THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 115 



good seed-bed than sow when the ground is cold and pasty. Carrot- 

 seed is light, chaffy stuff", requiring careful handling to distribute it 

 regularly in the drill. It is the custom of some cultivators to mix 

 it with sand, to render it more tangible, but the practised hand needs 

 no such aid. The drills should be drawn very shallow, at a distance 

 of six to nine inches apart for the smaller kinds, and a foot apart 

 for the larger. It is usual to sow rather thick, and to thin severely ; 

 and as the seed is cheap, we need not find fault with the common 

 practice ; but, with good seed, thin sowing is certainly better than 

 thick, because seed is saved, and there is less thinning to do after- 

 wards. The thinning of the crop should commence as soon as the 

 plants are large enough to handle, and, at the same time, if weeds 

 are rising with them, the scuffle-hoe should be employed between 

 the rows, to keep the ground clean. A few very nice dishes of 

 tender summer carrots may be obtained by careful thinning of the 

 beds sown for winter use. But the proper carrot for summer is the 

 "French Horn, a small, elegant root, which may be stored for winter, 

 but is most useful to draw when young for immediate cooking, when 

 it is peculiarly tender and delicate. This small carrot is sown for 

 an early crop on beds of light rich soil, made up with foundations of 

 half-exhausted fermenting material, such as stable manure or leaves, 

 and covered with frames. A proper hotbed would force them too 

 rapidly, but a gentle warmth of soil and judicious sheltering, with 

 plenty of air as weather may permit, are the conditions under which 

 an early supply may be most surely secured. The first sowings are 

 made in this way in January and February, and these are succeeded 

 by sowings on open borders, hi warm and sheltered spots, in March 

 and April, and on any piece of ground that may be vacant in Julv. 

 As a rule, the Horn carrot should be sown in very small breadth's, 

 or there will be a superabundant supply ; but as the requirements of 

 families differ immensely, a general caution against " overdoing 

 it " is all that can be offered here. In our garden we always grow 

 more than suffices for the kitchen, and so the cattle come in for a 

 pleasant variation of their daily food. 



The best of all the sorts for use in winter and spring ia the Long 

 Surrey, which is the handsomest and best flavoured. A more pro- 

 fitable, but a thoroughly coarse variety, is the Altringliam, which has 

 an objectionable green crown. In gross weight of crop this will 

 always surpass the Long Surrey, and, though coarse and ugly, it is 

 a good carrot. A most valuable variety for shallow soils is James's 

 Intermediate, which has every good quality that can be desired 

 except beauty, for it is short and club-like, but in colour and flavour 

 excellent. 



The Paesnip thrives in any soil, with or without manure, pro- 

 vided it is fairly prepared for by deep digging some time in advance 

 of sowing the seed. It is, perhaps, the most profitable of all the 

 roots grown in the kitchen garden, but it is less generally esteemed, 

 and is therefore less generally useful, than the potato. No one who 

 cares to eat this sugary root need be deterred from growing it by 

 untoward circumstances. "We have grown a crop in a field of 

 stones, in a sterile district, where we had to carry sand in to cover 



