40 



BEET. 



leaves, tanner's bark, &c. without deriving therefrom the 

 disagreeable flavour complpJned of. 



BEET. — Beta. — Among the more common varieties of 

 this valuable vegetable are. 



French sugar, or amber beet^ 

 Mangel wurtzel, 

 Green — for stews or soupS; 

 Yellow turnip-rooted, 



Early blood turnip-rooted, 

 Early dweirf blood, 

 Earl^^ white scarcity, 

 Long blood red. 



Sown from April to June. The early turnip blood beet 

 is the earliest, and of excellent quality for summer use ; the 

 tops being good for boiling as greens. Mr. Loudon's direc- 

 tions for the general culture of the beet are as follow : — 



^' Seed and soil. — The beet is always raised from seed, 

 and for a bed four feet and a half by twelve feet, one ounce 

 i« requisite. The soil in which it naturally delights is a 

 deep, rich sand, dry and light, rather than moist. So\^'ing in 

 seed beds, and transplanting, has been tried ; but, though it 

 may answer for the spinage or pot-herb beets, [white, and 

 its varieties,] it will not answer where the object is a large, 

 clean root. 



" Sowing, — The beet is sown annually the last week of 

 March, or beginning of April, [in the northern United States, 

 the main crop should be delayed till the middle of May.] 

 The ground on which it is sown should have been previ- 

 ously enriched by mellow compost and sea sand ; but rank 

 dung is not to be laid in, as it is apt to induce canker. For 

 the long-rooted kind, trench to the depth of eighteen inches. 

 Sow either broad-cast on the rough surface, and rake well 

 into the earth ; or, as the seed is large, sow in drills an inch 

 or two deep and a foot asunder ; or dot it in -with a thick, 

 blunt-ended dibble in rows that distance, making holes ten 

 or twelve inches apart, about an inch and a half deep ; drop 

 two or three seeds in each hole, but with the intention to 

 leave only one beet plant." 



Mr. Mahon says, " Make choice of a piece of rich, deep 

 ground, lay it out into four feet wide beds, push the loose 

 earth into the alleys, then sow the seed tolerably thin, and 

 cover it with the earth out of these alleys to about three 

 quarters of an inch deep. Or, let drills be drawn with a 

 hoe, near an inch deep, and a foot or a little better asunder ; 

 drop the seeds thinly therein, and cover them over the same 



