TIME OP SOWING. THINNING. 185 



eight days. It should then be immediately rolled in 

 plaster and sown by the seed sower, in drills from fourteen 

 to eighteen inches apart. 



639. If the seed is new and good, two or three pounds 

 to the acre are quite enough to plant. If its quality is 

 unknown, four or five pounds may be used and the plant 

 thinned out while growing. The covering should be but 

 slight, not more than half an inch in depth. 



640. The ground should be fully prepared in the 

 previous autumn, and the seed put in as soon after the 

 15th of April as possible. The plant does better if started 

 while the ground is still quite moist, since it is very slow 

 in its early growth. 



641. When the plants are well up so as to be distinctly 

 seen, they should be hoed and weeded. It is much easier 

 to keep the weeds down at the outset, than to get them 

 out after they have overrun the crop. The number of 

 hoeings will depend much upon the character of the soil 

 and the previous culture. If the land is foul or very 

 weedy, it will require constant and repeated labor, at an 

 expense greater in some cases than the value of the crop 

 itself. 



642. At the second hoeing, or when the plants are two 

 or three inches high, they may be thinned out if they 

 require it, but a greater weight per acre may be obtained 

 without much thinning, and the smaller roots, though 

 they do not look quite so well, and will not sell for so 

 high a price, perhaps, are better for stock than very large 

 ones grown four or six inches apart. 



643. Carrots maybe allowed to stand till the early part 

 of November without injury from frost. They may be 

 raised from the earth by the plough or the fork, and stored 

 for winter use, the tops being fed to stock. 



