THE AMATEUR'S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
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roots. In any case, however, deep and earnest stirring of the 
soil is a proper preparation for this crop. Hard work, more 
than “ fine words,” tends to the buttering of parsnips. 
Sow fresh seed in March, or early in April. The seed bed 
should be fine and dry. If large roots are desired, sow in 
drills, fifteen to eighteen inches apart, and thin to a foot ; if 
the ground is poor, sow twelve inches asunder, and thin to 
nine or six inches. Distances depend on conditions, but a 
mistake will not ruin the plantation : for if parsnips are 
rather crowded, it does not much matter ; but the size of the 
roots will of necessity depend upon the space allowed them. 
During showery weather in July and August, a final thinning 
may be made of roots that elbow each other, and they will be 
found exceedingly marrowy and delicate when cooked. 
Beetroot ( Beta vulgaris ) should be available every day 
throughout the year ; but like other roots it can be grown 
only during summer. Where the demand is unremitting, the 
cultivator must secure early crops for use in autumn, and must 
store well and plentifully for supply in spring aud summer. 
We have found it tolerably easy work to do this until July, 
and then the old beets were becoming fibrous, and the young 
ones were too small to pull, and there was the shadow of 
a hitch sometimes. But it can be done, and wherever salads 
are in request all the year round, beetroot must be provided 
for them. Our practice is to sow a few rows on half-fermenting 
beds in frames in February, as advised for the early production 
of Horn carrots, and this plan enables us to supply the kitchen 
with fine roots at the end of June and throughout July, when 
the roots in the store are acquiring an undesirable toughness. 
As the subject of storing comes before us properly here, we 
may as well dispose of it. A bed of earth in a shed of any 
kind, safe from frost, answers the purpose well. Better is it, 
however, to store the roots in dry sand in a place where neither 
moisture, nor frost, nor the warmth of spring, can reach them. 
Our best store is a shed built of brick in a north aspect ; it is 
safe from frost, and the spring sunshine has but little effect on 
its temperature. Some time in March the whole stock should 
be taken out, and the new roots and shoots rubbed off and 
the stock pitted again. The roots should be laid horizontally, 
as that position affords a slight check to growth. But once 
a month at least — if late keeping is important — they should 
all be looked over, and every sign of growth removed, for 
