KITCHEN GARDEN. 171 



these lengthwise about an inch and a half deep, and 

 one foot asunder; drop the seeds* into these rows 

 thinly, and draw over them a light covering of the 

 surface soil, trodden down with the foot. 



As the beet is easily affected by frost, the plant- 

 ing of the main crop should be delayed till the mid- 

 dle of May. A month after, or so soon as the 

 plants have put out three or four leaves, thin the 

 rows so as to leave the young beets at the distance 

 of twelve or fourteen inches apart ; and if there be 

 chasms in the rows, as will sometimes happen from 

 bad seed or unskilful sowing, fill these up with the 

 surplus plants. The intervals between the rows 

 should at the same time be thoroughly cleaned from 

 weeds, and the oftener this operation is performed 

 and the ground stirred during the whole course of 

 vegetation in the plant, the larger will be the pro- 

 duct and the better its quality. In dry weather, 

 and during the infancy of the plant, watering is in- 

 dispensable. 



Some writers have proposed raising the beet in 

 seedbeds and transplanting it ; but experience for- 

 bids this practice, as the fact is well established 

 that, other things being equal, the transplanted beet 

 is never so fine as that which has been left undis- 

 turbed ; a remark, by-the-way, which applies gen- 

 erally, perhaps universally, to tap-rooted plants. 



As soon as vegetation is over, which always oc- 

 curs after the first hard frost, take up the plants, 

 expose them a day or two to the air to evaporate 



* The same author attributes the forking of beets, not to 

 stones or clods, as is generally done, but to working and ma- 

 nuring the ground around their roots, which, according to his 

 theory, attracts one side of the root to the right and the other 

 to the left, and never stops till it gives the plant two legs to stand 

 upon instead of one. How happens it, then, that in deep, rich, 

 .oose soils, whatever be the labour, there is no forking, and that 

 in stony or cloddy ground, though little worked, there is so 

 much of it ? This subject will be found fully discussed in the 

 N. C. d'Agriculture, art. Beterave. 

 14 



