40 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



drill it is necessary to recollect that seed varies greatly 

 in size. American-grown seed is much larger than that 

 which, is imported. And Egyptian Blood Turnip is 

 nearly always a small inferior looking seed. 



Our garden drills have a hole for sowing beet seed, but 

 this hole would either sow the Egyptian too thick or the 

 Bassano, or Dewing's Blood Turnip, or the Long Smooth 

 Ked much too thin. If the seed is good, it is not neces- 

 sary to drop more than one seed to every inch of row. Of 

 course it is not necessary to sow even so thick as this, 

 but it is better and safer to sow three or four times more 

 than you need, rather than to run the risk of having the 

 crops too thin. 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



Mangel Wurzels are simply large beets grown for cattle, 

 sheep, and swine. Any one who can raise beets in the 

 garden can raise Mangel Wurzels in the field. All there 

 is to be done is to make the land as rich in the field and 

 keep it as clean and mellow as you do in the garden. 

 It would be a good thing, however, to sow a few Mangel 

 Wurzels in the garden until you became familiar with its 

 habit of growth. I onco had a farmer's son hoeing 

 Mangels for me in the field, and I had the greatest diffi- 

 culty in persuading him to thin them out sufficiently. 

 The plants were very small and he wanted to leave them 

 about an inch apart in the row, while I wanted him to 

 leave only a single good plant to every foot of the row. 

 The land was rich and we had moist, growing weather, 

 and in less than a month the plants, though a foot apart 

 in the row, completely covered the ground. " I had no 

 idea that such little bits of things could grow so rapidly," 

 he said. Had his father encouraged him to sow a few 

 Mangel Wurzels in the garden he would have known 

 better. 



