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.  This thoroughly decayed stable-manure has become the best of plant-food; it warms the ground, and carries the germinating seed and young plants with vigor through the first cold, wet weeks.

In the home garden there are several reasons for sowing beet-seed thickly.  Unfavorable weather and insects will be less apt to cause a thin, broken stand of plants.  In order to produce good roots, however, the plants should be thinned out so as to stand eventually three or four inches apart I do not advise very large, coarse roots for the table.  For home use I think only three varieties are essential.  The Egyptian Turnip Beet is the best very early variety, and can be planted closely, as it has a small top; the Bassano is next in earliness, and requires more room; the Early Blood Turnip is the best for a general crop and winter use.  The beet is a root which deteriorates rapidly from age; I therefore advise that the seed of the winter supply be sown the last of June or first of July in our latitude.

Parsnips should be sown at the same time with early beets and in the same way, with the exception that the seed should be covered only an inch deep.  I doubt whether there are any marked distinctions in variety, and would advise that only the Long Smooth or Hollow-crowned be sown.

The carrot is not quite so hardy as the parsnip, and the seed may be sown a week or two later, or indeed at any time up to the middle of June.  Its culture and treatment are precisely like those of the parsnip; but the roots should be gathered and stored before a severe frost occurs.  For home use a short row of the Early Horn will answer; for the general crop, sow the Long Orange.

Vegetable-oyster, or salsify, is another root-crop which may be treated precisely like the parsnip, and the seed sown at the same time.  The seed should be sown in a deep, rich, mellow soil, which is all the better for being prepared in autumn.  Plant, as early in April as possible, in the same manner as described for beets, thin out to four inches apart, and keep the soil clean and mellow throughout the entire season; for this vegetable grows until the ground freezes.  There is only one variety.