14 CARROT, 



knapsack sprayer (which was generally introduced, for orchard spraying 

 and other purposes, into this country in the course of the past season) 

 would be likely to be very serviceable. The spray might be given 

 according to the position in which the delivery tube was held, either 

 so as to fall on the leafage or to go amongst it just above ground level. 

 Then the thorough though gentle moistening would be good for the 

 plants, and deterrent to insect infestation, even if only of pure water; 

 also it would to some extent moisten and " firm" the surface of the 

 ground. 



Where wished, any fluid deterrent, or plant stimulant, could of 

 course be used. Soft-soap and sulphur compound (see Index) might 

 be expected to be useful. Where I have tried this, much diluted as spray 

 for Peaches and other wall-fruit trees, I have not found the slightest 

 injury result to quite young leafage in the spring, and the slight sticki- 

 ness of the soap, and smell both of the soap and sulphur, would be likely 

 to be very deterrent to the fly if sent amongst the leafage. The 

 strength that is safe should be tried before use on a large scale. 



Sand moistened with paraffin oil, and strewed amongst the Carrots 

 and then watered in, has been found to answer as a preventive. In 

 this case, probably, the proportion of one quart of paraffin to one 

 bushel of dry material, — as sand, dry earth, or ashes, — would probably 

 not do harm, as we have found, in experiment on a large scale, that 

 Hop shoots, growing up thrmujli a dressing given in this proportion to a 

 number of Hop hills, were not the least injured. 



From observations in my own garden, a dry dressing sown together 

 with the seeds (in addition to other applications) appears to answer 

 well. Besides the customary treatment, my gardener sowed a mixture 

 of soot and lime with the Carrot seed, and thus when thinned the smell 

 of the application was stirred up round the disturbed plants. The 

 result has certainly been good, for we have not been troubled at all by 

 Rust Fly, and have an excellent show of plants. 



The details of Carrot growing, relatively to preservation from Eust 

 Fly, have been given so fully in previous Reports and in my ' Manual,' 

 that I do not enter on these ; but the special danger to the crop bein» 

 from the flies getting down cracks in the soil, and that this is most to 

 be guarded against at thinning time, appears to need a word. In the 

 preceding pages I have only given a few notes of methods of treatment, 

 for these could be varied to any extent according to nature of appli- 

 ances at hand, or views of the owner as to insecticides, but working on 

 the above principles. 



