158 How to Make the Garden Pay. 



back of hoe. A few radish seeds might also be scattered along 

 the rows with the beet seed. The radishes will better indicate 

 the rows, so that we can begin to cultivate a few days after sow- 

 ing. The radishes may be pulled up when of table or market- 

 able size. 



CULTIVATION. Prompt action is the all important point. 

 Weeds should never be allowed to crowd. Cultivate with a 

 narrow-bladed horse-hoe or cultivator; hoe as often as needed, 

 and while the plants are young, run the hand wheel-hoe astraddle 

 the rows, to keep them as near as possible free from weeds with- 

 out much hand hoeing or hand 

 weeding. Thinning should be 

 attended to before the plants 

 begin to crowd one another. 

 Most of this work can be done 

 with a hoe, and since we desire 

 but one good plant to 10 or 12 

 inches of drill, we can easily 

 strike out the plants and weeds 

 growing on the spaces between. 

 Of course there may be a num- 

 ber of plants left on each clump 

 near the plant we wish to save, 

 especially where the seed was 

 sowed like corn (in pinches). 

 We then have to pull up the 

 surplus plants by hand. 



GATHERING AND STORING. 

 Thorough cultivation and timely 

 attention on good and well- 

 manured land is pretty apt to 

 bring a crop that will astonish 

 the novice, as a yield of 40, 60, 

 and even more tons to the acre 

 is not uncommon under favor- 

 able circumstances. Before frost, 



in autumn, the beets are pulled by hand and thrown in heaps to be 

 topped (i. e. y foliage cut off with a sickle or corn cutter) and drawn 

 to the cellar or pit. The best storage place, undoubtedly, is a reg- 

 ular root cellar in the basement of the barn. A separate root or 

 potato cellar, such as a dug-out in a hill-side, or the root cellar 

 described for the winter storage of celery, also makes a very good 

 place for beets, carrots, etc., to be fed out during winter and spring. 

 If we have neither of these conveniences, we must store what we 

 want to use during winter in the cellar we have at our command, 

 although it is not a wise nor safe-practice to store many vegetables 

 and fruits under the rooms in which we live, and rear a family. 



