Vegetable Growing 99 



planted too late, the same results will be had with any sort of rhubarb. 

 Where it is very hot, plants, irrigated in the morning near the plants, 

 scald at the crown and die in a few days. If irrigated in the after- 

 noon and the ground worked before it gets hot the next day fine 

 results are obtained. The winter rhubarb varieties do well in hot 

 districts if the roots are planted from September 15 to May 1, while 

 in cooler sections, April, May, June and July are the best months 

 and will insure a crop the following winter. 



Squashes Dislike Hardship. 



What caused these squashes, of which I send you samples, to be so 

 hard and zvoodyf They were grown without irrigation. 



Your squashes were grown without irrigation under conditions 

 which were too dry for them and became inferior in quality. Pos- 

 sibly the variety itself is not of good quality or the specimen from 

 which the seed was taken may have been inferior. A squash, in order 

 to be tender and acceptable, needs rich feeding and plenty of drink. 

 Otherwise, it is apt to resent ill treatment by very undesirable growth. 



Harvesting Sunflowers. 



What is the method used in saving or threshing the seed from the 

 Giant Russian suniiower? 



Cut oflf the seed heads of your sunflowers when the seed seems 

 to be well matured but before any of it falls away from the head. 

 Throw these heads on a smooth piece of ground or a tight floor 

 and when they become thoroughly dry thresh out the seed with a 

 flail, removing the coarse stuff with a rake and afterwards cleaning 

 the seed by shoveling it into the wind so that the light stuff may be 

 blown away. A more perfect cleaning afterwards could be secured 

 with a grain fanning mill or a simple sieve of the right mesh. 



Irrigating Tomatoes. 



How much zvater does it take (in gallons or cubic feet) to properly 

 irrigate an acre of land for tomatoes? The soil is adobe, and the cus- 

 tomary way of planting tomatoes is 6 feet apart each way, plowing a 

 trench of one furrow zvith the slope of the land for irrigating, that is, 

 a trench betiveen every row and a cross trench as a feeder. The land 

 is low and in the driest part of the year the surface water is from 2 to s 

 feet beneath the top of the ground. 



It is not possible to state a specific quantity of water for any 

 crop, because the amount depends to such a large extent upon the 

 retentiveness of the soil, the rate of evaporation and the kind of 

 cultivation. The best source of information is the behavior of the 

 plant itself, bearing in mind that tomato plants require constant but 

 not excessive moisture supply, and that if moisture is applied in excess 

 it will promote an excessive growth of the plant, which will cause 

 it to drop its blossoms and therefore be unsatisfactory and unpro- 



