ROOT CROPS. 



CARROTS. 



Statement of Wm. Risley, of Chautauque county, relative to his 

 crop of carrots, yielding 1059 bushels per acre, as fully attested by 

 surveyor and witnesses, and to which was awarded the first premium 

 of the State Society : 



The crop was sown the first of May, from seed of the large white 

 carrot, prepared in the following manner : The seeds were soaked 

 in water for twelve hours ; after draining off the water, a sufficient 

 quantity of dry soil was mixed with the seed to absorb the water 

 remaining, and leave it in a proper state for vegetation ; the fourth 

 day, the sprout appeared, and the seed was then sown in rows, ten 

 inches apart ; after the carrots were up, they were carefully cleaned 

 from the weeds, and thinned out to four inches in the rows. 

 This manner of preparing seed is a great advantage, as the plants 

 will come up in so short a time that the operation of hoeing and 

 moving the soil about the plants, which will check the weeds, and 

 the time required to till the crop, is trifling, compared with the usual 

 manner of sowing the seeds dry, and necessarily leaving the work 

 until the land is green with weeds. The previous crop was radishes, 

 raised for seed, which was the fourth crop after the sward was turn- 

 ed over, with but a small quantity of manure. Last spring there 

 was twenty loads of fine manure, from the horse stable, put on the 

 land : the land was plowed and worked fine, and was in excellent 

 condition, and the crop appeared exceedingly fair, until the heavy 

 and continued rains, in summer ; after this, a portion of the leaves 

 died, and did not regain their freshness, and as the growth of the carrots 

 was materially checked, and on some of the piece, they were entirely 

 killed out, the labor was also much increased. 



I make this last statement as an excuse for presenting a smaller 

 crop than that of last year. 



20 loads of manure, at 45., flO.OO 



1 day's plowing, at 10^., 1 . 25 



12 " raking and sowing, at 5.., 7.50 



50 " weeding three times at 5s., 31 .25 



