Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/126

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BUIST’S FAMILY KITCHEN GARDENER.

leaving them entirely naked; nothing further is required than to keep them free from weeds. In July the tops begin to turn yellow, when the roots can be taken up and dried in the same manner as Garlic. If the planting is delayed till Spring, the bulbs will not require to be put under ground, but merely planted as Onion sets, which their culture very much resem-


SKIRRET.

Sium Sísarum.—Chervis, Fr.—Zuckerwurzel, Ger.

Skirret is considered a nutricious vegetable, and would be mare generally cultivated were it not for the large space of ground required to raise a quantity for general use. It is a perennial plant, a native of Asia, and has been cultivated in Europe about two hundred years. The roots are composed of long, fleshy tubers, joined together in the crown or head. They are cooked like Salsafy, and form a very white, sweet, and pleasant vegetable.

Culture.—Soil suitable for the Carrot will also grow this root in perfection. Sow the seeds thinly, in drills, half an inch deep and ten inches wide, at any time from the middle of April to the first of May, the ground having been previously. well dug and manured. Sow a few Radish seeds in the drills, to distinguish them, and admit of hoeing to destroy the weeds, lest they overgrow the crop. In five or six weeks they can be thinned out with the hoe to five or six inches apart. Nothing more will be requisite, excepting a constant stirring of the soil and keeping down weeds. About the first of November the roots will be fit for use, and continue so till Spring. On the approach of severe frost, they should be taken up, cleaned and stowed away, like other roots, in sand or dry earth.