PARSNIPS 113 



help to break the crust, and will also mark the row more plainly 

 so that cultivation may begin early. The soil should be very 

 fine and somewhat sandy to prevent baking. The addition of 

 humus is very helpful to the crop. The seed bed should be very 

 thoroughly prepared and very level. The seed is drilled in rows 

 18 inches apart, or double rows may be placed two feet apart. An 

 ounce of seed will plant one hundred feet of row. As the carrots 

 need thinning the larger specimens may be pulled for table use. 

 Careful, close tillage is important at the very start. The crop 

 will stand considerable frost, and planting may be done in very 

 early spring. The later plants may be left in the garden during 

 the fall or until needed on open winter days. Freezing of the 

 ground will injure the crowns somewhat, but many of the roots 

 will endure this ordeal. The roots may be pulled in the fall 

 and piled in heaps covered with sufficient soil to make them easily 

 accessible during the winter season. 



Parsnips. — This is a very hardy crop; indeed it will stand much 

 freezing of the ground in the fall and winter. The edible roots 

 are made sweeter by some freezing. The seed should be planted in 

 the open garden in very early spring. Parsnips do not transplant 

 readily. The seed is slow in sprouting and should be soaked before 

 planting. Very old seeds should not be used. Scatter in the 

 row a few seeds of radish or turnip to help break the crust of the 

 ground for the parsnips and also to mark the row before the 

 parsnips begin to show. The drill rows may be eighteen to twenty 

 inches apart, or double rows may be two or three feet apart if 

 horse tillage is to be used. A row of parsnips with a row of salsify a 

 few inches apart from it is a good form of double row, as both of 

 these crops can be left in the garden until winter. One ounce of 

 seed will plant one hundred feet of drill. 



Good varieties are Early Round, Guernsey, Yellow Crown. The. 

 plant is a biennial and should not be used after growth begins the 

 second year. A poisonous product is apt to form which injures' 

 some people. The second year's growth may be left in the garden 

 to form seeds if desired. Give the crop clean, deep thorough culti- 

 vation and keep it growing throughout the whole summer. Thin- 

 ning is usually necessary; this should be done when the plants are 

 forming their third and fourth pairs of leaves. Leave the plants at 

 least two inches apart in the row. It is best to plant the parsnips 

 at one side of the garden where they will not be in the way of the 

 summer succession of quick-maturing crops. 

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