HORSE RADISH.
The white, fibrous root of the horse radish is grated, seasoned with salt and sugar in vinegar, and served as a condiment, with meats, especially roast beef. It is used also for sauces served with fish and meats.
The plant is a root vegetable, growing wild in Europe, and much improved in size and quality by garden culture. As it is a perennial, some people let it occupy a corner, uncultivated and undisturbed, year after year. When they go to the bed and dig roots in spring, they complain because of the crooked, stringy ones they find. To get good, straight ones, care is needed.
Rich, deep soil, in mellow condition is planted with root cuttings of the plant, laid horizontally or slanting toward the noonday sun, not more than two inches below the surface of the soil. They should be set in rows a foot or more apart, and three feet between the rows, for best culture, and best specimens. After a whole season of
growth, roots may be dug that are fine in quality and form. Better leave them till they have made a second season's growth.
The name, radish, comes from the Latin, radix, meaning root. Horse, as prefixed to plant names, means coarse, big, unfit for human food, though possibly relished by horses. Any one who has tried to eat fresh horse radish knows that "a very little of it goes a great way!" Grating the cleaned roots is a tearful occupation, much like peeling onions. The reason that the prepared horse radish one buys is so mild is that it is adulterated copiously with grated turnip, a poor relation that costs less than the genuine, and is harmless, though a cheat when so used. If one does not raise the plants, it is best to buy the roots and do the grating at home.