v.] 



TURNIP. 



137 



way : a plant or two would be sufficient for a garden, and when 

 once it had taken root, it would remain there for a life-time. 



194. TARRAGON is a very hot, peppery herb, used in soups 

 and salads. It is perennial, and may be propagated from seed 

 sowed at any time in the spring, or from offsets put out in either 

 spring or fall. Its young and tender tops only are used. It is 

 eaten with beef-steaks in company with minced shalots. A man 

 may doubtless live very well without it ; but an orthodox clergy- 

 man once told me that he and six others once ate some beef- 

 steaks with shalots and tarragon, and that they " voted, unani- 

 mously, that beef-steaks never were so eaten !" If you will have 

 it in winter, you must dry it in the manner directed for sage and 

 other herbs. 



195. THYME. — There are two distinct sorts of this popular 

 and most fragrant herb. One is called common thyme, and the 

 other lemon thyme ; both are perennial, both may be propagated 

 from seed, but both may also be propagated from offsets or part- 

 ings of the roots, and this is the easiest way. The winter some- 

 times destroys thyme. Some of both sorts should be preserved for 

 winter use, cut at the same stage as is directed for the sage ; and, 

 as in the case of all other herbs, cut when perfectly dry, and dried 

 in the shade, in some place where it receives no wet either from 

 rains or dews during the drying. 



196. TOMATUM. — This plant comes from countries border- 

 ing on the Mediterranean. Of sorts there are the i^ed, the yellow, 

 and the white. The fruit is used for various purposes, and is sold 

 at a pretty high price. The plants must be raised in a gentle 

 hot-bed pretty. earrly in April, or late in March, put into small pots 

 when they are two inches high, and turned out into the natural 

 ground about the first week in June ; but even then they must be 

 put on the south side of a wall, or in some other warm and shel- 

 tered situation. If close to a wall, their runners may be trained 

 up it by the means of shreds, when the leaves and fruit make a very 

 beautiful appearance. If not close to a wall, there must be sticks 

 put to train the vines up and to tie them to. The ground in which 

 they are planted should be kept very clean, and frequently stirred 

 about them. If you intend to save the seed, you should have a 

 plant or two very early placed against a south wall. 



197. TURNIP. — I am here to speak of turnips to be cultivated 

 in a garden for table use, and not to be cultivated in a field for the 

 use of cattle : but as the Swedish turnip or nita haga, yields most 



