QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 147 



the crop resulting left to bloom and seed without the removal of hybrid 

 or cross-bred forms, thus tlie mixed blood of the parent stock is developed 

 to an increased percentage in the offspring. 



The papers of the day are now discussing investigations and develop- 

 ments respecting adulterations of drugs, but the frauds cannot exceed in 

 extent those practiced in some quarters by the seed trade. So great was 

 the adulteration of seeds in England that Parliament passed an Act a few 

 years ago fixing heavy penalties for such frauds, but they still continue, 

 and are common in every country of Europe. 



The least objectionable fraud is the process of cheapening prices by 

 mixing into new crops a proportion of old seeds heated till all vitality is 

 destroyed — such mixed stock will vegetate only to the extent of 50 per 

 •cent., often much less. 



The vitality or germinating power of seeds is not, however, the most 

 important question to the gardener, for if seeds fail to sprout the first cost 

 is the principal loss. Tlie quality of the vegetables seeds may produce, 

 is the all important question, and that can only be determined when, per- 

 haps, it is too late in the season to remedy an imposition. 



Better every grain should be dead than mixed or hybridized. The 

 critical gardener considers well before he makes his purchases, and to 

 the experienced planter nothing is so suspicious as " cheap seeds " 



890. Q. Tell me something about watermelon culture ? -^ ^ ^ 

 _y , , , Watermelons 



A. Watermelons do well upon sod ground, or upon land prepared for 



their reception by plowing down a crop of Winter wheat or Winter rye, 

 the sod or grain aerating or keeping loose the soil. When the apple is in 

 bloom the seed is planted in hills at ten feet apart in each direction. Two 

 large shovelsful of well-rotted stable manure dug and tramped into each 

 hill and covered with earth. 



The cultivator should be prepared with quite four pounds of seed to the 

 acre that he may have a reserve for replanting in case of destruction of 

 his plants by insect depredations or beating rains. 



One vine alone to the hill should be allowed to. attain perfection ; with 

 four hundred and fifty hills to the acre, there should, be nine hundred 

 first-class melons. 



Philadelphia commission merchants pay for prime melons, as a highest 

 price, forty dollars per hundred ; as an average price ten dollars per 

 hundred. They cease to be profitable to the trucker when bringing less 

 than four dollars per hundred. First-class melons are always in demand, 

 but the market is frequently overstocked with small fruit. 



Much of the melon seed offered throughout the country is the product 

 of immature and deformed melons remaining in the field after all the 

 choice fruit has been selected. 



891. Q. What is the cost of bisulphide of carbon ? Carbon 



A. Any druggist can obtain it and sell it at a price of about 15 cents ^**"^P^"®* 

 per pound, and it can be had in tin cans of five, ten or twenty pounds 

 «ach. It is explosive and very injurious to breathe. 



