QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 129 



repair a mud hole at the county's expense, still more at their own, will 

 drag along through it for weeks. Not only one hole but a score, if, in- 

 deed, the whole length of a frequently traveled road is not in a wretched 

 condition — dragging along day by day, wrenching their wagons, breaking 

 their harness, injuring their horses and souring their tempers. They are 

 afraid of doing something which may add to the comfort of some one who 

 did not contribute to the improvement. It is this penny-wise and pound- 

 foolish policy which prevents farming from being as profitable as it should 

 be, and which brings ridicule so much upon the farming community. 



810. Q. What is the best shipping watermelon ? Watermelon, 

 A. If to withstand rough usage on railroads the Kolb Gem, but it is shipper. 



the poorest in quality of any to be found in market. The taste of the 

 whole melon-loving community has been debased by the use of these 

 miserable Kolb Gems. The best watermelon, all things considered, is 

 Arkansas Traveler, color, black green, rind very tough and woody, but 

 extremely thin, flesh deep scarlet, and edible to within half an inch of the 

 outside, interior always solid crystalline, exceedingly juicy, and sugary to 

 the most remarkable degree, and yet the rind is hard as wood, fitting it to 

 bear long transportation and rough usage. 



811. Q. I am a canner of peas and find it difllcult to put up a perfectly peas 

 iiniform grade, in fact I am surprised to find so great a difference in the for Canning. 

 same variety of peas ? 



A. The fault is probably your own. You possibly do not buy the 

 green pods in the same condition one time with another ; or perhaps you 

 buy too many at a time, and the last of the lot before you get to it is hard 

 and off-color. Don't always blame the seedsman — look a little at home. 



812. Q. I want to put down a two-acre lot in grass for my cows. Pasture 

 "Which kind or variety of grass is the quickest and most permanent ? Grass. 



A. Blue grass is not quick, but by all odds it is the best. On a lime- 

 stone soil it will remain good for fifty years. 



813. Q. What is the best shipping cantaloupe? Cantaloupe. 

 A. Strongly webbed or netted sorts will stand abrasion during 



transportation. This quality, however, is no measure of flavor. But 

 both for shipping and eating, none are superior to Anne Arundel. 



814. Q. I have just dug my potatoes and they are covered with scabs. Potato Scab. 

 What is the cause ? 



A. The injury may be from several causes : the tubers at one period of 

 their growth may have been overcharged with juice which burst the skin, 

 and nature endeavoring to heal the wounds produced scars or the scabs 

 may be the result of a fungous growth upon the skin. This could have 

 been diminished if not nearly all prevented by giving the planting stock, 

 after cutting, a bath in corrosive sublimate. 



815. Q. What are the best varieties of lettuce for Autumn use ? liettuce. 

 A. Bloomsdale Early Summer, Virginia Solid Header, and Reliable. 



816. Q. What do the commercial manure men mean by available phos- Phosphtai-ic 

 phoric acid ? Acid. 



