VEGETABLES PAESXIP. 



Plain. Of this variety the leaves are plain. It is har- 

 dier, however, than any of the curled sorts. 



Eiamtmrg, or Turnip-Rooted. A fleshy-rooted kind, 

 the roots of which are used for flavoring soups. 



P ARSNIP, (Pastinaca sativa. ) 



Of late years our market garden grounds have become 

 too valuable to be used in growing this vegetable, the 

 competition from well cultivated farm lands having 

 brought it down below our paying level. Its cultivation 

 is, in all respects, similar to the Carrot. The soil most 

 suitable is a deep and sandy loam, moderately enriched. 

 It is sown rather thickly in our gardens in early spring, 

 in rows which are about twelve or fourteen inches apart ; 

 on farm lands at eighteen or twenty inches, or wide 

 enough for the rows to be worked between by the horse 

 cultivator. Like all vegetables of this nature, it must be 

 thinned out to a distance of about three or four inches 

 between the plants, and our oft-repeated caution about 

 weeds is here again enjoined. Parsnips are used almost 

 exclusively in winter, but in our Northern States what is 

 wanted for winter use must be dug up in fall, and packed 

 away in the manner described under the head of " Pre- 

 serving Vegetables in Winter." What are wanted for 

 sale or use in spring, are best left in the bed where they 

 grew, being entirely hardy in our coldest districts. 

 About one-half is usually dug up and pitted in fall for 

 sale in winter, and the other half left over for spring. 

 But it sometimes happens that the winter supply is ex- 

 hausted before the frost is out of the ground in spring 

 sufficiently to permit of their being dug, and when pro- 

 curable at such times, they command almost fabulous 



