BEET (AS. bete, Lat. beta). A genus of plants of the natural order Chenopodiaceie. There are about fifteen species, mostly biennials, with smooth ovate, stalked root-leaves and tall, leafy flowering stems. They are natives of the tem perate parts of the Old World. The only species of economic importance is the Beta vulgaris. This has been in cultivation since before the Christian Era, and has been developed as a root vegetable, leaf vegetable, and as a foliage plant. The root-vegetable varieties, cultivated in gar dens, constitute our table beets. Their color and form vary from dark blood-red to scarlet and white, and from turnip-shape to long tapering forms. The earlier and smaller varieties are usually turnip-shaped. As a vegetable, the garden beet is boiled, pickled, used as a salad, and the tops cooked for 'greens.' Young beets are extensively grown as an early market-garden crop in the vicinity of all the larger cities in the United States, and are sometimes forced under glass. (See VEGETABLES for illustration.) Garden beets require a deep, rich, loose, well tilled soil. The seed is sown as early in spring as the weather becomes settled, in drills 18 to 36 inches apart, and the young plants are after wards thinned to 4 to 6 inches in the row. The wider rows permit of horse-eultivation. Some fifty varieties of garden beets are grown in the United States. Of the early varieties, Early
Blood Turnip, Eclipse, Egyptian, and Bassano are standard sorts. The Mangold-•urzcl, or Mangold, is the variety now usually grown for cattle-feeding. It is a coarser and very large form of the common beet. It is planted as soon as the ground can be tilled in spring, in drills 2 to 3 feet apart, and the plants are allowed to stand from 12 to 14 inches distant in the row. Further cultivation consists in keeping down the weeds, and shallow tillage. Golden Tabk ard, Golden Yellow Mammoth, and :Mammoth Long lied are standard varieties. The sugar beet is a form of the common beet in which the percentage of sugar has been greatly in creased by cultivation and selection. It is ex tensively grown in Central Europe, and in the northern and western United States, for the production of sugar. (See SUGAR BEET.) The strain of the Beta rulgaris, which is grown as a leaf vegetable, is generally known as Chard or Swiss Chard, and will be considered under the head of CIIARD (q.v.). The foliage varieties of beets are grown for their ornamental value, and are used for bedding and for borders where strong and heavy effects are desired. The large leaves of the several varieties are richly marked with different shades of ren, orange, silver white, and intermediate shades.