KITCHEN GARDEN. 169 



The BEET (Beta) is of the family of the Cheno- 

 podees, and contains five species, two of which, the 

 Beta Cycla and Beta Hortensis, are objects of gar- 

 den culture. The former is what the English call 

 the Maratime beet, and the French the Poiree. 

 Some botanists have regarded this as the type of the 

 genus, while others consider it a product of cultiva- 

 tion. Its varieties are two, the tall and the Dutch, 

 which are used for the same purposes ; the leaves 

 as salad, or as an ingredient in soups, either alone 

 or mixed with sorrel ; and the roots as food for cat- 

 tle, and particularly for hogs. 



Of the second species there are five varieties, 

 which take their names from their colour or size ; 

 the yellow, the white, the large red, the small 

 red, and the white with red veins. It is to this 

 last variety that M. Commeril has given the whim- 

 sical name of Scarcity, though its products per 

 acre is greater than that of any other garden vege- 

 table.* 



Like all other garden plants, the beet is nutritive 

 in proportion to the saccharine matter it contains. 

 Of the varieties we have named, the yellow has the 

 most, and the white veined with red the least of 

 this matter. Yet the experiments of M. Deyeux 

 prove that colour has less to do with this produc- 

 tion than culture. " Two beds," says he, " of sim- 

 ilar soil, and laboured alike, were sown with beet- 

 seed of the same variety. One of these was high- 

 ly manured with well-rotted dung, the other had no 

 manure of any kind applied to it. The beets grown 

 in the former were large, but, on analysis, yielded 

 no saccharine matter, while those grown on the 

 latter gave the ordinary quantity of sugar." 



Margraff f was the first to extract from the beet 



* See Arthur Young on the product of the beet, and a me- 

 moir of M. d'Aughbigny, in the 16th volume of the Transac- 

 tions of the Agricultural Society of the Seine. 



t About a century ago. 



P 



