Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/113

 White Summer.—A large, long, oval variety; cultivated for early Summer use, is of an excellent, mild flavor, bears the heat well, and is a beautiful variety.

Yellow Summer, or Yellow Turnip-rooted.—The very best for cultivating, and indeed the only one that stands the heat and drought with impunity. It is about an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, and from two to three inches long.

Black Spanish.—This is a Winter Radish, of very large size; Turnip form. It should be sown in August and September, lifted in October or November, and stored away in sand in the cellar for supplying the table in Winter. It will keep good till the following April.

.—There are few vegetables that require less artificial care and culture than the Radish. For the Spring crop, it likes a light, rich, dry, sandy loam; but for later crops, a deep, moist soil is preferred. The first sowing should be made on a south or east border, with the Early Turnip-Rooted Beets. The Radish seed may be sown in drills between the latter, very thinly, covering them with about a quarter of an inch of fine earth. If the nights prove frosty, cover the border with straw, which will greatly advance the crop, and prevent its destruction. If sown about the first of March, and good weather ensue, they will be ready in the first week of April. A second sowing with some other crop, such as Carrots, should be made about two weeks later, and at the same time sow the Turnip-Rooted varieties. Another sowing, of all the Salmon and Turnip kinds, about the middle of April, to be followed with two sowings of White and Yellow Summer Radishes, at intervals, will be the principal crops for the season. Towards the end of August and September, Early Scarlet Short-top may again be sown; also the Black Spanish, as formerly directed. Should they be too thick, at any time, when fairly up, they must be thinned to an inch apart; for if allowed to grow crowded together; they will not produce a crop. It will take six