SECT. XV. OF ESCULENTS. 259 



up to five or six as they rise in order to blanch them : 

 Some do this with fine sifted coal ashes, and bthers 

 with the leaves of trees laid close round. Little 

 should be cut the first year, but the second do it 

 freely. 



The seed should be dropped three or four- in a 

 hole, half an inch deep, and thinned to one plant, 

 earthing up a little as they proceed in growth. When 

 the leaves decay in autumn, earth the plants over an 

 inch or two, with m'ould from the alleys. In the 

 spring, loosen the earth carefully with the asparagus 

 fork, and at autumn, earth up as before. The fol- 

 lowing spring, fork again in time, and about April 

 there will be plenty to cut; which, if suffered to 

 grow large first, will eat tough and strong. For 

 seed, reserve a stool that has not been cut: The 

 flower is white, and so pretty as to be sown some- 

 times merely for ornament. 



SHALOT is a perennial sort of onion, for which it 

 is>often substituted, and in some cases preferred, as 

 being more agreeable to the palate and stomach by 

 its rich and yet mild flavour. 



The shalot is propagated by planting its offsets 

 late in autumn, in a dry soil, or in spring, if a moist 

 one. The latter time is generally adopted as safest ; 

 but autumn sets produce the finest bulbs. Plant two 

 or three inches deep, and four or five asunder, .in 

 rows, six inches distance from one another. When 

 the leaves \\ ither, dig them up, lest they decay in 

 the ground, as they are apt to do if much wet 

 falls. 



SKIRRET (now little known) is a very wholesome 

 root, propagated by seed, as scorzonera y and some- 

 times by offsets of the old roots in spring, planted an 

 inch deep or more over their crowns. 



SPINACH is of two kinds, denominated from the 

 seed, -as prickly and smooth ; the former is sown in 



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