140 VARIETIES OF PARSNIPS. 



other animals they are likewise of the first importance. Cows give 

 more and richer milk, and their butter is of a better taste and color 

 when fed on this root. They fatten sheep, pigs, and oxen in a short 

 time. For ship's stores no vegetable is better. They should be boiled 

 from 30 to 40 minutes in water seasoned with salt, or with salt pork, 

 which is better, and then mashed and fried in butter. In parts of Ire- 

 land they are used for brewing, with hops, an agreeable beer or bever- 

 age. Their seeds are used for intermittent fevers. 



There are but few varieties. The Guernsey parsnip is an im- 

 proved variety of the common kind, and the large Dutch, or headed - f 

 it is now much cultivated. They should not be dug too early. They 

 are kept good in dry sand under cover, or left in the ground till spring. 

 The average crop is 24 tons to the acre. They are said to render the 

 flesh of fattening cattle delicately white. From a species on the shores 

 of the Mediterranean is obtained a gum which is celebrated in the East 

 for curing all diseases. The variety with which milch cows are fed 

 in some places is called Coquaine; they run 4 feet deep, but are not 

 over 6 inches in diameter. Parsnips are sowed in drills, in March, 

 with room to admit of stirring the soil, and then thinned to 12 inches, 

 with the usual subsequent culture, and gathered in Oct. They are 

 housed as carrots, or as required, they not being easily injured by 

 frosts. No insect injures them, and they require little manure. They 

 do not impoverish the soil, and often improve annually in quantity for 

 30 years on the same soil. They will continue to grow till winter. 

 They should not be wounded, nor should the tops be taken off close. 

 They should be kept in an out-house, not in a warm cellar. Cultivat- 

 ed for domestic animals, horse-hoeing husbandry is applied. They 

 are much sown in autumn as a second crop. 



But one or two varieties are generally cultivated, though there are 

 many sub-varieties. The 3 varieties of Guernsey and French are the 

 Coquaine Lisbonaiae and Siarn. The first we have noticed ; the 2d 

 is shorter, but thicker and of the same quality, with short and small 

 leaves upon the crown. The third has not so large a root, but is more 

 tender and of richer flavor than the others. The Guernsey is now 

 much cultivated in the west, but it degenerates if the seed is not care- 

 fully kept from other varieties. The parsnip requires a deep, free 

 soil ; the seed is often sown broad-cast, and afterwards merely kept 

 free from weeds. It is pulled when the leaf decays and stored in 

 sand, or may remain in the soil through the winter without injury. 

 In very rich soil, it acquires a rank taste, but is more abundant. A 

 light soil, dug 18 inches deep, is best. Roasted in the ashes of peat, 

 it is as farinaceous as the best potato, and is much used as a 

 substitute for it. In some places, also, it is beaten up with the potato 

 and butter, and is thus nutritive and wholesome. Its cultivation, 

 however, has somewhat declined, for human food j since it requires the 



