THE PABSXIP. 



THE PARSNIP. 

 Pastinaca sativa. 



The Parsnip is a hardy biennial, indigenous to Great 

 Britain and some parts of the south of Europe, and to a 

 considerable extent naturalized in this country. In its 

 native state the root is small and fibrous, and possesses 

 little of the fineness of texture, and delicacy of flavor, which 

 characterize the Parsnip in its cultivated state. 



The roots are fusiform, often much elongated, sometimes 

 turbinate, and attain their full size during the first year. 

 The flowers and seeds are produced the second year, the 

 plant then measuring five or six feet in height, with a 

 grooved or furrowed, hollow, branching stem. The flowers 

 are yellow, in large spreading umbels five or six inches in 

 diameter. The seeds ripen in July and August ; are 

 nearly circular ; about one fourth of an inch in diameter ; 

 flat, thin, very light, membranous on the borders, and of a 

 pale yellowish-brown or yellowish-green color. They vary 

 but little in size, form, or color, in the different varieties, 

 and retain their vitality but two years. About six thousand 

 seeds are contained in an ounce. 



Half an ounce of seed is -usually allowed for one hundred 

 feet of drill, and six pounds for an acre. 



Soil, Sowing, and Cultivation. The soil should be mel- 

 low, deep, of a rich vegetable texture, and not recently 

 turned from the sward. As the roots of most of the varie- 

 ties are long and comparatively slender, the deeper and 

 more thoroughly the soil is stirred the better. Where the 

 soil is thin, and the sub-soil clayey or hard and gravelly, 

 the Parsnip rarely succeeds well, the roots being not only 

 short and branched, but deficient in the mild, tender, and 



