400 



GARDEN FARMING 



the plants will not become drawn or in any way weakened from 

 too high a temperature or too small an amount of moisture in the 

 soil. With careful attention to the details of the cultivation of this 

 crop, a skillful grower should be able to harvest a crop in from 

 twenty-one to thirty days after the seed is sown. 



Marketing the forced crop. Forced radishes should not reach 

 the market before Thanksgiving time, as there is little demand for 

 them earlier than this. Plantings should, therefore, be made during 

 the last days of October or the first of November, so that the crop 

 will not mature until the last of November or the first of December. 

 Forced radishes should be tied in small bunches containing 3 to 

 5 plants and arranged in the most attractive manner possible. 



FIG. 148. Types of field and forcing radishes 



i, 2, flat, or turnip-shaped ; 3, 4, globular ; 5, 6, olive- 

 shaped ; 7, 8, half-long ; 9, 10, long 



Insects and diseases. The radish is 

 subject to comparatively few diseases 

 that are of any importance. It suffers slightly during the devel- 

 opment of its seed pods from a rust, but to the commercial grower 

 of radishes for market this is of no significance except in so far 

 as it affects the vitality of the seed. The chief drawback to the 

 cultivation of radishes in the open is the cabbage maggot, which 

 frequently infests both radish and cabbage roots, injuring them so 

 that the product is seriously damaged, and in extreme cases totally 

 destroyed. The radish is also frequently attacked by a flea beetle 

 just as it appears above the surface of the ground. This little 

 beetle defoliates the plant by sucking the juice from the leaves, 

 causing them to wither and die. This enemy is most successfully 

 combated by the use of tobacco dust or wood ashes scattered over 



