162 QUEKIES AND ANSWERS. 



has as long a root as the other, or take a Long Blood beet and a Red 

 Turnip beet, and the young turnip form has a root fully as slim and long 

 as the Long Blood, and sometimes under peculiar weather conditions they 

 are both slow to lay up tissue and seem to be of similar habit. Just the 

 same with turnips, flat sorts sometimes seeming to be going to make long 

 roots. A peculiarity of the tap-roots is that it is only the point or termi- 

 nal which extends, that is, the lengthening always being a continued exten- 

 sion of the newly formed point, consequently a tap-root never extends 

 after the point is cut off. The edible portions of the roots of beets, carrots 

 and turnips are really the upper part of the tap-roots, and while naturally 

 distended beyond other parts have been abnormally developed by hun- 

 dreds of years' selection. 



Warranted 918. Q. Do you warrant your seeds ? 



Seeds. ^ jq-^ . ^g j^j.g ^pj g^ foolish as to warrant as correct the results which 



may be developed consequent upon all sorts of mismanagement of a crop. 

 All seed merchants have too many complaints of disappointments of crops 

 due to unfavorable soil and atmospheric conditions, and due to ridiculously 

 bad management and want of common sense, to warrant satisfactory 

 results. 



Cane Sugar. 919. Q. How many pounds of cane sugar were produced in the United 

 States during the census year of 1890? 



A. 301,284,000 pounds of sugar, and of cane molasses, 25,409,000 gal- 

 lons. The value of the sugar refined in the United States the same year 

 was one hundred and twenty-three millions of dollars. 



Agricultural 920. Q. What is the value of the annual manufacture of agricultural 



Implements, implements in the United States ? 



A Over eighty-one millions of dollars. 



Ece Plant ^^^" Q' •"■ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ pardon my hasty and perhaps testy complaint 



Vitality. that the egg plant seed you sold me was unvital, for I have sprouted it as 



you suggested and find it all right? 



A. Certainly. We are pretty well broken in to groundless complaints, 

 as not only the planter of seed but the merchant finds it easier to write a 

 testy letter than to take the trouble to investigate. Your complaint is only 

 a repetition of hundreds just as groundless. 



The most common experience in the way of foolish complaints, is the 

 claim so often unreasonably made that one of a number of varieties of 

 seed failed to develop as perfectly as on some previous occasion, the com- 

 plainant forgetting to award praise for the ninety and nine varieties which 

 gave satisfactory results. The gardeners expecting a venture in seeds to 

 be far more certain than any other business speculation, notwithstanding 

 that the influences bearing upon germination, plant nutrition, climatic and 

 physical conditions are beyond their knowledge and control. It is the 

 unreasonable claim of inexperienced and ignorant persons that if seeds do 

 not grow when put into the ground it is always because they are bad. 

 Now, this is a silly charge, for good seeds may in whole or part fail to 

 grow for very many reasons or causes; as, for instance, improper or in- 



