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 



