QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 99 



country people. These believe, as their ancestors did, that shingles put 

 upon a roof in the decline of the moon would hold down and lay flat, but 

 laid on the increase of the moon would rise up and curl. Some years ago 

 a Commissioner of Agriculture, in oflice at Washington, told the writer 

 that he believed in all signs as regulating farm operations ; that he always 

 killed beef and pork and planted seeds during the proper phases of the 

 moon, and that even a worm fence put up during the decline of the moon 

 would stand twice as long as one set during the increase. 



603. Q. I have some seeds of a very choice watermelon, saved twenty Watermelon 

 years ago. Will they sprout ? Seed vitauty. 



A. Keep a portion of them in a weak solution of chlorine, another por- 

 tion in a solution of oxalic acid, and sow both in a well-prepared seed 

 bed, kept damp, but not wet. A remaining portion fold in a woolen cloth 

 saturated with oxalic acid, and keep warm near a stove. If any germs 

 appear put the seed at once into earth. 



604. Q. My canteloupe vines bearing nearly full-sized fruits are drying Canteioupe 

 up. What is the cause ? Diseases. 



A. If the drying is in spots it may be from a fungous attack, but if it is 

 all over the patch and affects all parts of the vine it is either due to defec- 

 tive nutrition or to drought. Canteloupes should be deeply plowed when 

 last worked ; at that time the plow is the proper implement, the cultivator 

 is little good, as the soil should be deeply moved and plenty of it thrown 

 up to the roots before laying the crop aside. 



605. Q. Can I successfully grow garden peas on the same land for Peas, 

 several years consecutively ? 



A. Yes, if the land be well fertilized with potash, phosphoric acid and 

 nitrogen. It will, however, be best to rotate all crops, each requiring a 

 difference in soil foods, some a radical difference, others only a slight 

 difference, all taking some, some more, some less, of each food con- 

 stituent. 



606. Q. Are turnips for stock food better than mangels, beets or carrots? Turnips. 

 A. Turnips are not so nutritious, nor so long-keeping as beets or 



carrots, but can be grown at half the expense of labor, and requiring only 

 a little over one-half the time from sowing to full development. 



607. Q. What is the onion smut ? Onion Smut. 

 A. A fungus, very minute, and consisting of small filaments or threads 



formed within the folds of the onion leaves. This fungus when quite de- 

 veloped bursts the leaves longitudinally, exhibiting long lines of black 

 dust, which are spores set forth to further extend the disease. Once 

 located upon a field the only way to get rid of it is to cease raising onions 

 on that field. It is contagious ; healthy parts of the field being inoculated 

 by the smut carried on tools used in working the affected parts. 



608. Q. Which is the most money-producing agricultural State of the Richest 



Union ? Agricultural 



A. New Jersey, which State, considering its acreage under cultivation, ®***** 

 produces more dollars' worth to the acre than any other State. This is a 



