QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 161 



ting. Sets, no matter when received, especially if in early Autumn, 

 should always be immediately unpacked and spread out on a dry floor to 

 air, and all rotten ones picked out, as one damaged one will infect many 

 others. Autumn-shipped sets should be planted early as possible after 

 receipt to stop loss by decay, and to gain quantity of product through an 

 early start. 



914. Q. What is the matter with the musk melons this year? Every Musk Melons 

 field, without respect to variety, is full of mixtures. 



A. Your question answers itself. • It would be impossible for every sort 

 in every field to have been grown from mixed seed. A general effect just 

 as you describe is caused by a local condition of too much or too little 

 rain, heat or sunshine, or by a general attack of insects or fungi. 



915. Q. About White Grocery beans. How are they grown and har- Beans. 

 vested ? 



A. Any ordinarily good soil will grow beans if not subject to overflow. 

 They, however, do best on a clover sod, supplemented by 400 or 500 

 pounds per acre of good fertilizer. They can be sown by any ordinary 

 grain drill, every fourth tube feeding, or can be drilled by a bean driller, 

 which costs about $40. They must be cultivated and kept clear of weeds. 

 The vines can be pulled by hand or podded by a bean harvester. They can 

 be thrashed by a flail or by a grain thrasher. The production varies from 

 ten to twenty bushels, and the price, to the farmer, varies from $1.30 to 

 $2.00 per bushel. 



916. Q. You wrote that the plant referred to in our letter was an Adventurous 

 adventurous plant. What do you mean by that? Plant. 



A. Those which by accident become established in new regions. As 

 a rule but few survive in the uncultivated condition more than three or 

 four years. For example, after the Centennial Exhibition held in 

 Philadelphia, in 1876, quite 300 new plants were observed growing in 

 Fairmount Park, disseminated by seeds brought from various parts of the 

 world in the straw and hay used in the packing of foreign goods, but now 

 they have all disappeared. It is the same with insects, many new forms 

 were observed for several years subsequent to the Exhibition, but now they 

 have all disappeared. 



917. Q. Do vegetables cultivated for their roots, as carrots, beets or Growth 

 turnips, make a root development immediately upon starting into growth of Roots, 

 or later on in their existence? 



A. Only after complete establishment. All dicotyledonous plants have 

 at first a single descending axis called a tap-root, and this must establish 

 itself as a growing organism, rooted in the earth, and drawing nourish- 

 ment from the soil and through its attached foliage, before it begins to 

 lay up any superfluous tissue. Tap-roots are anchors, and the places of 

 origin of minute subterranean filaments or feeders. The swelling out of 

 tap-roots by the laying on of tissue is a development subsequent to a com- 

 plete formation of plant existence. For example : Take a very young 

 Scarlet Turnip radish and a very young Long Scarlet radish, and the first 



