THE SKIRRET. 



289 



esteemed till it has had a touch of the winter 

 cold. Pai't of tlie crop may be dug up and 

 covered witli sand for use in November, wliile 

 the rest will keep good in the ground till they 

 begin to shoot in the spring, when they may be 

 dug up in February or March, the tops cut off 

 and preserved in sand tiU the end of April. To 

 obtain the seed, transplant some of the best roots 

 in Febniary two feet asunder, inserted over the 

 crowns. They will shoot up in strong stalks, 

 and produce large umbels of seed ripening in 

 autumn. 



When tlie parsnip is grown upon poor land it 

 loses much of the rank taste which it acquires 

 if cultivated in richer soils, and though not nearly 

 so abundant, is far more sweet and agreeable. 

 Thus produced, when slowly roasted in the ashes 

 of peat or turf, it becomes nearly as farinaceous 

 as the best potatoes, and in some of the poorer 

 districts of the country is used with the same 

 additions as an article of substantive food. "In 

 the north of Scotland," Neill observes, "parsnips 

 are often beat up with potatoes and a little butter; 

 of this excellent mess the children of the peas- 

 antry are very fond, and they do not fail to thrive 

 upon it." From the same authority we learn 

 that in the north of Ireland an agreeable bever- 

 age is prepared from the roots brewed with hops. 

 In some places a species of wine is also made 

 from them, and a very pure spirit is obtained 

 when parsnips are distilled after a similar pre- 

 paratory process to tliat used with the can'ot. 

 In Catholic countries the parsnip is more abun- 

 dantly employed for human food than in Britain. 

 It was, however, formerly held in much greater 

 estimation here than it is at present. This root 

 is wholesome as well as hardy, but, as the soil 

 which is most favourable to its production as 

 human food, is also best adapted for the growth 

 of the potato, which is both more productive 

 and more nutritious than the parsnip, the cul- 

 ture of this plant as a culinary esculent, has de- 

 clined; and the use of it with salt fish in Lent 

 may perhaps be regarded more as the relic of an 

 old custom than as a choice arising from any 

 partiality for the peculiar flavour of the parsnip 

 in combination with this particular kind of 

 viand. 



According to Arthur Young, about the time 

 of the revolution, half the people about Slarlaise 

 in France, subsisted on parsnips, during winter, 

 boiled in soup and various other ways. They 

 also feed horses with them, and for this purpose 

 they are accounted as nourishing as oats. 



The nutritious matter in parsnips is found by 

 analysis to be ninety-nine parts in a thousand, 

 of wliich nine parts are mucilage, and the re- 

 maining ninety are saccharine matter. 



TuE Skirrm, (sium sisarum.) This is a 

 perennial tap-rooted plant, a native of China, 

 and introduced into tliis country about the year 



1548. It is of more diminutive size than either 

 the carrot or parsnip. It has pinnated leaves, 



and a stem twelve inches high, terminated by an 

 umbel of white flowers. The root consists of a 

 cluster of tubers about the size of the little finger; 

 at first they are small fibres, but swell out grad- 

 ually to this size. They are connected together 

 at the crown or head, and covered with a whit- 

 ish rough bark, with a hard cone or pith running 

 through the centre. They contain a mucilagin- 

 ous and saccharine matter, and were at one timo 

 much esteemed in cookery. The skirret is pro- 

 pagated either by seeds or offset's from the root. 

 Those raised from seed are the most ten- 

 der. The skiriet is one of those plants which 

 are now neglected, because we are become 

 acquainted with others more pleasant to the 

 taste, and more profitable in their culture. Its 

 peculiar sweetness, so delightful to the palates 

 of our less refined forefathers, to us appears nau- 

 seous lusciousness; and that root which the em- 

 peror Tiberius esteemed so much as to cause it 

 to be brought from the banks of the Rhine fo( 

 the use of his table, is little relished in the pre- 

 sent day. Beckmann ingeniously accounts for 

 this change of taste in the use of vegetable pro- 

 ductions. " In the oldest times mankind were 

 so fond of sweet things, that the goodness and 

 agreeable taste of every kind of food was deter- 

 mined according to the degree of its sweetness; 

 and such is tlie manner of judging, even at pre- 

 sent, throughout all the East, in Africa, and in 

 America. This is the case also among us witli 

 the greater part of the lower classes, who are 

 not able to follow the mode of richer tables. In 

 the northern countries this taste is almost every 

 where prevalent. Thus the Swedes spoil, by the 

 addition of sugar, costly Rhenish wines, sauer- 

 kraut, and other articles, the agreeable tartnesa 

 of which is gratifying to other nations. In pro- 

 portion to their population and luxury, the 

 Swedes seem to use more sugar than the Ger- 

 mans, and the Germans more than the English 

 2o 



