VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 181 



Long Blood is the kind most grown for winter use. It 

 grows a foot or more in length, and four or five inches in 

 diameter, mostly beneath the earth. It is a good keeper 

 and very sweet. 



Early Long Blood resembles this ; but about half the 

 root is above ground, and if not gathered and stored 

 early, is more exposed to injury from frost. 



The London Horticultural Society, after a comparison 

 of many kinds, prefer the following : 



Nutting's Selected Dwarf Red. Leaves 9 to 12 inches 

 high, dark red. Roots, under ground, 9 inches around ; 

 flesh dark red, and when baked, deep crimson; of smooth, 

 close texture, sweet and well-flavored, of no earthy taste ; 

 the best sort. 



Short's Pineapple. Leaves 6 or 7 inches high, dark 

 purple stalks, tinged with dull orange. Roots 8 inches in 

 circumference; flesh, deep crimson. Baked, of a dull, 

 deep crimson, tender, mild, sweet, and well-flavored, but 

 with a slight earthy taste. Both these are small kinds. 

 The large-growing, coarse beets are never good. 



Culture. The beet, being a native of the sea-shore, 

 abounds in soda, which can be supplied, when deficient, 

 by an application of common salt the autumn before plant- 

 ing. This, and leached or unleached ashes, will afford 

 nearly all the inorganic elements of the crop. 



The main summer crop of beets should be planted when 

 the peach and plum are in full blossom. A few Bassano 

 or Early Turnip should be planted a few weeks earlier, 

 and of other kinds successive beds may be made whenever 

 the soil is in a suitable state, from January until the sum- 

 mer droughts come on. Advantage should be taken of 

 the rains that usually occur about the last of July, or 

 early in August, to put in a crop for winter. This crop 

 should be put in earlier the farther northward the locality. 

 At New York, the mam crop is planted as early as the 



