better flavor when they have been brought to maturity by the slower
processes.

These wonderful fertilizers are a blessed boon in the time of "crop
failures," for then the same crop can be grown anew from the seed and
hurried to maturity before the close of the season.

The curse of the vegetable worms has been reduced to a minimum on this
world of Ploid. The chemists have labored patiently for one thousand
years to produce a substance that will not destroy vegetable seed and at
the same time kill all forms of parasites. The results have been
gratifying, and with considerable pleasure I viewed a garden of the
various odd-shaped vegetables that are grown, without being repulsed at
the sight of such crawling specimens as tomato and cabbage worms.

The happiest result of this worm-killing substance is seen in the work
it accomplishes on fruit and nut trees. There is triple the variety of
nuts on Ploid, and they are used for food more generally than in our
world. There is no such an animal as a hog and no lard is used. The
substitute is found in four varieties of nut oil, the result of a sweet
and clean vegetable growth. Nuts are raised in great abundance, for they
also supply the base for a spread just as appetizing and more economical
than butter.


THEIR MODES OF TRAVEL.

The Ploidites have been traveling in the air for twenty-five hundred
years, but they cannot control their air-ships sufficiently in all kinds
of weather. The atmosphere of Ploid is relatively lighter than ours,