them in salted water for a short time, then put them into the water while boiling, which should be previously seasoned with salt. When they are tender, which will be in from fifteen to twenty minutes, take them up and drain them through a colander, in order to render them capable of absorbing a due share of gravy, melted butter, etc.

BEANS. (Pole or Running.)

HARICOTS A RAMES.

These species and varieties of Beans may be planted early in the month of May and in June, either in hills three feet apart or in drills about two inches deep, and the Beans two or three inches apart in the drills. The poles should be eight or ten feet long, and should be fixed in the ground before the Beans are planted, so as not to injure the roots in making the holes.

The varieties of Lima Beans should not be planted in the open ground until the second week in May, unless the season be very favorable and the ground warm. As these Beans are apt to get rotten by cold and damp weather, let six or eight be planted half an inch deep round each pole, and afterward thinned, leaving three or four good plants in a hill, which should be full four feet distant from each other every way.

Lima Beans require richer ground than any of the other sorts. A shovelful of rich, light compost, mixed with the earth in each hill, would be beneficial. If any varieties are wanted before the ordinary seasons, they may be planted in flower-pots in April, and placed in a greenhouse or gardenframe; and being transplanted with the balls of earth entire, will come into bearing ten or fourteen days earlier than those planted in the open ground. It will require about a quart of Lima Beans to plant one hundred hills. A quart of the smallest-sized Pole Beans will plant three hundred hills and

upwards, or about two hundred and fifty feet of row. Lima Beans should be shelled while fresh, and boiled in plenty of water until tender, which generally takes from fifteen to twenty minutes. The mode of cooking and preparing the other sorts is the same as for Kidney Dwarfs.

BEET.

BETTERAVE. Beta vulgaris.

Beets, in their several varieties, are biennial; and the best blood-colored are much cultivated for the sake of their roots, which are excellent when cooked, and very suitable for pickling after being boiled tender. When sliced, they make an beautiful garnish for the dish, and the young plants are an excellent substitute for Spinach.

The Mangel-Wurzel and Sugar Beets are cultivated for cattle. Domestic animals eat the leaves and roots with great avidity. They are excellent food for swine and milch cows, and possess the quality of making them give a large quantity of the best-flavored milk. The roots are equally fit for oxen and horses, after being cut up into small pieces and mixed with cut straw, hay, or other dry feed. A small bed of the earliest Turnip-rooted and other esteemed kinds of Beets may be planted in rich, early ground the first week in April, which, being well attended to, will produce good roots in June.

Make drills a foot apart and from one to two inches deep; drop the seed in the drills one or two inches from each other, and cover them with mellow earth. When the plants are up strong, thin them to the distance of six or eight inches from each other in the rows. The ground should be afterwards hoed deep around the plants, and kept free from weeds.

If the planting of Beet-seed for general crops be delayed until May or June, the roots will be much larger and better than those from earlier planting, which, from being frequently stunted in growth by the various changes of weather, become

tough, stringy, and of unhandsome shape. In case of the failure of crops, or of unfavorable weather in June, Boet-seed planted the first week in July will sometimes produce large, handsome roots, which may be preserved for winter use.

The most suitable ground for Beets is that which has been well manured for previous crops, and requires no fresh manure provided it be well pulverized. It is always best to thin Beets while young. If the tops are used as a vegetable, they should not be left too long for this purpose, or they will greatly injure the roots of those that are to stand. Beds that are to stand through the summer, should be kept clean by repeated hoeings; and the roots intended for winter use should be taken up in October, or early in November. Allowing Beet-seed to be planted on the gardening plan, it will require at the rate of ten pounds for an acre of land. If cultivated on the field system-that is, by planting them a sufficient distance apart to admit of ploughing between each row-one half the quantity of seed will be sufficient. Thinning out the surplus plants is indispensable to the production of good roots.

An acre of rich, loamy soil has been known to yield two thousand bushels of roots, some of which weighed from fifteen to twenty pounds each. To produce such large roots, they should be cultivated in drills from two to three feet apart, and the plants thinned to ten or twelve inches in the rows. It is generally conceded, however, that moderate-sized roots contain more saccharine matter, in proportion to their bulk, than extra large roots; and that twenty tons, or about seven hundred bushels, are a very profitable crop for an acre of land, and would be amply sufficient to feed ten cows for three or four months of the year. A gentleman in Connecticut computes the products of one-fourth of an acre of good land at eight tons, which, he says, will support a cow the whole year.

Beets will usually produce more milk than turnips; and milk-dealers will always pay more for a bushel of good beets than for an equal quantity of turnips.

BORECOLE, OR KALE.

CHOU FRISE VERT. Brassica oleracea, etc.

There are several sub-varieties of this genus of plants besides those above specified, most of which have large open heads, with curled wrinkled leaves. The Dwarf Curled, or Finely Fringed sorts, are much cultivated in Europe for the table; and the coarse and tall-growing are considered profitable for cattle. The Thousand-headed Cabbage, and Cesarean Kale, grow from three to five feet high, and branch out from the stem, yielding an abundant supply of leaves and sprouts in winter and spring.

For the garden, these several varieties may be treated in every respect as Winter Cabbage. The seed may be sown from about the middle of May to the first week in June, and the plants set out in the month of July, in rich ground. They are never so delicious as when rendered tender by smart frosts. They are valuable plants to cultivate, particularly in more Southern States, as they will be there in the greatest perfection during the winter months. If planted in a gravelly soil, and in a sheltered warm situation, they will bear the winter of the Western States; and may be kept in great perfection in the Eastern States, if taken up before the frost sets in with much severity, and placed in trenches, up to their lower leaves, and then covered with straw or other light covering. The heads may be cut off as they are required for use; and in the spring, the stems being raised up, will produce an abundance of delicious greens.

One ounce of good Borecole seed will produce about four thousand plants, and may be sown in a border four feet by ten.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

CHOU DE BRUXELLES AGETS. Brassica oleracea.

This plant frequently grows from three to five feet high, and

produces from the stem small heads resembling cabbages in miniature, each being from one to two inches in diameter. The top of the plant resembles the Savoy, when planted late. The sprouts are used as winter greens, becoming very tender when touched by the frost. The seed may be sown about the middle of May, in the same manner as Borecole, and the plants set out with a dibble early in July. The subsequent treatment must be in every respect as for Borecole.

Some gardeners, with a view to furnish the New York markets with greens early in the spring season, when vegetables in general are scarce, cultivate the common Rape (Brassica Rapus), it being a good substitute for Brussels Sprouts, which are not always attainable after a hard winter. If Rape-seed be sown early in September, the plants will survive an ordinary winter, and produce top-shoots or sprouts early; but it is best sown as soon as the ground is susceptible of cultivation in the spring. The sprouts should be cut while young, as such greens command the best prices, and are more palatable than when far advanced in growth.

In cooking these sprouts and Kale, Colewort, and greens in general, they should be put into hot water, seasoned with salt, and kept boiling briskly until tender. If it be an object to preserve their natural color, put a small lump of pearlash into the water.

BROCCOLI.

CHOU BROCCOLI. Brassica oleracea Italiana.

The several varieties of Broccoli and Cauliflower may be justly ranked among the greatest luxuries of the garden. They need only be known in order to be esteemed. The Broccoli produces heads, consisting of a lump of rich seedy pulp like the Cauliflower, only that some are of a green color, others purple, some brown, and the white kinds so exactly resemble