Cultivation of Arable Land Carrots Preparation of Land for. 



mer view it can fcldom be repeated with propriety at any very fhort diftance of 

 time. 



In letting the crop Hand for feed, birds are to be carefully kept from it, 

 as they arc apt to devour large quantities from their being particularly fond 

 of it. 



Carrots. Though this valuable root has been cultivated in a local manner for a 

 great length of time in this country, it is only within the lad ten or fifteen years that 

 it has been much applied to the puipofe of feeding live flock by the farmer. It 

 would fee m to have been introduced into the fouthern parts of the ifland from the 

 Low-countries, where its culture and ufe as food for horfes had been long known 

 nndpracitifed. 



Although there are many varieties of the common carrot,* there feems to be 

 only one that is proper for being cultivated in the field for the purpofe of feeding 

 animals. This is the fort ufually termed the orange carrot, in which the colour is 

 much more dark than in the other varieties, and the fteih more faccharine and jui 

 cy. The root of this variety moftly rifes to nearly double the fize of that of the 

 pale yellow kind. 



The foils on which crops of this root fucceed to thegreateft advantage are thofe 

 which have confiderable depth of fine mould, either of the friable, loamy, fandy, or 

 vegetable earthy, kinds ; but they may probably be cultivated to advantage on moft 

 forts, except thofe of the ftiff clayey and thin gravelly or chalky defcriptions. The 

 black deep vegetable, and the rich deep fandy, foils, appear however the beft cal 

 culated for this fort of crop, as well as moft other kinds : and the medium fands 

 and fandy loams ftand next, as beft adapted to its culture.-j- 



In the preparation of the land for carrot crops, as the roots of the plants are of 

 the tap kind, repeated deep ploughing is particularly necefTary, in order that they 

 may be enabled to pufh downwards, and diftend themfelves with facility in the 

 foil ; as in this fort of hufbandry, where due pulverifation is not effected to a con 

 fiderable depth, the roots are liable to become forked and of very limited growth, 

 fending off numerous lateral roots, in confequence of their inability to get down ; 

 by which the quantity and value of the produce are greatly leffened. This deep 

 tillage may be perfectly accomplimed either by means of the trench-plough fol 

 lowing the common one, or by the common one alone, with a good ftrcngth of 

 team ; but the former method is to be preferred, wherever the lands are inclined 

 so be ftiff or heavy. Three ploughings are moftly found fufficient, where the 



* Daucus Carota*. f Young s Annals of Agriculture, vol. XXV, 



