288 GAKDEXLNG FOR THE SOUTH. 



your Early York cabbage; between the next two you can 

 raise all the Butter-lettuce you wish to set out for head- 

 ing. In the rows of beets themselves, you may sprinkle 

 a few radish seed; then a row of later head-lettuce, to- 

 matoes, 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 ht 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 trans- 

 planted 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 

 wurzel beet is much cultivated in some countries for 

 feeding 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 turnips are more promising. 



The Swiss Chard, or White Beet (Beta Cicla), is also 

 called the Sea Kale Beet. There are two varieties — the 

 white and the green — which receive their names from the 

 color of the foot-stalks of the leaves. Either of these is 

 good. The plant very much resembles the common beet, 

 but the leaves and their stalks are much larger, thicker, 

 more tender and succulent, and less capable of resisting 

 frost. 



The root of this plant is small, coarse, and of no value; 

 only the leaves and their stalks are employed, especially 

 the latter, which are cooked and eaten as asparagus. 



