DAUCUS 



CAROTA 



Carrot 



Bengal. 



Sowing Season. 



Imported 

 Forms. 



Yield. 



Seed 

 Eequired. 





U. Prov. 



Area. 



Season. 

 Yield. 



Panjab. 



Bombay. 



Two Crops. 



Transplanted. 



THE CAKROT 



gajjara-kellangu. The derivation of the Latin name carota and of the French 

 carotte is probably direct from the Greek karoton. The Sanskrit garjaru originated 

 the Persian zardak and the Arabic jegar. In fact, the evidence of cultivation 

 would lead to the inference that the carrot spread from Central Asia to Europe, 

 and if so it might be possible to trace the European names from the Indian and 

 the Persian. Indeed the carrot seems to have been grown and eaten in India 

 while in Europe it was scarcely known as more than a wild plant. In Anglo- 

 Saxon it was weal-mora, wald-mora, walck-mora, clap-wype, but it was confused 

 with the parsnip till about the end of the 1 1th century. These names recall the 

 German mohre, moraha, the Russian morkov, the Sanskrit mula, mulaka, and the 

 Kashmiri mor-mujh, and they all denote "root." 



Cultivation. Bengal. A writer in Indian Gardening (Oct. 27, 1898) 

 says in his experience (in Chumparan) the seed should be sown broad- 

 cast early in November. Of the imported varieties the Large White 

 Vosges and White Belgian succeeded best. The crop continued to yield 

 till the end of May. Other writers in the Northern and Central portions 

 of the province speak of sowings in August and the crop coming into 

 season in January and February. Mukerji (Handbook Ind. Agri., 

 1901, 357) observes that the carrot has a special value as a nourishing 

 famine food and fodder. The Red Mediterranean variety grown at the 

 Cawnpore Experimental Farm seems to be the best. The Yellow Mediter- 

 ranean is most highly spoken of as a cattle food. The yield of the White 

 Mediterranean carrot is almost equal to or even higher than that of country 

 carrots, but the roots are hard, coarse and insipid. When grown without 

 manure the country carrot gives a much larger yield than any of the 

 European varieties. The proper time for sowing carrot seed in the plains 

 is from September 15 to October 15. It is best to sow in drills and ridge 

 the drills after the plants have appeared, then thin out. The quantity of 

 seed used is 8 to 12 oz. an acre. The yield comes to 200 to 500 maunds 

 per acre, if loose soil near the village be chosen, deeply cultivated, 

 well pulverised, weeded and irrigated. The seed had better be mixed 

 with wood-ashes at the time of sowing, and unless the soil is quite moist, 

 water should be poured in the drills immediately after sowing. [Cf. Fir- 

 minger, Man. Gard. Ind. (ed. Cameron), 1904, 166-7.] 



united Provinces. Duthie and Fuller (Field and Gard. Crops, 1893, 

 pt. iii., 9) say the area occupied by the carrot is not separately estimated 

 in the agricultural returns, but the average under carrots, turnips and 

 radishes for the three years ending 1889-90 amounted to 41,463 acres. 

 The carrot is generally sown in September or October ; the roots are ready 

 for use after two months, and may last for three or four months. A loamy 

 soil is preferable. Under favourable conditions an outturn of over 200 

 maunds is possible. At Cawnpore 60 maunds is said to be the average, 

 but at Basti only 33 maunds. The bazar price in ordinary seasons is 

 from 8 to 16 seers an anna. 



Paajab. Brief notices are made of carrot cultivation in the Panjab. 

 In Jhang it is said " the zamindar's food consists largely of carrots " 

 (Replies Famine Comm., 228). In Sialkot (Gaz., 68) the carrot is spoken 

 of as grown all over the district, and the superior European kinds are 

 little known. 



Bombay. Of Gujarat it has been said that carrots of two kinds are 

 cultivated " the long-rooted " and the " blunt spindle form." They 

 are grown at various times in different parts of the province, generally 

 in garden beds from seeds sown broadcast, but are sometimes transplanted 

 from nurseries during the robi season. They take three months to mature, 



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