110 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



With, dwarf culture, sow the seed in a similar 

 manner, and at a similar date, three feet asunder in 

 the rows. Mould up the young plants so soon as 

 the third leaf shows. Im- 

 mediately a shoot is seen 

 to spring forth from 

 amongst the young leaves, 

 take its head off, and as fast 

 as duplicate shoots or 

 laterals form, treat them 

 similarly. Do not neglect 

 to do this throughout the 

 whole season of growth. 

 The handiest way is to walk 

 along the rows with a sharp 

 long-handled knife, and to 

 behead each with a swing 

 of the knife. To secure 

 successional crops perma- 

 nently, it is desirable, after 

 pods are once formed, to 

 gather such as are fit for 

 use twice a week; indeed, 

 if the x5ods are left any 

 time ungathered it destroys their 

 edible qualities very materially. The 

 full summer culture consists solely 

 in preventing weeds from growing 

 amongst the crops. By keeping them 

 well hoed during the month of June, 

 however, little outlay of labour beyond 

 is requisite. 



With regard to varieties, the old 

 scarlet - flowered, and white - flowered 

 Dutch, are of equal merit. Painted 

 Lady is slightly more tender than 

 either. There are improved, longer- 

 podded varieties of the two former in 

 commerce, viz., Scarlet Champion, 

 Princess (a stringless variety), and 

 Mont d'Or, the Butter Bean, possess- 

 ing yellow pods. 



Beet [Beta vulgar is). French, Bet- 

 teravc ; G^exmoji, Runl-el Rube ; Spanish, 

 Betteraga. — Beet, a name derived from 

 the Celtic for red, in reference to the 

 colour of the roots of this species, is 

 nevertheless the name in use also for 

 the white species, to which reference 

 ■\stI1 be presently made. It is a vegetable root of 

 some moment, both for comestible purposes and for 

 the manufacture of sugar — an industry, new that 

 science has found means to eliminate certain ob- 

 jectionable adherents to its saccharine projperties, 

 likely to be greatly increased. 



"White Beet 



Eed Beet. 



Its culture is both simple and easy upon soils 

 suited to it. These consist of such as are light and 

 sandy, which should be well dug up during the 

 autumn months, and left 

 roughly exposed to the 

 influences of frost during 

 winter. At the time of 

 digging, place a good layer 

 of manure about eight or 

 ten inches deep. This is 

 easily done by deep and 

 clean digging alone. A 

 good open trench should be 

 kept, and after each spit- 

 ful, manure should be 

 placed in the bottom 

 from whence each is taken. 

 Early in the month of May 

 of the spring following^ 

 the space should be lightly 

 forked over in such a 

 manner as not to interfere 

 with, the manure below. 

 In doing so, break the soil 

 lip finely and level it neatl}-. A 

 dry period should be chosen for 

 this OjDeration. Drill sowing is the 

 niodo best adapted. The drill rows 

 .sliould be from nine inches to a 

 foot ajoart, and two inches in 

 depth. The seeds, which are some- 

 what large, should be dropped 

 into the drills at distances of about 

 three inches apart, so as to insure 

 a "good plant." When the 

 plants have attained three or four 

 leaves, thin them out in the rows 

 to six or eight inches apart, dib- 

 bling in an occasional strong plant 

 which has been removed in pro- 

 cess of thinning, into all vacant 

 spaces, should any seeds happen 

 to have failed so as to occasion 

 such. From thence, throughout the 

 whole of the summer months, give 

 such periodical hoeings as will 

 suffice to keep the soil loose and 

 fresh, and thoroughly eradicate all 

 symptoms of weeds. Great care 

 must be taken during the hoeing 

 not to cut and so injure the sides of the roots which, 

 are forming, not an infrequent occurrence when 

 clumsy workmen are employed. 



It is important to take up and harvest this croi> 

 before any symptoms of frost occur in the early 

 autumn, else will danger of actual injury exist, and 



