Vegetable Growing for Market 155 



wall ", " King Edward VII ", &c., are grown, if at all, only in very small 

 quantities. 



The following varieties may be recommended for commercial purposes: 



First Earlies. Ashleaf, Duke of York, May Queen, Ninetyfold, Kirigleader, 

 Early Puritan, Snowdrop. 



Second Earlies. British Queen, Beauty of Hehron, Windsor Castle, Duchess of 

 Cornwall, Royal Kidney, Sir John Llewellyn. 



Main-crop Varieties. Up-to-Date, Factor, Scottish Triumph, Table Talk, King 

 Edward VII, The Scot, The Colleen. 



" Boom " varieties, like " Northern Star ", " Eldorado ", and others, may be 

 regarded as worthless croppers, although they have served a turn. And 

 all the talk about a disease-resisting Potato may be considered as non- 

 sense. Wherever life exists, disease is always possible, especially under 

 unhealthy conditions. [j. w.] 



26. RADISHES 



This crop (Raphanus scttivus) needs light warm soil which has enjoyed 

 high cultivation long enough to contain a good deal of humus. The secret 

 of producing good Radishes is to grow them quickly; if they take long 

 in coming they become tough and hot, instead of being mild and nutty 

 in flavour. 



Stiff land will not do for Radishes, because not only is it too cold, but 

 the Radishes cannot be pulled, after they are grown, without tearing off 

 the top, which is fatal. For early sowings a warm border with a gentle 

 slope to the south is desirable. Formerly sowings began in January and 

 were covered with litter, successive sowings being made each fortnight, 

 the first without litter being made in March. The litter was raked off 

 as soon as the seeds began to appear through the ground. 



Elaborate arrangements of string, feathers, and boys to pull them 

 and shout (" when the guv'nor was believed to be near ") were made to 

 scare the birds. At sign of frost all hands were called at evening to 

 shake the litter over the beds again, to be again raked off as soon as the 

 frost was gone, perhaps the next day. This process went on, every 

 raking off lessening the number of Radishes, until the end of March, 

 when the litter was carried off and stacked. The method of sowing was 

 to mark the ground out with marks 6 ft. apart. The surface was then 

 carefully levelled with rakes. The levelling was important in order to 

 get all the seed through at the same time, to shorten the period of bird 

 scaring, which had to be kept up until the seedlings were too big to be 

 pulled up. The seed was sown broadcast by hand, the sower walking 

 up the marks. It was covered by casting with a spade, the soil being 

 taken from the marks, producing depressions which became alleys, into 

 which the litter off the beds was raked. 



It is quite an art to cast so as to deposit just enough soil evenly all 



