31 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



THE MORE IMPORTANT ROOT CROPS OF THE MARKET 



GARDEN. 



By H. F. Thompson, Seekonk, Mass., formerly Professor of Market Gardening at the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural College. 



The following-named croj^s form the root crops of most impor- 

 tance to the market gardener, namely, beets, carrots, turnips, pars- 

 nips, radishes and onions. 



Beets, Carrots and Turnips. 



These crops are usually grown from two main soAvings, the first 

 for the summer market, when the crop is sold bunched, and the 

 second for the winter market, when the crop is sold busheled. The 

 soil for these crops should be rich and mellow, a well-manured, deep, 

 sandy loam being ideal. It is very important, especially for beets, 

 that the soil be free from all free acid. To make sure that any acid 

 condition of the soil is corrected, a liberal amount of lime, wood 

 ashes or basic slag meal should be applied. A large bulk of fresh 

 stable manure is. not desirable where these root crops are to be 

 grown. It is by far preferable, for these crops, to apply a heavy 

 coating of good stable manure the fall preceding, and plow it in. 

 By spring it will have become quite thoroughly incorpoi-ated with 

 the soil, and be m excellent condition to further a rapid growth of 

 these root crops during April and May. 



Turnips are not nearly as extensively grow-n for a bunch crop as 

 beets and carrots. The demand is much less and the difficulty of 

 raising a satisfactory crop much greater, due to insect injury, par- 

 ticularly the turnip root maggot. Beets lead in impoi-tance, with 

 carrots second and turnips third. All of these crops should be 

 planted early, about as soon as the land can be worked in the spring. 

 Beets and caiTots are usually planted in rows from 12 to 18 inches 

 apart, and when the plants have reached a height of from 3 to 6 

 inches thev should be thinned, to allow room for rapid growth and 



