VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 319 



that will accelerate growth will soon place the crop out 

 of danger from these little insects. Some sow radish seed 

 with turnips, as the flea prefers the young radish leaf. If 

 they once attack the plants, dusting them with lime ashes 

 and soot is sometimes useful, but when in great numbers, 

 it is scarcely possible to save the young crop. 



To Save /Seed. — Select a few of the best roots, shorten 

 the tap-root, and plant them two feet apart. Tie the 

 stalks to stakes, and keej} them at a distance from all other 

 members of the cabbage tribe. Seed of the turnip should 

 be changed every few years, as the plant degenerates. It 

 keeps three years. 



Use. — This is one of those useful vegetables, that can be 

 eirj oyed with everything. The tops gathered in winter and 

 spring make the greens so much prized by us all in early 

 spring. The roots are wholesome, though they disagree 

 with some stomachs. They are considerably nutritious 

 also ; four ounces of White Dutch containing eighty-five 

 grains of nutritive matter, and four ounces of Ruta Baga 

 containing one hundred and ten grains of the same. Any 

 over-supply of this crop may be fed with great advantage 

 to cows and swine. 



WATEE CHESS.— {Nasturtium officinale.) 



This is a hardy, perennial, English, Cruciferous plant, 

 growing in running streams. There is but one variety in 

 use. 



The Water-cress likes a clear, cool, running stream, 

 fresh issuing from a spring, the nearer its source the bet- 

 ter, with the water about an inch and a half deep, with 

 a sandy or gravelly bottom. It must, of course, at first 

 be raised from seed, which can be sprinkled at the source 



