QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED. 



3030. Packing Mushrooms.— Would like to pack tliem into 

 i-pound cardboard boxes. What is proper size and best shape?— 

 C. E. S., Conn. 



3031. Cold-Storage for Vegetables. —The object is to 

 keep thein in best shape until they can be put on the market to ad- 

 vantage. How shall we do it?— F. S. T., Maine. 



2880. Increasing Size of Vegetables or Fruits. — 



.4nszvered by Prof. Bailey : The large specimens of 

 fruit raised by the French and others are usually obtained 

 by espalier or wall-training, and the persistent and 

 judicious thinning of the fruit. But very much depends 

 upon the variety selected for the purpose. 



Ansivered by E. S. Goff : The general principle is 

 to provide abundant nourishment and restrict the number 

 of specimens. In the case of a tomato or squash, I 

 should plant on rich soil, pinch in the plants after they 

 have attained a proper growth, and takeoff all specimens 

 of fruit with the exception of one or two. 



A7isTJi'ered by William Falconer : Keep the vines re- 

 stricted to moderate size till the fruit is set and has 

 begun to swell ; then pinch off the fresh sprouts as they 

 appear. Reduce the number of fruits to one or two to 

 a plant, and feed the plants with weak liquid-manure. 

 Just think how greenhouse grapes or exhibition chrysan- 

 themums are grown and take the hint 



2897. Making Oil from Sunflower-Seeds.— The seeds 

 (sunflower, poppy or whatever they may be) are first 

 carefully screened, then bruised by passing through 

 heavy rollers, and finally ground on edge-stones. The 

 pulp is usually heated, put in strong, coarse woolen sacks 

 and squeezed dry by hydraulic pressure. The resulting 

 oil is then refined. The oil-cake is a valuable food for 

 stock. In the "cold process" of extracting these oils the 

 pulp is not heated. The chemical process consists of bruis- 

 ing the seed and heating them with bisulphide of carbon. 

 Sunflower-oil has no pronounced flavor, and undoubtedly 

 would be useful for many purposes. The seeds contain 

 about 30 per cent, of oil. Any large-flowering variety 

 may be planted, but the black-seeded Mammoth Russian 

 is probably most profitable. The crop requires soil that 

 has plenty of potash. The heaviest yield we ever had 

 was grown on a rich, black, mucky soil, too moist for 

 corn. A fair yield would be 30 to 35 bushels of seed to 

 an acre, although 40 to 50 bushels are occasionally grown. 

 You may count on a gallon of oil to a bushel of seed. 



2898. Coal-Oil Stove in Greenhouse.— Gas from coal 

 oil is quite injurious to plants, but with a little ingenuity 

 you can easily contrive to carry off any escaping gas. — 

 W. F. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse. — There are now 

 on the market two appliances for heating hot-water pipes 

 with gas. Both are designed for domestic use, and both 

 are entirely suitable for heating pipes for warming 

 greenhouses. They cost only a few dollars each. One is 

 a small gas-stove with coils of pipe. The other is a bur- 

 ner designed to fit under a boiler. They can be seen 

 at the Gas Appliance Exchange, No. 37 West 14th 

 Street, New York city. The Hopson & Chapin M'f'g 



Co., New London, Conn., has also a new gas-heater for 

 heating small radiators for rooms and greenhouses.— 

 Charles Barnard. 



2937. Onion-Plants in Hotbed Dying.— In some of my 

 beds I have used soil mixed with considerable quantities 

 of coal and wood-ashes. In these a large proportion of 

 the plants have been dying down, and the remaining ones 

 seemed to be sickly until after they were transplanted. 

 Where ordinary good loam was used for hotbed soil, the 

 plants grew nicely and remained healthy. — Carl Holt- 



2939. Cellar for Storing Roots.— Fourteen hundred 

 bushels of roots will require between 2150 and 2200 cubic 

 feet of storage-room. The main object in storing roots is 

 to keep them at a uniform temperature as little above the 

 freezing point as practicable. One of the best ways to do 

 this is simply to pile them in long narrow piles on well- 

 drained ground, convenient to the place where they are 

 to be fed. An excavation about a foot deep should be 

 made and a layer of clean straw placed beneath the roots. 

 When the pile of roots has been made it should be 

 covered thickly with straw and then with a foot of earth. 

 .\t distances of six or eight feet along the apex of the 

 pile, a drain-tile should be inserted to give ventilation. 

 For a permanent cellar, in many cases, the most con- 

 venient arrangement is simply to partition off a corner of 

 the barn basement by setting up 10 or 12-inch studs, 

 boarding on both sides and stuffing the interstices with 

 chaff or cut straw. Often a very convenient root-cellar 

 may be made in a gravelly or sandy bank adjoining the 

 barn cellar. This arrangement is especially convenient 

 where the root-cellar can be so built that it can be filled 

 from the driveway in the second floor of the barn- 

 Where a cellar is built in this way, grout walls cemented 

 on the inside should be used, both as a protection from 

 cold and against rats. The relative advantages and cost 

 of these various ways of storing roots will, of course, de- 

 pend entirely upon individual circumstances and sur- 

 roundings. — H. H. Wing. 



2942. Irrigating Gardens. — This is the way we grow 

 celery in Colorado. A smooth piece of ground with a 

 gradual slope is plowed, harrowed and laid off in rows 4 

 feet apart. Furrows are opened 6 or 7 inches deep with 

 a lo-inch listing-plow. Two inches of well-rotted manure 

 is mixed with the soil in these trenches. We usually do 

 this mixing quite conveniently and thoroughly by running 

 a one-horse wheel-hoe three or four times in each trench. 

 Next, the bottom of the trenches is leveled with a 12-inch 

 steel rake. Now the water is turned into the trench and 

 allowed to run through to the lower end. In 12 to 24 

 hours, according to condition of soil, the ground in the 

 trench will be dry enough to set the plants. We plant 

 double rows, 11 inches apart, and plants six inches apart 

 in the rows. The water is then turned into the trench 

 again, and always made to run between the two double 

 rows. This is repeated once a week, until the celery is 

 large enough to handle. We turn the water on for from 

 6 to 8 hours at a time, so it will thoroughly soak the 

 ground from row to row. — Walter L. Hawley, Colo. 



