RADISH.
Johnson & Stokes' Olive Scarlet, the Earliest Radish.
Farmers who retail their produce should raise radishes. Rich ground and abundant moisture are the requisites for quick growth, and upon quick growth depends good quality. Slow-growing radishes are hot and pithy. The early sorts are best for spring, but the so-called summer radishes are best for warm weather, as they are not so liable as the early kinds to become pithy. Enormous quantities of winter radishes are grown in autumn, for use and sale during the winter months. They are kept in sand, like other roots.
China Rose Winter Radish.
The early kinds mature in twenty to twenty-five days from sowing. Nitrate of soda in small quantities is one of the best known stimulants. Rotted stable manure is good, but hog manure and night soil are not in favor among radish growers, tending to produce insect attacks. The free use of lime, salt or kainit is recommended as a preventive against insects. Sometimes it is necessary to avoid manure of any kind, on account of maggots, depending wholly on artificial fertilizers. As a last resort the radish-bed must be removed to new ground, as the maggot renders radishes wholly unsalable.
The green seed pods of radishes are sometimes used for pickling. The plant is closely related to the mustard.
It is wrong to wait for radishes to grow large (except the winter sorts), as they are sweetest and most succulent when comparatively small. Crisp, sweet radishes always command ready money.
Radish.—Early, for the South—Scarlet Turnip White Tipped, Johnson & Stokes' Olive Scarlet, Philadelphia Gardeners' Long Scarlet. Summer radishes—Red and White Chartier, White Strasburg, Improved Yellow Summer Turnip. All seasons, radishes which are equally good for summer or winter—New Celestial, New Round Scarlet China. For winter use only—China Rose. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."