VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 183 



ihe young plants. Drills can also be made between every 

 two rows of beets, making a drill every six inches, which 

 can also be sown with radishes or lettuce plants, which 

 can thus be grown abundantly between other crops with- 

 out loss of room. But a rich soil is required to bring 

 forward both crops to perfection. 



For early beets it is well to prepare a good bed under 

 glass in which the rows should be marked out a foot apart. 

 The ground should be deeply spaded and thoroughly ma- 

 nured. Mark out your rows for the beets, and between 

 the first two draw a drill in which you can sow your early 

 York cabbage ; between the next two you can raise all the 

 Butter-lettuce you wish to set out for heading. In the 

 rows of beets themselves, you may sprinkle a few radish 

 seed; then a row of later head-lettuce, tomatoes, egg 

 plant, peppers, etc. The drills retained for the beets should 

 be sown in this climate with the Bassano beet about the 

 tenth of January. By the time the hard frosts are over, 

 the beets, cabbages, etc., will be fit to transplant. Thin 

 out to six inches apart, planting out those pulled up in the 

 open ground. In transplanting the beet, a deep hole 

 should be made with a dibble, and the root not bent. 

 Those that remain in the bed will soon come into use, and 

 by the time they are gone, the transplanted ones will come 

 on for a succession. 



The winter crop should be secured as soon as the first 

 killing frosts occur, as the sweetness is lost by remaining 

 in the soil. The roots should be taken up, dried a little, 

 and stored away in casks with layers of dry sand, where 

 they will keep in good condition until spring. The mangel 

 wurtzel beet is much cultivated in some countries for feed- 

 ing stock, and is very good for the table when young and 

 tender, but in our long season it loses its sweetness before 

 winter. Here the sweet potato, rutabaga, and other tur- 

 nips, are more promising. 



