HORSE-RADISH. 



159 



as to be much injured by hoeing. They will bear a little 

 cutting without injury. For where a root is cut off, several 

 new branches will come in its place. — 3. To render the 

 soil more open and porous, so that it shall greedily drink in 

 the nightly dews, and that rain may not run off, but readily 

 soak in as it falls, and be retained. Accordingly, the more 

 and oftener land is hoed, the more moisture it retains, the 

 better it bears drought, and the more its plants are nour- 

 ished. — 4. Another design of hoeing, and which has not 

 been enough attended to, is, to nourish plants by drawing 

 fresh soil near to them, the effluvium of which enters their 

 pores, and increases their growth. At the same time the 

 earthing of plants makes them stand more firmly, and in- 

 creases their pasture in the spots where the roots most 

 abound ; and prevents the drying of the earth down to the 

 roots." — Deane. 



HORSE-RADISH.— CocMearia Armoracia.— The fol- 

 lowing instructions for cultivating horse-radish are by 

 Knight, a celebrated English horticulturist : — ^' Horse-rad- 

 ish thrives best in deep, soft, sandy loam, that is not very 

 dry in summer, nor inundated in winter ; the situation must 

 be open. During winter, [or in autumn,] trench the ground 

 three feet deep ; and in the following February [as soon as 

 frost will permit in this country] procure your sets, in the 

 choice of which take the strongest crowns, or leading buds, 

 from old plants, cutting them about two inches long. Mark 

 out the ground in four feet beds, and one foot alleys ; then 

 take from the first bed nine inches of the top soil, laying it 

 upon the adjoining bed ; aftef which take out an opening 

 at one end of the bed, in the common way of trenching, 

 fifteen inches deep from the present surface ; then level the 

 bottom, after which plant a row of sets across the bed at 

 nine inches apart, each way, with their crowns upright; 

 afterwards dig the next trench the same width and depth, 

 turning the earth into the first trench, over the row of sets ; 

 thus proceeding, trench after trench, to the end. Where 

 more them the produce of one bed is required for the supply 

 of the family for twelve months, the third bed is next to be 

 planted, which treat as directed for the first, only observing 

 to lay the earth on the fourth, and so on to any number of 

 beds. Upon every alternate bed, which is not planted, a 

 dwarf annual crop may be grown. The plants must be kept 

 clear from weeds during summer ; and as soon as the 

 leaves decay in autumn, let them be carefully raked off 

 with a wooden-toothed rake ; in the following February, 



