Mr. Harris recommends the
following varieties of early radishes, and his selection coincides
with my own experience: Bound Scarlet Turnip, French Breakfast,
Rose (olive-shaped), Long Scarlet Short-top. Winter radishes:
California Mammoth White, and Chinese Rose. For spring sowing of
turnips, Mr. Henderson recommends Red-top Strap-leaf, and Early
Flat Dutch. The earlier they are sown the better.
Beets--a much more valuable vegetable--require similar treatment.
The ground should be clean, well pulverized, and very rich. I
prefer to sow the seed the first week in April, unless the soil is
frozen, or very cold and wet. The seed may be sown, however, at
any time to the first of July; but earliness is usually our chief
aim. I sow two inches deep and thickly, pressing the soil firmly
over the seed. Let the rows be about fifteen inches apart.
Referring to the manure which had been left to decay in a
sheltered place until it became like fine dry powder, let me say
here that I have always found it of greater advantage to sow it
with the beet-seed and kindred vegetables. My method is to open
the drill along the garden-line with a sharp-pointed hoe, and
scatter the fertilizer in the drill until the soil is quite
blackened by it; then draw the pointed hoe through once more, to
mingle the powdery manure with the soil and to make the drill of
an even depth; then sow the seed at once.
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