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. 



