174 



CULINARY OE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



survive the frost, they would be hard and 

 stringy compared with such as are grown 

 rapidly on a mild bottom temperature ; 

 and, indeed, apart from their quality, 

 what with covering and uncovering during 

 winter, the cost in labour would be as 

 much, if not more, than would attend 

 their production in a heated pit or frame. 

 Radishes grown in artificial heat require 

 abundance of ventilation, and as little 

 exclusion from the light by coverings as 

 possible. The temperature should range 

 from 48° to 58°, but may be increased to 

 70° with impunity; and tepid water should 

 be frequently applied, for the radish is 

 fond of moisture; but pouring cold water 

 upon them, or any other forced vegetable, 

 during winter, when the soil is already 

 too cold, is extremely injurious. 



Subsequent cultivation. — In the open air, 

 radishes require protection during win- 

 ter, either by the means practised by the 

 London market-gardeners stated above, 

 or by other means, such as hooping the 

 beds over and covering with mats, &c., 

 all of which we think are far behind the 

 conditions of the present age. If they 

 are wanted during that period, glass as 

 a covering should be employed; and 

 where that is the case, either a tanked 

 pit, or frames placed over vegetable mat- 

 ter in a state of fermentation, may be em- 

 ployed ; the latter of itself, when broken 

 down by decay, will, as a valuable ma- 

 nure, repay the expense of collecting and 

 working. ' 



Soil and manure. — The soil should be 

 deep, light, and mellow, and thoroughly 

 pulverised by deep digging or forking, 

 without which radishes will ever be hard 

 and unfit for use, and this is more especi- 

 ally the case with the long or spindle- 

 rooted kinds. Strachan, a writer in " The 

 Horticultural Society's Transactions," vol. 

 iii., p. 438, observes on this subject, " The 

 character of a good long-rooted radish is 

 to have its root straight, long, free from 

 fibres, not tapering too suddenly, and 

 especially to be fully formed on the top, 

 or well shouldered as it is called, and 

 without a long neck; the roots should be 

 ready to draw while the leaves are quite 

 small, whence the name of 'short-top 

 radish ; ' and if they soon attain a, proper 

 size, and also force well, they are then 

 called earlj/ and frame radishes." To at- 

 tain these properties the soil should be 



light and rich, but not made so by i-ecent 

 manuring, unless of a very decomposed 

 description. 



Taking the crop and subsequent preserva- 

 tion. — Radishes are gathered day by day, 

 and hence serve the purpose of thinning ; 

 still they should on no account be sown 

 thick ; but, supposing the seed good, the 

 plants at germinating should stand 1 inch 

 or 1^ inches apart. The strongest-leaved 

 ones, therefore, may be taken as the 

 largest, but not always the best root ; 

 these should be drawn first. When col- 

 lected and in the vegetable-house, they 

 should be washed quite clean, the thready 

 fibres, where they exist, cut close off, also 

 a small part of the tips of the root, and 

 all the leaves removed excepting two or 

 three of the last-formed ones on the 

 crown, which should be retained. Care 

 must, however, be taken that the roots 

 do not become too old and hard ; a good 

 criterion is to break them over, and if the 

 parts separate freely, then they are fit for 

 use; but if they do not, then they are too 

 old for salad purposes. The winter or 

 Spanish kinds should be dug up about 

 the beginning of November, deprived of 

 their tops, and pitted like potatoes, or 

 buried in sand in the root-cellar. This 

 sand, however, should not be too dry, for 

 reasons given elsewhere. 



Approved sorts and their qualities. — An excel- 

 lent paper on the classification of radishes will 

 be found in the 4th vol. of the " Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society," p. 13. By this 

 arrangement they are divided into three classes, 

 namely, Spring and Summer ki>ids,Autumn kinds, 

 and Winter radishes. 



The Spring and Summer Mnds consist of scar- 

 let or salmon-coloured — and its sub-varieties, 

 short-topped scarlet, and early-frame scarlet; 

 and to these we may add, as improvements on 

 the originals. Wood's early frame, not very long, 

 but very early, and well calculated for forcing ; 

 Beck's superb short-top, a long-rooted variety, 

 of good shape and colour, with leaves particu- 

 larly small; long white Naples, an improvement 

 on the old long white cultivated in Gerard's 

 time — a very good variety,and esteemed bysome 

 on account of its semi-transparent white colour. 

 Purple-rooted only grown as affording a variety 

 in point of colour. 



Of turnip-rooted sorts we have the white and 

 red; and of these some sub-varieties, particu- 

 larly of the latter — such as the pink, rose- 

 coloured, scarlet, and crimson, which are mere 

 shades of difference in colour. The scarlet olive- 

 shaped, a quick grower, tender, and considered 

 rather milder than most other sorts. There is 

 a grey turnip-rooted sort grown by some; we 

 have found it to be merely a dirty white, and 



