100 



QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



Spring 

 Greens. 



Transplant- 



Air Plants. 



Moisture 

 Absorbed. 



Cold Frame. 



Phylloxera. 



consequence of its general level surface, and its intermediate location 

 between the great consuming cities of Philadelphia and New York, and 

 its influx of Summer visitors along its Atlantic coast, all requiring the 

 best of all vegetables and in immense quantities. 



609. Q. What plants besides Seven Top and Dixie turnip will do well 

 in Alabama for early Spring greens ? 



A. Cabbaging dandelion. Long French sorrel, chickory and Southern 

 Snow White turnips. 



610. Q. What sorts of vegetables should be transplanted to stimulate 

 their more perfect development ? 



A, The transplanting of vegetables cannot be practiced so generally and 

 so systematically in the United States as in the moist countries of France, 

 Germany and England. In those countries nearly everything can be 

 transplanted successfully and to advantage. 



As a rule it is advantageous to transplant lettuce, cabbage, kale, cauli- 

 flower, celery, tomatoes, egg plants and peppers. 



611. Q. What are air plants? 



A. An order generally found growing upon the trunks and branches of 

 trees. 



Air plants do not draw any nourishment from the trees, consequently 

 they grow equally well on dead ones as on live ones, drawing all the 

 nourishment from the air. Familiar examples are found in the very 

 ornamental hothouse orchids, and in the long moss of southern forests. 



612. Q. Do plants absorb moisture through their leaves ? 



A. No, not to any appreciable extent. They are great exhalers of 

 moisture when the condition of the atmosphere will admit it. When the 

 air is full of humidity or rain the exhalation from the leaves is arrested 

 and the leaf cells become very much distended by moisture, puffing up the 

 tissues, upon which appearance some people think the leaves have taken 

 in moisture from the air. 



613. Q. What is a cold frame ? 



A. A box of any size or shape set down upon a suitable bed of natural 

 soil. The box sometimes covered with a window sash or other glass 

 frame, sometimes only with a shutter or loose boards. A glass frame 

 adds to the warmth of the soil beneath, a shutter or boards protects the 

 soil and the contents of the box from injurious effects of rain, cold, or 

 snow. 



In ordinary practice a frame is made of sixteen-foot boards placed 

 parallel and about six feet apart, the ends closed with other boards. 



A cold frame is so called because it is not a hot one, there being no 

 manure beneath to develop what is called bottom heat. 



614. Q. On what kind of soil is the phylloxera least destructive to the 

 grapevine ? 



A. On sandy soils, as such soils hold less air and more water, which is 

 prejudicial to the rapid increase and development of the insect. Sandy 

 soils asphyxiates them. 



