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. 



