On the Culture of Carrots. 423 



against the frost; but a very thin coat of thatch will be a more 

 regular defence. They have also with success been formed into 

 pies, in the method used for potatoes, but much more slightly 

 covered, against frost. Bur, whatever method is pursued, the 

 farmer should not for a moment forget, that he should be more 

 careful to guard against heating and rotting than against frost : 

 if they are put together dry, and rain be entirely kept out, so 

 that all steam may pass easily through the thatch, they will keep 

 well. Mr. Burrows practised a method different from all these; 

 and as it is a point in the cultivation of particular importance, it 

 will be proper to insert his own account: " The method consists 

 in putting the carrots together in large heaps of five or six hun- 

 dred bushels each, in the field where grown, and covering the 

 heaps with straw or stubble sufficient to keep them from frost. 

 A slight covering of straw only is all that is necessarv for those 

 heaps that are likely to be soon wanting for use, as tiie object in 

 putting them in heaps and covering them up, is to keep away 

 the hares and rabbits, which, when the carrots lie scattered about, 

 are very destructive to them. To secure the crop from the de- 

 predations of these animals, is of more consequence than the 

 danger to be apprehended from slight, or than even from smart 

 frosts : the frosts usual before Christmas are seldom severe 

 enough to hurt a carrot-root, particularly if a thin covering of 

 straw or stubble is thrown over the heap; and as to the rain do- 

 ing them injury, I can only say I experienced no such thing , 

 for after a heavy rain, I generally caused all the heaps to be un- 

 covered, and exposed the first dry day to both sun and wind, and 

 then had them covered over again. One thing I have to observe, 

 I always took care to have the heaps put together wiien the roots 

 were in a dry and clean state; therefore after-rains never made 

 them dirty, and by uncovering the heap aijout an hour or two 

 before the team came for them, I had the carrots carried to the 

 stables in a state as clean as if they had been previously washed. 

 Those heaps 1 intended should remain abroad all winter, I co- 

 vered over with mould about six inches thick, in the same man- 

 ner potatoes are preserved : these heaps were my stores in very 

 severe weather, after the other heaps were all consumed, and 

 when the ground was either covered with snow or locked up by 

 frost. I found this a preferable way of storing carrots to tliat of 

 housing them, and less expensive; at the same time it keeps 

 them sweeter ; for when too many are put together in a house, 

 they are apt to heat, and then a great deal of trouble is occasioned, 

 and sometimes injury sustained : all this is prevented, beside 

 considerable expense saved, by storing them in the field." 



Chap. Xni. — Apjdicalion of the Crop. 

 The information to be procured under this head may be thus 



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