No. 4.] ROOT CROPS. 145 



round radish. This crop is usually planted as a companion crop, 

 a filler among the slower gxowing, coarser crops, and requires little 

 cultivation beyond that necessary to properly prepare the ground. 

 Radishes can be readily grown to marketable size in three weeks 

 from the time of planting, and make a sufficiently rapid growth to 

 keep ahead of the weeds. 



There are two principal types of the short-season radish offered 

 by the seed trade. They are the round radish and the olive shaped. 

 The round type is the more popular and Scarlet Globe is the stand- 

 ard market variety. As is the case with most vegetable crops there 

 is a wide variation in the quality and uniformity of the crop raised 

 from different strains of the same variety. It is very important to 

 obtain high quality seed and no person can safely economize by buy- 

 ing cheap seed. 



The demand for radishes is most brisk in the early spring, but a 

 moderate sale can be found for them throughout the summer season. 

 The market price varies from 5 cents per dozen bunches to 20 cents 

 per dozen, with an average between 10 and 15 cents. Radishes can 

 be raised at a good profit at 12 cents a dozen where labor can be 

 obtained that will bunch them cheaply. The cost of bunching should 

 not exceed 2 cents per dozen. 



In order to have a constant supply of radishes successive sowings 

 must be made throughout the season, at intervals of about a week. 

 The best rule is to sow seed when the lot preceding has gotten above 

 ground. The sowings are then somewhat regulated by weather con- 

 ditions, which vary the rate of growth. For the Boston market 

 radishes are bunched from 7 to 12 per bunch, and packed roots up 

 in bushel boxes, averaging about sixty bunches per box. It is not 

 good policy to follow one crop of radishes with another, but better 

 I^raetice to raise each crop on different ground. 



The only serious pest of radishes is the root maggot, which does 

 much damage in early spring. It is often the ease that one or two 

 sowings are complete failures because of this pest. There is com- 

 paratively little trouble from this insect later in the season. There 

 is no remedy known. 



There is some sale for a large white radish, among some of the 

 foreign trade, during the summer. The varieties usually grown are 

 the Large White Globe and White Strasburg. There is little market 

 for these radishes outside the big cities. 



Onions. 

 While onions are not a root crop, properly speaking, they are 

 treated somewhat similarly, and may well be considered in such an 

 article as the present. As grown by market gardeners they are logi- 

 cally classed with the crops just considered, and are handled in a 

 very similar manner. The market gardener finds a sale for onions 



