs to read the de- 

 scriptions. 



They're good sized type, good and plain. 



Send for it now: it is free. 



Then order early for your early planting. 



of cotton without soil. Soil is necessary 

 to grow the pig that produces the pork. 

 .And soil is necessary to grow the sheep 

 that produces the wool that is made into 

 woolen garments. Food and clothing, the 

 greatest needs of the human race, must 

 come by way of the soil. — Soil Iniprove- 

 iih'ut Coimnlttce Bulletin. 



IDENTITY OF MARIGOLD. 



The common people mixed things up 

 considerably when they gave the same 

 name to plants of very different appearance 

 or origin. The point comes up in connec- 

 tion with the name of marigold. A corre- 

 spondent challenges the statement that 



Shakespeare referred to the marsh mari- 

 gold {Caltha pahtistris) when he wrote of 

 "winking Mary-buds." The Standard dic- 

 tionary refers "Mary-bud" to marigold but 

 considers the latter to be wliat is com- 

 moidy known as the pot marigold {Calen- 

 dula officinalis). Neither this species nor 

 the -African inarigold {Tagclcs erccta), nor 

 yet the French marigold (Tageles Italula) 

 is native to Shakespeare's country and it 

 seems scarcely likely that the poet would 

 have included a garden (lower in his pic- 

 ture of the lark rising from the dewy 

 fields. It would seem that if any mari- 

 gold is meant it should be the marsh 

 marigold which is common in England. 

 To the writer of these lines, however, it 



