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. 



