202 Progrcris of Agricultural Knowledge 



There is another root, however, which promises also to break 

 through that monotony, and has been made known in England 

 since the foundation of our Society, though it has been common for 

 two centuries in Flanders and Germany. I mean the white 

 carrot, of whose produce such surprising accounts have been pub- 

 lished. It has been stated to give 30 tons to the acre, each ton 

 selling in some neighbourhoods at 2/., or double the value of 

 swedes. Lord Ducie grows it regularly at Whitfield -farm, and 

 obtains 24 tons to the acre : the green tops alone, which may be 

 given to sheep when the root is taken up, are said by Mr. Harris 

 to be equal to a second crop of clover. The only difficulty 

 in its cultivation is the slow growth of the young plant, which 

 can scarcely be distinguished from weeds, unless by w^omen 

 cleaning them on their knees ; but this may be obviated by drill- 

 ing the carrot; and I am told it may be grovvn on ridges, and 

 therefore horse-hoed. They will thrive on rather strong land, though 

 light warm land is most natural to them. Subsoiling is almost 

 indispensable, which may be done, however, with a common 

 plough. As this root seems likely at last to take a permanent 

 place in English farming, and as it may be interesting to know in 

 future times how it was introduced, which has been often ques- 

 tioned with regard to the turnip, I may put on the records of our 

 Society, that it was brought over in 1835 by Mr. Rham of Wink- 

 field. There is another carrot, the early horn, of which Lord 

 Ducie obtained 16 tons to the acre — no trifling yield- — and which, 

 by its almost globular shape, appears suited to very shallow soils. 



With regard to the use of the carrot, it is known to be good 

 for horses, though too much of it should not be given them before 

 spring, as it is supposed to weaken their eyes in winter. It 

 is also excellent for milch cows. All stock, indeed, is so fond 

 of the carrot as to produce a difficulty in its use, for it makes 

 them refuse other roots ; but it may be mixed with them after 

 steaming. It appeared, from the account which Colonel Le 

 Couteur has given us of the great bulk of parsneps raised in 

 Jersey, that Ave might have had to add this root also to our field- 

 crops ; but he has since found the white carrot yet more productive, 

 and the tapering growth of the parsnep makes it very difficult to 

 draw from the ground.* I have therefore only to add the mangold- 

 wurzel potato, which is very coarse, but extremely bulky, and is 

 said to be the only potato that should be given to pigs without 

 previously boiling. Of its merits, however, I know nothing posi- 

 tive. 



Such is the information we have received on those roots by which 

 our stock are sustained in winter ; and I cannot but look back 



* Parsneps have one advantage over carrots, that hares and rabbits seem 

 not to touch them. — Braybrooke. 



