For the earliest plantings, the small, very early kinds should be used, and these will grow the finest radishes of the season, fresh, crisp, and slightly pungent. For summer use, the large summer kinds, of very mild flavor, should be selected. These latter should be planted from the first of June until the first of August, after which I begin to sow the small early kinds again, having found that I can grow them as fine and palatable as in the spring. In sowing these in the kitchen garden I sow a part of a row at a time, in the portion worked with the wheel hoe, where the rows are about one foot apart; the seed is sown thinly in the drills, and if it comes up too thickly, should be thinned out to one inch apart for the small kinds and two inches for the larger ones. The seed should be sown from one-half inch to one inch in depth, according as it is early or late in the season or in heavy or light soils. The radishes should be pulled early in the morning and kept in fresh water in a cool cellar until used, so as to have them fresh, brittle and crisp. The large winter varieties are not much raised, except by the Germans, being rather too pungent for the American taste.[12] The seed is generally mixed with the turnip seed and broad-casted or drilled in together, but if I were planting them, I would think it much better to sow them in drills and cultivate separately. VARIETIES OF RADISHES. BURPEE’S EARLIEST (_Scarlet Button_).--I have grown this new radish for two seasons and consider it the earliest and finest radish that I have ever grown. It is _the_ earliest, about one inch in diameter, handsome, crisp and brittle. The color is the deepest scarlet. It has very small leaves, and a great many can be grown in a small space, rendering it very valuable for forcing. Last winter I sowed seed between the rose bushes in my forcing houses and kept my table supplied, and had large quantities to sell. [Illustration: BURPEE’S EARLIEST (SCARLET BUTTON) RADISHES. _Natural size, when ready for use._] EARLY LONG SCARLET SHORT TOP.--This is a fine selection of the long, slender scarlet radishes so generally seen in the spring, and is preferred by some to the round or turnip radishes. It is very early, tender, crisp and fine flavored; the roots averaging half an inch in diameter at the top and tapering from that throughout their length of four or five inches. EARLIEST CARMINE, OLIVE-SHAPED.--A very early radish, of a rich carmine color, and while not so early as Burpee’s Earliest, attains fully twice the size; the roots are of an even, regular olive shape and very fine quality. It is an excellent radish for forcing, on account of its size and appearance and the small growth of top which it makes, enabling many to be grown in a small space.[13] [Illustration: LONG SCARLET RADISH.] [Illustration: EARLIEST CARMINE, OLIVE RADISH.] SUMMER VARIETIES OF RADISHES.