CULTIVATION. 217 
immediately after; but lightly covered, it will not be 
injured by even constant rain. 
I have lost a great deal of seed by planting too deeply, 
and I shall, therefore, be very cautious never to commit 
the same error again. If soaked in warm water for 
twenty-four hours, then planted in a bed, and care taken 
to keep them properly moist, we may always calculate 
with certainty on having them an inch above ground in 
four days (warm weather.) 
This first start is a great point wherever the warm 
weather lasts only a short time; but in no case is it alto- 
gether unimportant; and it becomes a question of no 
small moment, whether in England and some parts of 
Northern Europe it would not even be quite worth while 
to sow the seed under glass in the first instance, and then 
plant out the young plants, before they are a month old, 
in the open ground, where it is intended they shall remain 
for crop. 
In this case, very little more labor is required than is 
now universally bestowed on the Continent in making 
the beet root nursery beds, and subsequent transplanting 
of the young beets. My own experience this season, in 
England, has shown me that even in a small greenhouse, 
a prodigious number of young plants may be raised 
without any artificial heat whatever, and the plants are 
so hardy that they bear transplanting admirably. 
By this simple plan we get over the difficulties opposed 
to us in England by late frosts and cold, nipping winds, 
for we can commence transplanting in June, and thus 
allow June, July, August, and part of September, if 
needed, for their growth, which my experiments this 
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