138 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



It prefers a very rich, sandy, well-worked soil, but will grow in 

 any land that is fit for corn. For early use some early-ma- 

 turing kind should be selected and the seeds should be sown in 

 rows sixteen inches apart in the open ground as soon as the 



soil can be worked in the 

 spring. Ten seeds should be 

 sown to each foot of row and 

 covered one inch deep. The 

 young plants will stand quite 

 a severe frost without injury. 

 As soon as the seedlings ap- 

 pear they should be cultivat- 

 ed with a wheel hoe, and the 

 cultivation repeated at fre- 

 quent intervals. When they 

 are eight or ten inches high, 

 thinning should be commenc- 

 ed and continued until the 

 plants are six inches apart in 

 the rows. These thinnings 

 make excellent greens. If 

 sown as recommended, they 

 will be large enough for 

 table use in June and will 

 Figure GO.— Bunch of Eclipse beets. be good for USe the rest ol 

 the summer. For winter use, the seed should not be sown 

 until the last of May or first of June. For late plant- 

 ing some growers prefer to put the rows two feet 

 or more apart so that when the plants are nicely 

 started they can be cultivated by horse power. Stock and 

 sugar beets should be sown in rows about thirty inches apart, 

 to allow of easy cultivation. These should be sown from the 

 middle to the last of May and covered somewhat deeper than 

 is recommended for early table beets, perhaps one and one- 

 half inches deep. The importance of very early and constant 

 cultivation cannot be too strongly insisted on. Beet seed may 

 be sown by a machine seed sower, but most of the sowers in 

 use will need a little more careful watching when sowing this 



