QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 175 



974. Q. In what part of the cucumber, the skin or flesh.isthe poisonous Cucumber. 

 principle? 



A. There is no poisonous principle. The cucumber is simply indiges- 

 tible to some people. Delicate people eat cucumbers with impunity while 

 others very robust cannot use them, their gastric juices do not contain the 

 proper elements to digest the fruit. 



975. Q. Tell me how a market gardener should lay up cabbage in the Cabbage 

 Autumn to be drawn upon for market sales ? Preservation 



A. Plow two furrow slices together, making a liigh ridge, and with a 

 shovel dig out the furrow, throwing the earth on top of the ridge, whicli 

 tramp hard. Into the open furrow stand the cabbages up perpendicularly, 

 side by side, roots down, and tramp the eartli hard against the roots, then 

 with a plow throw a furrow slice against them, covering up to just under- 

 neath the head. Shovel out this new furrow as the first, filling it with 

 closely packed cabbage as in the first instance. After thus filling several 

 furrows on one side of the ridge repeat the entire operation on the other 

 side. Cover witli eight to ten inches of straw, on which place poles or 

 rails to prevent it from blowing off. 



976. Q. Is not rolling the land in many cases injurious? Kolling Land 

 A. Yes ; and farmers are finding it out. Who now sees one roller 



where there were twenty that many years ago. A farm roller is a useful 

 implement in dry weather, but should never be used when the soil is in 

 condition to pack tightly. 



977. Q. Is coal ashes good fertilizing material ? Coal Ashes. 

 A. Coal ashes are of no value in themselves, but are sometimes useful 



in clay soils, as by their addition such soils are loosened or aerated. Coal 

 ashes generally contain a small quantity of wood ashes which give them 

 a little value as a manure. 



978. Q. What is the relative value of sorghum as compared with field SorgUum. 

 corn for soiling purposes? 



A. Sorghum, ton for ton, is the superior because its stalks and leaves 

 contain double the quantity of sugar found in Indian corn. 



979. Q. In growing a crop of potatoes is flat culture or hill culture the potatoes. 

 better ? 



A. Cultivation of the potato in hills was a system imported from Ire- 

 land and England, followed there by reason of the constant rains and wet 

 condition of the soil ; but here, under our warmer sun and drier atmos- 

 phere, flat culture is the best. 



980. Q. Can I in any way prepare an Imitation of barnyard manure Barnyard 

 which will resemble it in action, and cost but little ? Manure. 



A, You can make an apology for it by taking, say, two tons of swamp 

 muck, seventy-five pounds of nitrate of soda, one hundred and fifty 

 pounds of wood ashes, twenty-five pounds of common salt dissolved in 

 water, twenty-five pounds of fine bone meal, ten pounds of land plaster, 

 twenty pounds of Epsom salts, dissolved in water, and thoroughly mix 

 the whole mass, and let it lay for a week, when turn it over and let it 



