280 The Principles of Vegetable -Gardening 



but the later crop is sold in baskets or barrels. The 

 price depends much on the earliness and freshness of 

 the product. 



Sow in drills as soon as the ground is ready, and thin to 6-8 

 inches apart, using the thinnings for greens. The drills should be 

 far enough apart to admit of wheel-hoe tillage, 12-18 inches. 

 Field beets should be far enough apart for horse tillage. Five to 

 eight pounds of seed is required for an acre ; 1 ounce sows 75 to 

 100 feet of drill. Average crop is 300-400 bushels per acre. 



Good early and mid-season beets are Egyptian, Bassano, 

 Eclipse, Bastian, Columbia, Edmand. A standard winter variety 

 is Long Blood. There are many other good varieties. 



The beet has descended from Beta vulgaris, one of the Cheno- 

 podiaceae, and which is a perennial herb of the seacoasts of Eu- 

 rope. It has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years. The 

 thick root is the result of domestication. The beet is grown both 

 for its foliage and root. The thick-rooted form which we know 

 as beet is called beet- root in England. Of foliage beets there are 

 two types: chard, used for greens ; ornamental beets, used in 

 flower gardens and lawns for their bright and colored foliage. Of 

 root beets there are three types: garden beets; mangel -wurzels, 

 or stock beets; sugar beets. The cultivated beet has very little 

 resemblance to its wild prototype. For an accessible horticultural 

 history of the beet, see Sturtevant, Amer. Nat., 1887, pp. 433-436. 



In 1889 (Annals Hort.), 42 varieties of garden beet and 31 of 

 mangels were offered by American seedsmen. In 1887, Goff re- 

 duced the garden beets to 23 varieties (6th Rep. N. Y. State Exp. 

 Sta., pp. 120-132). The classification was based on shape and 

 color : 



A. Boot oblate or top -shaped. 



B. Color red. 

 BB. Color yellow. 

 AA. Boot oval. 



(Color as above.) 

 AAA. Root half-long. 



(Color as above.) 

 Root long-conical. 

 (Color divisions.) 



