258 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



few days. It is grown or propagated from sets or 

 pieces of small roots cut at least four inches long, with 

 the upper end square and the lower end slanting. The 

 ground is well manured, deeply plowed, and thoroughly 

 harrowed or otherwise put in good condition, then 

 marked out in rows from two to three feet apart. In 

 these the root pieces are planted, fifteen or eighteen 

 inches apart. The planting is done by making a hole 

 with a long, slim dibble or planting-stick, or with a 

 small, light iron bar, and dropping the set, square end 

 down, into it, so that the top end is left a little below 

 the surface. Then press the soil firmly against the 

 set. Keep the cultivator or wheel hoe going till the 

 top growth renders further working unnecessary. The 

 sets should be planted out in May or June. Catch 

 crops of beets, lettuce, and spinach can be planted 

 along with the horseradish and harvested before the 

 horseradish has made much headway. Irrigation 

 every week until the sets take new root is advisable, 

 and the growth may be pushed. After the plants are 

 well established they will require less water. When 

 its roots once get into the soil they live and thrive 

 until forcibly exterminated by being rooted up. But 

 if allowed to grow at its own free will without cultiva- 

 tion, the plant degenerates rapidly and becomes, in a 

 few years, scarcely fit for table purposes, for which it 

 is now used. 



Onions. — There are two methods of applying water 

 to onions — by flooding and by furrows. Some men 

 objedl to flooding, but the writer has no objedlion to 

 charge against it so long as it is done in the right 

 manner. For flooding, the ground may be laid off in 



