VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTUKE. 287 



will answer for theui if deeply and thoroughly worked 

 and well manured. This is necessary with all tap-rooted 

 plants, and especially with the beet. Beet seed is some- 

 what slow in vegetating, and the later sowings may be 

 soaked in water twenty-four hours before planting, and 

 the drills well watered upon the seed, which is then cov- 

 ered with light soil pressed gently upon the seed — a good 

 method of planting all summer crops. Make the beds 

 four or four and a half feet wide, for convenience of culti- 

 vating; spade them up at least a foot deep — eighteen 

 inches is still better; mix in a good supply of well-rotted 

 manure throughout, if the ground requires it. Rake the 

 ground even and smooth, and mark out the rows twelve 

 inches apart across the bed; draw the drills an inch and a 

 half or two inches deep, in which drop the seed two inches 

 apart, and press the earth gently upon it. When the 

 plants are up, thin them to eight or nine inches apart, fill 

 any vacancies by transplanting, and keep the ground 

 around them loose and free from weeds until matured. 



In planting crops of beets, carrots, and parsnips, partic- 

 ularly the two latter, sprinkle a few radish seeds, if you 

 like, and the ground is rich, in the rows to distinguish 

 them. The radishes will be up in a week, and the ground 

 can be hoed or weeded without any danger of destroying 

 the 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 thor- 

 oughly manured. Mark out your rows for the beets, and 

 between the first two draw a drill in which you can sow 



