QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 93 



568. Q. Is there any manurial value ia leaf-rakings from woodlands? l-eaf-rakings 

 A. Very little active value, though it is the basis of humus. Ordina- 

 rily it is hardly worth the labor of hauling, except for bedding for pigs 



in pens, or in a barnyard. Under those conditions it is excellent as an 

 absorbent. 



569. Q. Is intense cold destructive to the vitality of seeds? Seed, 

 A. If the seeds be dry and well-covered it seldom injuriously aflFects ^^^^^'^y* 



vitality. Wheat taken by a North Pole exploring expedition as far north 

 as 81°, and left there through five winters where the temperature for 

 months stood at 50° and 60° degrees below zero, germinated freely when 

 brought to temperate climates. On the other hand few seeds will stand 

 for any time a heated temperature over 150° F. 



570. Q. I have heard of big crops of corn, but never was able to grow Com Crops. 

 over fifty bushels of shelled grain to the acre, and would like to know 



how some people who claim to have grown over 100 bushels of shelled 

 grain have accomplished it ? 



A. It is only done on strong ground, yet not so strong as to throw all 

 the energy of the plant into making leaf. If a corn field is planted in 

 hills at 3^ X 3^ feet, and each hill has four stalks producing one ear to 

 each stalk and shelling seven ounces to the ear, the yield would be 110 

 bushels to the acre. Not infrequently a hill of four stalks will produce 

 three to five pounds of shelled corn. 



571. Q. I have a never-failing stream of water passing through my Fish Culture. 

 farm and write to inquire if the duties of farming and fish culture would 



conflict, and if there is any profit in fish culture. 



A. There is a good profit in fish culture to those who understand it, but 

 nine out of ten fail to realize a profit for a want of the knowledge of the 

 requirements to insure success. Hundreds of New England farmers have 

 profitable fish ponds, and the labor of caring for them does not conflict 

 with their agricultural operations. 



572. Q. Why are some perfectly new seeds unvital ? Seed, 

 A. It is attributable to a failure of pollination, and the failure to polli- * * ^* 



nize may be due to want of a vitality on the part of either the male or 

 female plant, or to continued rain or a series of very damp heavy days 

 interfering with the transfer or reception of the pollen. This is noticed 

 more particularly with the seed of plants in which the sexes are found in 

 distinct flowers, or distinct plants as corn, melons and spinach. Nearly 

 all perfectly new seeds contain a varying percentage of such unvital seeds, 

 generally light, small and stunted, but sometimes as plump as any. 



573. Q. Is the heading of cabbage a natural habit of the plant, or is it Cabbage. 

 an abnormal condition brought about by cultivation. 



A. Not by cultivation, but entirely by selection, covering hundreds of 

 years. Heredity in the cabbage originally was in the line of development 

 of producing a mass of loose spreading leaves, as in the dandelion, but by 

 the selecting of those plants most productive in leaves and most dense, a 

 habit was finally formed which became in time a heredity more torcible 



