160 



HORSE-RADISH. 



[or as soon as frost will permit,] eighteen inches of the 

 earth of the unplanted bed must be laid, as light as possible^ 

 and equally, over the beds that are planted ; then trench 

 and plant the vacant beds exactly in the same manner as 

 before directed. The following autumn, the first-planted 

 horse-radish may be taken up, by opening a trench at one 

 end of the bed, to the bottom of the roots, so that the sticks 

 or roots of horse-radish may be taken up entire and sound, 

 which, for size and quality, will be such as have not gen- 

 erally been seen. The following February, [March or 

 April,] the one year old crop will require additional earth, 

 as before directed, which must of course be taken from 

 those beds, which are now vacant, which when done, if 

 the ground appears poor, or unlikely to produce another 

 vigorous crop, they must have a coat of manure." — Hort, 

 Trans, i. 207. 



" Judd has also written on the culture of horse-radish, 

 {Hort, Trans, v. 302,) and his practice, though very diO'er- 

 ent from Knight's, is also excellent, and perhaps prefer- 

 able. Knight takes strong buds from old plants, while 

 Judd takes about three inches of the top part of each stick 

 or root, and then cuts clean off about a quarter of an inch 

 Df this piece under the crown, so as to leave no appearance 

 of a green bud. Judd trenches only two feet deep, and, if 

 he applies manure, puts it in the very bottom of the trench ; 

 ' for, if not so done, the horse-radish, which always pnts out 

 some side roots, would send out such large side roots from 

 the main root, in search of the dung lying contiguous, as 

 materially to injure the crop. In planting, holes are made 

 eighteen inches apart every way, and sixteen or eighteen 

 inches deep. The root-cuttings are let down to the bottom 

 of the holes, which are afterwards filled up with fine sifted 

 cinder-dust, and the surface of the bed is then raked over.. 

 The season of planting is the latter part of March.' The 

 essential difference between Knight's plan and Judd's is,, 

 that the former produces his root from the root-end of the 

 cutting downwards, and the latter from the bud-end up- 

 wards : hence the one plants near the surface, and the 

 other near tlie bottom of the trench. Judd's mode seems^^ 

 more certain of producing one entire strong root than 

 Knight's. " — London, 



Use, — The root, when scraped into shreds, is much used 

 at the table as a condiment for fish, roast beef, &c. If in- 

 tended for immediate use, it should, says Willich's Do- 

 mestic Encyclopedia. " be dug out of the ground fresh^ only 



