QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 123 



767. Q. When potatoes of different sorts are grown side by side, will Potato. 

 the mixing or hybridization between the flowers of distinct sorts produce 



any appreciable change in the tubers? 



A. No effect whatever, the seed in the seed-balls only being affected. 

 Every potato is like a graft or bud from the original parent, and pollina- 

 tion don't affect it in the least. 



768. Q. Does a rank growth of vegetables induce a tendency in them Qualities of 

 to take on new qualities ? Vegetables. 



A. Yes ; it does. The most intense development of qualities of approved 

 color, form and flavor are best perpetuated in half-starved plants. On the 

 contrary, a luxurious growth causes plants to sport in all directions, to 

 run off at tangents, generally to the bad. 



769. Q. I find in my lettuce seed some sort of an insect which spins a Lettuce 

 web, causing the seed to adhere in lumps. Why did you send me unclean ^^ect. 

 seed? 



A. Nearly all oily seeds stored under conditions favorable to the devel- 

 opment of eggs will hatch out insects. Many of these insects will spin 

 webs or otherwise cause the seed to adhere in lumps. Nearly every seed 

 has its insect aflinity, which deposits eggs in the immature seed while 

 standing in the field. The grubs from these eggs will hatch out under 

 conditions favorable. The pea bug and the bean weevil are familiar ex- 

 amples. Lettuce seed, cabbage and turnip and vine seed all have their 

 insect enemies. 



770. Q. Why is it that such seeds as I have to keep for over a few Humidity 

 months in my store here at Summerville, Ala., lose so much of their ^^^^^^s 

 vitality ? ^**^*- 



A. Because of the moisture in your atmosphere swelling the germs, to 

 be afterwards dried by change of air and successively swollen and dried 

 several times, so that vitality is seriously weakened. This condition 

 applies in various degrees to all those sections of the Gulf States where 

 forest moss luxuriates. Where the moss flourishes the most vigorously 

 the conditions stimulating its growth are intensely destructive to seed 

 vitality, all this the result of moisture in the air blown in from the warm, 

 damp waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 



771. Q. Among the Yankees, Winter squashes have a great celebrity, winter 

 and I have eaten them in Boston with relish, but down here in Carolina ^i"**'*' 

 am disappointed. Why is it ? 



A. Altogether climatic. With you in the South they grow too fast and 

 become coarse, stringy, tough and are deficient in sugar. They do best 

 in the North. 



773. Q. Will corn grown from grain taken from points and butts of ears Corn. 

 degenerate ? 



A. Not in one year ; but if such selection be continued for two years or 

 more a change would be very noticeable. The practice even for one year 

 is not to be encouraged. 



773. Q. Which is the standard variety of late cabbage ? ^**® 



^ J & Cabbage. 



