52 Southern Gardener's Practical Manual 



and tomatoes, and boiled with corn make a favorite dish 

 known on southern tables as succotash. The dry beans 

 stored for winter, soaked over night and boiled and then 

 baked with pork as Boston beans, are equal, if not 

 superior, to the latter. 



BEETS 



This delicious vegetable has been a favorite occupant 

 of the private garden for many centuries, and is also a 

 profitable market crop, both with the local trucker and 

 the shipper. It is found along the seashore in southern 

 Europe and western Asia, and is also said to have been 

 grown for its beautiful red roots before its edible quali- 

 ties were developed. 



There seem to be three species in cultivation, viz.: 

 The common garden beet, the mangels, grown princi' 

 pally for stock and for making sugar, and the Swiss 

 chard, which is grown for its leaves, as the thick- 

 ened midribs of the leaves are used as a substitute 

 for asparagus. There are numerous excellent garden 

 varieties varying in shape, color and earliness, but all 

 are good. 



Early Bassano is one of the oldest, earliest, most 

 tender and sweetest, but, being of comparatively light 

 color which it loses in boiling, it is objected to by some 

 on this account. Downing is credited with having said, 

 "It is the sweetest, most tender and delicate of all 

 beets." It should be planted as first early and some 

 weeks before the general crop. There is quite a list of 

 blood turnip varieties which, while not so sweet or deli- 



