THE BEET. 



301 



which scraped into shreds is a well known ac- 

 companiment to English roast beef; it is also 

 used in winter salads and in sauces. Horse rad- 

 ish thrives best in deep soft sandy loam, that is 

 not very dry in summer, nor inundated in win- 

 ter. The situation must be open. Two modes 

 of cultivating it have been detailed by Messrs. 

 Knight and Judd. Both agree in trenching the 

 soil to a considerable depth, and putting the 

 manure at the bottom of the trench ; but Knight 

 plants the sets on the surface, and calculates on 

 the root that strikes down to the dung for pro- 

 duce. Judd, on the other hand, makes holes 

 quite to the bottom of his trenched soil, and in 

 each drops a set, filling up the hole with wood 

 ashes, rotten tan, or sand, calculating for produce 

 on the shoot made from the set at the bottom of 

 the hole up through the sand or ashes to the 

 surface. Judd's mode is the most ingenious, and 

 appears the best ; but either will do extremely 

 well. A moist soil increases the bitter and al- 

 kaline flavour of this and all the cmciferse. 

 Horse radish forms an agreeable and wholesome 

 condiment, at the same time serving as a veget- 

 able adjunct to animal food, and affords a power- 

 ful stimulant to the digestive organs. 



"We have thus enumerated the principa'lnerbs 

 belonging to the family cruciferm which are used 

 as the food of man; to these we subjoin a few 

 other vegetables not belonging to the same family, 

 but allied to them in their utility and habits. 



The Beet (heta cicla, B. maritima), a hardy 

 biennial, belonging to the natural order cheno- 

 podem, including also the spinage, and to the class 

 pentandria, order digt/nia, of Linnaeus. The sea 

 beet is a native of the British coasts, but is not 

 very common. There are several varieties of 

 the common beet. 



The beet was known as an esculent root in 

 the time of Pliny, who has given an accurate 

 description of it in his work. The period when 

 this plant was first introduced into Britain as a 

 garden vegetable is not ascertained. It was cul- 

 tivated at Lambeth, by Tradescant the younger, 

 in 1656 ; but there is no reason for supposing 

 that he was the first cultivator ; on the contrary, 

 it is more than probable that the beet was 

 brought into this country by the Romans, and 

 that it has continued since that period to be an 

 object of partial cultivation. 



The cultivated beets, in aU their varieties, are 

 plants of the same duration, and nearly of the 

 same habits, as turnips. They are sown in the 

 early part of the summer, bulb towards the close 

 of the season, and, if allowed to stand, send up 

 their flowering stems, and ripen their seeds in 

 the following year. 



The variety which has its root red throughout 

 its whole substance is most used in England for 

 culinary purposes. This plant is said to be a 

 native of the warmer coimtries of Europe ; but 



it is sufficiently hardy to bear the climate of 

 most parts of Britain. The root is in the form 

 of a carrot, but thicker in proportion to its 

 length, those of a foot long often being three or 

 four inches in diameter. It is very juicy, and, 

 when wounded, bleeds freely a limpid fluid of a 

 beautiful purple colour. The leaves are large, 

 long, and succulent, and generally have a red or 

 purple tinge. When eaten warm, beet-root has 

 rather a mawkish flavour ; it is, therefore, usu- 

 ally eaten cold, cut in slices, after having been 

 previously boiled, and with the addition of vine- 

 gar is by some persons found agreeable to the 

 palate. Its culture, as an esculent, has not, how- 

 ever, increased of late years, and it is not gene- 

 rally a favourite vegetable for the table; although, 

 according to Sir H. Davy's analysis, it contains 

 much more nutritive matter than any other root 

 excepting the potato, the total quantity being 

 one hundred and forty-eight parts in a thousand, 

 or nearly fifteen per cent. Nearly twelve per 

 cent, of the whole weight of the beet is saccha- 

 rine matter, which is a much greater proportion 

 than is contained in any other European escu- 

 lent. The quantity contained in the red and 

 the white beet is nearly the same ; the propor- 

 tion of mucilage in each is likewise almost equal, 

 the red having rather the advantage, while it has 

 nearly three times as much gluten as the white. 

 From this account of its composition it would 

 appear that the red beet is the most nourishing 

 of all the edible roots, the potato alone excepted. 



In a country like Britain, where, with the 

 bulk of the people, vegetables are esteemed for 

 their agreeable flavour, rather than for their nu- 

 tritive qualities, the superiority of the beet, in 

 the latter respect, is disregarded, and those roots 

 which are considered more savoury obtain the 

 preference. 



The white beet is seldom, if ever, used as hu- 

 man food, but is largely cultivated for the nour- 

 ishment of domestic animals, and is preferred for 

 this purpose to the turnip or carrot, especially in 

 the vicinity of populous towns. The field-tur- 

 nip is esculent when young ; the carrot is so in 

 all stages of its growth ; and, therefore, when 

 grown amid a thick population, they form a 

 great temptation to petty depredators, by which 

 the farmer finds this provender for his cattle 

 much diminished. The field-beet, however, af- 

 fords no allurement to the hungry plunderer, as 

 starvation itself could scarcely induce him to 

 make a meal of this harsh, coarse root, previously 

 to its being subjected to culinary preparation, 

 and even then it would prove a most unpalatable 

 repast. When cows are fed with the beet, it is 

 said that they yield a greater quantity of milk 

 in consequence ; and this food does not impart 

 any of that rank flavour which is communicated 

 by turnips. 



There are several varieties of the field-beet j 



