as there will be constantly more thinning by the daily drawing of the
young radishes. When the weather is dry in March, or the following
month, the crops should be occasionally well watered, which not only
forwards the growth of the crops, but increases the size of the roots,
and renders them more mild and crisp in eating. And the sowings should
be continued at the distance of a fortnight, till the latter end of
March, when they should be performed every ten days, until the end of
April or beginning of the following month. In sowing these later crops,
it is the practice of some gardeners to sow coss-lettuces and spinach
with them, in order to have the two crops coming forward at the same
time; but the practice is not to be much recommended, where there is
sufficient room. But in sowing the main general crops in the open
quarters, the market-gardeners generally put them in on the same ground
where they plant out their main crops of cauliflowers and cabbages,
mixing spinach with the radish-seed as above, sowing the seeds first,
and raking them in, then planting the cauliflowers or cabbages; the
radishes and spinach come in for use before the other plants begin to
spread much, and as soon as those crops are all cleared off for use, hoe
the ground all over to kill weeds and loosen the soil, drawing earth
about the stems of the cauliflowers and cabbages. The turnip radish
should not be sown till the beginning of March, the plants being allowed
a greater distance than for the common spindle-rooted sort. The seeds of
this sort are apt to degenerate, unless they are set at a distance from
that kind. The white and black Spanish radishes are usually sown about
the middle of July, or a little earlier, and are fit for the table by
the end of August, or the beginning of September, continuing good till
frost spoils them. These should be thinned to a greater distance than
the common sort, as their roots grow as large as turnips, and should not
be left nearer than six inches. To have these roots in winter, they
should be drawn before hard frost comes on, and laid in dry sand, as
practised for carrots, carefully guarding them from wet and frost; as in
this way they may be kept till the spring. In regard to the culture of
the general crops, they require very little, except occasional thinning,
where they are too thick, when the plants are come into the rough leaf,
either by hoeing or drawing them out by hand: though for large
quantities,