44 KITCHEN-GARDENING. 



upwards, or about two hundred and fifty feet of row. Lima 

 Beans should be shelled while fresh, and boiled in plenty of 

 water until tender, which generally takes from fifteen to twen- 

 ty minutes. The mode of cooking and preparing the other 

 sorts is the same as for Kidney Dwarfs. 



BEET. 



BETTERAVE. Beta vulgaris. 



Beets, in their several varieties, are biennial ; and the best 

 blood-colored are much cultivated for the sake of their roots, 

 which are excellent when cooked, and very suitable for pick- 

 ling after being boiled tender. When sliced, they make an 

 beautiful garnish for the dish, and the young plants are an 

 excellent substitute for Spinach. 



The Mangel-Wurzel and Sugar Beets are cultivated for 

 cattle. Domestic animals eat the leaves and roots with great 

 avidity. They are excellent food for swine and milch cows, 

 and possess the quality of making them give a large quantity 

 of the best-flavored milk. The roots are equally fit for oxen 

 and horses, after being cut up into small pieces and mixed 

 with cut straw, hay, or other dry feed. A small bed of the 

 earliest Turnip-rooted and other esteemed kinds of Beets may 

 be planted in rich, early ground the first week in April, which, 

 being well attended to, will produce good roots in June. 



Make drills a foot apart and from one to two inches deep ; drop 

 the seed in the drills one or two inches from each other, and 

 cover them with mellow earth. When the plants are up strong, 

 thin them to the distance of six or eight inches from each 

 other in the rows. The ground should be afterwards hoed 

 deep around the plants, and kept free from weeds. 



If the planting of Beet-seed for general crops be delayed 

 until May or June, the roots will be much larger and better 

 than those from earlier planting, which, from being frequently 

 stunted in growth by the various changes of weather, become 



