28-1 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIII. 



all kinds of cattle, but more particularly to horses, whose coats it strikingly 

 improves within a very short time *. 



Tlie soil ichich is best adapted to carrots is a loose, sandy, friable loam, 

 of considerable depth, and they are accordingly verv extensively grown in 

 the sandlings of Sufiblk and Surrey ; but, allhoun-h so valuable for the 

 nourishment of stock, their culture on this kind of land, of which there 

 are extensive tracts throughout tlie kingdom, is by no means so general as 

 might be supposed. It is indeed thought that they will thrive equally well 

 upon a poor soft sand as upon one of a superior quality, and, from ex- 

 periments made in Scotland, it is also thought that they will flourish upon 

 peaty soils t, the richness of the ground not being considered so material 

 as its depth and freedom from stones ; and farmers are almost so universally 

 of that opinion, that the crop is very commonly produced without manure ; 

 it is, indeed, viewed as so little exhausting to the soil, that succeeding crops 

 of barley have, in no single instance, been found in any way deficient 

 when they have been raised after turnips, one-third of which have been fed 

 off upon the land +. 



The objection to the use of manure also exists in its being found, when 

 coming into contact with the roots, to cause them to divide, thus forming 

 two prongs, and becoming so deformed and ill-flavoured, as to render 

 them unsaleable for table use. The richness of the ground occasioned by 

 the manure also has a tendency to make them run to seed, or at least fre- 

 quently causes them to become hard and sticky, and of course unfit for 

 the market, and its application has therefore been strongly condemned by 

 many eminent writers §. This, indeed, may be founded on fact with regard 

 to lo7ig dung ; but with respect to other sorts, their opinion should be re- 

 ceived with caution ; for the market-gardeners, though generally prefer- 

 ring to sow carrots without dung after a crop which has been previously 

 manured, yet sometimes use decomposed manure; and we find Arthur 

 Young recommending it in such strong terms that he says, '' If you would 

 command your crops of this root, you should manure the land with 25 or 

 30 loads of dung per acre, pretty rotten, ploughed in, and then cover the 

 seed by harrowing. The dung neither injures the taste of the carrot, 

 makes them grow deformed, nor causes the canker. A farmer's object is 

 to produce as great a quantity as possible from every acre, wliich must 

 undoubtedly be accomjilished by manure ||." Although we think he goes 

 unnecessarily far in the amount of the manure, we are yet persuaded that 

 lie is, to a certain extent, right, provided it be perfectly decomposed spit- 

 dung, and previously well incorporated with the ground ^, and that the 

 object be rather the production of crops' for the use'of the homestead than of 

 the table ; in confirmation of which w^e have seen a statement of the cultiva- 

 tion of carrots upon soil of precisely the same nature, one-half sown unma- 

 nured, and the other manured, both after potatoes, the result of which was — 

 Unmanured. Jlanured. 



Roots, 9 tons per acre. Roots, 1 2 tons per acre. 



Tops 4 do. Tops, 5 do. 



the quality of both being, in both cases, precisely similar**. 



* See vol. i. chap. vii. ]ip. 125 and ]2S._ 



•}■ Sinclair, on Scottish Husbandry, vol. i, p. 303. 



J Farm. jMag., vol. xv. p. 483. § Malcolm's Smrcy, vol. ii. p. 477. 



|l Farmer's Calendar, p. 71. 



^y Lout,' dung has been also used with good effect, when laid upon the land after the 

 seed has been sown, and then raked off when the ground requires h.oein.'.— Von That r, 

 Trine. Rais. d'Agric, -Jnd edit. turn. iv. p, 3SG. *» Farm. Mag., vol. xv. p. 7. 



