Cultivation of Arable Land. Carrot a After- culture of. 



the ground by the hand, covering it in either by flight harrowing, or hoeing in the 

 tops of the ridglets.* 



In this method, where the drill machine is ufed, it has been advifed by an intel 

 ligent cultivator to depofit the -feed to the depth of one inch in the rows, leaving 

 the fpaces of fourteen inches between them as intervals ; the feed in thefe cafes 

 being previoufly fteepcd in rain water for twenty-four hours, and left to fprout, 

 after which it is mixed with faw-duftand dry mould, in the proportion of one peck 

 and a half of each to a pound of the feed. The land is afterwards lightly har 

 rowed over once in a place. Two pounds of feed in this mode is found, as has 

 been obfervcd, fufficient for an acre of land.t 



After-culture. As plants of the carrot kind while young are of a rather delicate 

 nature, and do not rife quickly, it is of great importance to keep them from being 

 too much crowded together, and as free as pofTible from being (haded by weeds, 

 in their fitft growth. This may be accomplifhed by means of very fmall narrow 

 hand-hoes about three inches in width, with handles not exceeding a foot and a 

 half or two feet in length, the labourers refting upon their knees in making ufe 

 of them. But as in this way there is considerable danger of too many plants being 

 deftroyed, where the workmen are not expert, it may be a better practice to have 

 recourfe to hand-weeding, as in this mode the weakeft plants may with certainty 

 be removed until the reft are left at their proper diftances, and the weeds at the 

 fame time be wholly taken away. This operation may be rendered lefs difficult 

 by having the crops fown on ridges of fuch breadths as may eafily be managed by 

 two or three perfons. By this means the bufinefs may indeed be performed in 

 nearly as expeditious a manner as by the hoe, the trouble of feparating the weeds 

 from the plants in that way being fo confiderable, and by the operation being 

 performed in this effectual manner at firft, there will be lefs trouble in future hoe- 

 ings. A fecond hoeing mould be given in the courfe of three or four weeks from 

 the firft, according to the growth of the crop. This may be executed by means 

 of the common hand hoe, the operators carefully fetting out the plants to their 

 proper diftances. Thefe vary in practice from nine to eighteen inches, twelve 

 being that moft generally adopted.^. In the county of Suffolk, where carrot huf- 

 bandry is carried to a confiderable degree of perfection, the moft ufual diftance is 

 fifteen or eighteen inches each way. And at thefe diftances they have found, by 

 long experience, that the crops are finer and the roots larger, than when the plants 



* Young s Annals of Agriculture, vol. XXV. f Amos on Drill Husbandry, 



J Annals of Agriculture, vol. XXV. 



