THE PARSNIP AND RED BEET. 635 



urine or spirits of tar, at the rate of about one gallon to every sixty 

 square yards. (C. M'Intosh, in ' Gard. Chron.' for 1841, p. 53.) 

 Grubs already in the soil cannot so readily be destroyed, unless the 

 ground is so deep that they may be trenched down, when the want 

 of air will kill them ; but some other crop may be grown on it which 

 the insects will not attack. 



Seed Saving. Select some of the finest specimens and transplant 

 them in autumn, growing only the seeds of one variety in one year in 

 the same garden. The seed, if kept dry and adhering to the stalk, 

 will keep three or four years ; but, if separated from the stalk, it will 

 grow with difficulty the second year. 



The Parsnip. 



The Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa, L.) is an umbelliferous biennial, a 

 native of Britain, on calcareous soils in open situations, and with- 

 standing our severest winters. It has been as much changed by cul- 

 ture as the carrot, and like it its roots are highly valued both in horti- 

 culture and agriculture. With respect to culinary purposes, they are 

 in season from October till March. They differ from the carrot in 

 being only used in their mature state, and chiefly during winter; 

 forming a dish to be eaten to meat or to salt fish ; and they are used 

 in soups, mashed, stewed, and fried. Beer and wine can be made 

 from them, and also a powerful spirit. The parsnip is excellent food 

 for cows, being highly nutritive, and giving to the milk a peculiarly 

 rich and agreeable flavour, resembling that from cows that are fed on 

 the richest old pasture. Hence it should be grown on a large scale by 

 every cottager who has a cow. Only a moderate space is required for 

 them in the gentleman's garden, and they come in in the rotation along 

 with the carrot and the beet. The varieties are few ; the Hollow- 

 crowned, the Guernsey, and the Student being the best worth culti- 

 vating. There are also a turnip-rooted variety, and one with yellow 

 flesh and a high flavour, known as the Siam parsnip. 



Cultivation. The seed required for a bed five feet by twenty feet, 

 the plants to be thinned to eight inches' distance every way, is one 

 ounce ; and the same for a drill of one hundred and fifty feet ; the 

 seed comes up in eight or ten days. Seldom more than one crop is 

 required, and this is sown in March, in rows eighteen inches apart, 

 the plants being afterwards thinned out to eight inches' distance in the 

 row. Routine culture as in the carrot. The roots are not liable to be 

 injured by the frost, and may therefore be left in the ground to be 

 taken up as wanted till February, when they will begin to grow. If 

 parsnips are required after this season, a quantity of roots must be 

 taken up in winter, and stored like those of the carrot. The parsnip 

 is seldom attacked by diseases or by insects. Seed may be saved as in 

 the carrot, and it generally retains its vitality only one year. 



. The Red Beet. 



The Red Beet (Beta vulgaris, L.) is a fusiform-rooted biennial, a 

 native of the South of Europe on the sea-coast, and cultivated in 



