413 On the Culture of Carrots. 



done by the use of Mr. Ducket's skim-coulter plough. An error 

 committed bv many persons in various parts of the kingdom, has 

 been that of giving an autumnal and repeated spring ploughing ; 

 a mistake I committed when first I began the cultivation : weeds 

 are thus multiplied, and the expense of hoeing greatly increased. 

 Very early in Mr.Burrows's Norfolk practice, I remonstrated with 

 him on this point, and at last he confessed the error. Mr. Billing 

 persisted in it, as well as sowing on a wheat stubble, and the 

 consequence was, his giving up the cultivation. 



One caution should be added : when this root is sown upon 

 land which has not before been ploughed to the depth necessary 

 for carrots, the surface soil to the depth commonly stirred, may 

 be clean ; but increasing the depth of tillage may produce a foul 

 crop ; hence, therefore, a necessary caution is, when this foot is 

 to follow turnips, or barley after turnips, the autumnal ploughing 

 for such turnips should be nine inches deep, in order that, if ad- 

 ditional depth bring weeds, they may be destroyed in the turnip 

 year : such depth will be as useful for the turnips as for the 

 carrots. 



Chap. V. — Manuring, 



The only manuring admitted in Suffolk is that already de- 

 scribed respecting the preparatory turnips; or the equivalent 

 practice of sowing them on a layer. The importance peculiar 

 to carrots is this, of being raised without dung : every other fal- 

 low-crop (winter tares, pease, and buckwheat, alone excepted) 

 cannot be raised to advantage without dung : to give it therefore 

 to this plant would be erroneous, as will be more fully explained 

 in another chapter. 



In Mr. Burrows's last communication to the Board, he re- 

 gisters two crops sown on a wheat stubble, one dunged, and the 

 other not manured; and the latter cost about lOj. per acre less 

 in hoeing than the other. 



Chap. VI. — Time of Sowing. 

 In the carrot district of Suffolk, the general practice is to sow 

 about the 25th of March: other seasons have been tried, and on 

 much experience rejected : more than forty years ago, the Sandy 

 gardeners in Bedfordshire, who cultivated great quantities of 

 -carrots, informed nie, that Lady- day was also their time for 

 sowing. Mr. Billing, trying a later season, suffered much in his 

 crop. 



Chap. VII. — Seed and Steeping. 



There is a greater variation in this point than in most others: 



3 lbs. have been trusted to by some cultivators, four by others; 



but five are the general allowance in Suffolk: Mr. Burrows, of 



Norfolk, sowed eight, and at last 10 lbs. Upon a rich dry sand 



the 



