114 Home Vegetable Gardening 



to my taste the most delicious root vegetable grown. 

 It is handled practically in the same way as the 

 parsnip, but needs, if possible, ground even more 

 carefully prepared, in order to keep the main root 

 from sprangling. If a fine light soil cannot be had 

 for planting, it will pay to hoe or hand-plow furrows 

 where the drills are to be — not many will be needed, 

 and put in specially prepared soil, in which the seed 

 may get a good start. 



Radish: — To be of good crisp quality, it is essen- 

 tial with radishes to grow them just as quickly as 

 possible. The soil should be rather sandy and not 

 rich in fresh manure or other nitrogenous fertilizers, 

 as this tends to produce an undesirable amount of 

 leaves at the expense of the root. If the ground is 

 at all dry give a thorough wetting after planting, 

 which may be on the surface, as the seeds germinate 

 so quickly that they will be up before the soil has 

 time to crust over. Gypsum or land-plaster, sown 

 on white and worked into the soil, will improve both 

 crop and quality. They are easily raised under 

 glass, in autumn or spring in frames, requiring only 

 forty to fifty degrees at night. It is well to plant 

 in the hotbed, after a crop of lettuce. Or sow as a 

 double crop, as suggested under Carrots. For out- 

 side crops, sow every ten days or two weeks. 



Turnip: — While turnips will thrive well on almost 

 any soil, the quality — which is somewhat question- 



