REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 163 



Carrots. — From May 20th to June 1st, is here considered the 

 best time for sowing the seed. The spaces between the rows — 18 

 inches, and distances apart of the plants in the row — 3 inches ; 

 but if the largest yield in weight is wanted from an acre, the 

 roots may crowd each other in the rows. Carrots are stated in 

 the report of the society in 184G, to be worth 20 cents per 

 bushel, to feed to milch cows. The premium offered on this 

 crop in 1846, was paid on a yield of 784 bushels per acre, and 

 in 1848, on a yield of 1,011 bushels per acre. The same 

 report shows the product of one acre of ground cultivated with 

 carrots for six consecutive years. 1843, 361 bushels ; 1844, 

 710 bushels ; 1845, 736 bushels ; 1846, 509 bushels ; 1847, 706 

 bushels; 1848, 1,011 bushels: average cost of producing the 

 same, 10 cents per bushel. In the report of 1849, the relative 

 value of the different kind of roots for feeding to stock, com- 

 pared with hay, is stated to be, viz. : hay at $12 per ton, and 

 corn worth 75 cents per bushels. Carrots are worth 30 cents 

 per bushel of 56 lbs. ; potatoes 25 cents ; ruta-bagas, 16 cents ; 

 white turnips, 12| cents; sugar beets, 18 cents per bushel. 

 The carrot was transplanted into favor with English farmers 

 two hundred years ago, and has been gaining in favor there 

 ever since as profitable in cultivation and for stock feeding. 

 But it needs no other test of its value for feed to stock than it 

 has already had at home to induce its general cultivation. The 

 returns here given show but one-half acre out of every hundred 

 under cultivation in Worcester County, cropped with carrots. 

 Reckoning the product according to the average yield given 

 of the crop in the county (473 bushels per acre) providing only 

 one and one-half for each head of stock owned. As a general 

 rule in the county, three-fifths of the cost of raising a crop of corn 

 is credited to labor account, and the expense of weeding, hoeing 

 and harvesting a crop of carrots at two-thirds the cost of the 

 crop. Estimating carrots as worth in the market $10 per ton 

 (worth $12 to $14,) and the yield per acre at 473 bushels (the 

 average return given in the society's reports,) and comparing 

 the crops with the returns, also given by the society, of the 

 corn crop, 30 bushels per acre, and estimating the corn at 

 $1 per bushel, the net profits upon an acre of carrots, if sold, 

 would buy 40 bushels of corn, and leave a handsome surplus 

 besides. Mangold wurzel is next in value to carrots as a 



