ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING 219 



ESCULENT VEGETABLES. 



WE mention some of the more common kinds of garden 

 esculent vegetables, to point out the best kinds, and give 

 some hints for their cultivation. If more vegetables were 

 raised and eaten in the place of meat, there would be fewer 

 diseases, and less expense for medicine than is now the case 

 among those who eat so heartily and liberally of the fat of 

 the land. 



BEET. The turnip-rooted blood beet should be sown for 

 the earliest crop ; the long blood beet for the late crop, and 

 for winter use. The blood beet is the proper garden beet. 

 The scarcity, the sugar beets (so called), white, yellow, and 

 red, are inferior for table use. Every year we see accounts 

 of new varieties, which are seldom mentioned a second 

 time, while these old standard sorts- hold their own from 

 year to year. We see people running around among 

 their neighbors for beet-seed., careless whether it is early or 

 late, coarse fleshed or fine grained, sweet or insipid. It is 

 just as easy and cheap to have the best seed of the best 

 kinds, as to have refuse seed of worthless kinds. Lately, a 

 variety introduced from France, called JSassano, has at 

 tracted attention and commendation.* It is early, tender, 

 and sweet. If you attempt to raise your own seed, let only 

 one sort stand in the garden ; otherwise bees and other 

 insects will mix them, and the purity of the variety will be 



* A new variety called tne Bassano has been recently introduced into 

 France, and extensively cultivated ; and it is said to be found in all the 

 markets from Venice to Genoa, in the month of June. It is remarkable 

 for the form of the root, which is flattened like a turnip. The skin is 

 red, the flesh white, veined with rose. It is very tender, very delicate, 

 preserving its rose colored rings after cooking, and from two to two 

 and a half inches in diameter. This description is from the Bon Jardi- 

 nier for 1841. The edition for 1842 states that this variety is highly 

 esteemed in the north of Italy, and that it is, in fact, one of the best kinds 

 for the table. Hovei/s Magazine. 



