Garden and Sugar Beets and Mangels 53 



cate as Bassano, are of good quality, and, haviug the 

 desired deep red color, are popular both for the private 

 garden and for market. Amongst these are Wood^s 

 Crimson Globe, an early and attractive kind; Crosby^ s 

 Egyptian, an improved selection from the old Egyptian; 

 Philadelphia Early Tumi]), Maulers Blood Turnip and 

 various other excellent varieties of the blood turnip 

 type. The long blood -red types are later than the 

 round- and turnip -shaped varieties, but are better for 

 winter use on account of their keeping qualities. The 

 sugar varieties have been introduced principally from 

 Germany, where their saccharine properties have been 

 especially developed by most careful scientific selection 

 of the mother beets. They are uniformly of a light yel- 

 low color, to which most housewives object, but they 

 make a sweet and tender table beet. 



Mangels are cultivated in colder climates for winter 

 stock food, but in the South the seasons are so long that 

 they become woody before the weather becomes suffi- 

 ciently cool for storing. 



Beet seed may be planted in thoroughly prepared and 

 fertilized soil in the first open weather of early spring, 

 or they may be sown under glass and transplanted if a 

 very early crop is desired. If bottom heat is used to 

 force them, the soil must be not less than six inches 

 deep over the manure. If the manure is too near the 

 surface, instead of forming a continuous straight root, a 

 number of small branching roots will be produced where 

 it reaches the manure — what the gardeners call "fingers 

 and toes." In transplanting, a long dibble must be used, 

 and the root extended into the hole in its natural 



