AGP.ICULTUPvE. 183 



The largest Califomian onion weighed forty-seven ounces 

 avoirdupois, and measured twenty-two inches in circumference. 

 Our onions generally excel those of the Eastern states in size 

 and weight. 



Our largest red beet weighed one hundred and eighteen 

 pounds — was five feet long, and a foot in diameter. It was 

 three years old. The first year it grew to weigh forty-eight 

 pounds, and because of its large size was reserved for seed ; 

 but it disappointed its owner, and, instead of producing seed 

 the next year, merely kept on growing, and reached the size 

 of eighty-six pounds; and the following year got to a hundred 

 and eighteen. Such beets can be grown in abundance. A beet 

 of twenty pounds is a wonder in Xew York or London ; here 

 it is too common to attract more than a glance. Beets fre- 

 quently are three feet long, so that it requires no little trouble 

 to dig them out. 



Our largest common white turnip weighed, I believe, twenty- 

 six pounds ; our largest carrot, ten pounds ; our largest water- 

 melon, sixty-five pounds. 



Our largest tomato measured twenty-six inches in circum- 

 ference. 



Our kitchen vegetables, grown in the open air, are in the 

 market during a greater part of the year than in any state 

 east of the Mississippi. We have cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, 

 turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, horseradish, celery, 

 green onions, leeks, salsify, and parsley, throughout the year; 

 green peas, string-beans, water-melons, cantaloupes, and nut- 

 meg-melons, from June to November inclusive ; tomatoes from 

 May to October; garden-eggs, green okra, Lima-beans, and 

 Califomian sweet potatoes, from July to September ; aspara- 

 gus from March to June ; and rhubarb from April to July — 

 the months being meant inclusively in every instance. These 

 seasons for the different species of vegetables are, on an aver- 

 age, twice as long as the seasons on the Atlantic slope of the 

 continent in the same latitude. Our tables are thus supplied 

 with a great variety of fresh and wholesome -vegetables 



