286 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIII. 



Aliout a fortnislit after the first appearance of tlie carrots — which will not 

 be in less tlian six or seven weeks, and even longer if the weather should 

 ])rove dry — they should be thinned out to the distance of about six inches, 

 and the land should be well hoed, to clear it of weeds. In about a fortnight 

 afterwards, when the roots have acquired some strength, a very light harrow- 

 ing is generally given ; and within another fortnight a second thinning-out 

 takes place, by which the plants are set at nine to twelve inches. Some- 

 times, indeed, another harrowing is given a fev/days after the second hoeing ; 

 and this, if it be done with care, and particularly if the surface of the land 

 has been caked by rain, is of essential service. Some persons, how'ever, do 

 not use the harrows, conceiving that they must do harm ; while those, on 

 the contrary, who do use them say — and they speak from evidence of the 

 fact — that the drawing of the soil to the plants is very advantageous. A 

 four or five-inch lioe is used for the first and second hoeing ; and at a 

 later period the weeds should be still further checked by the operation of a 

 nine-inch hoe, which sets the plants out to the distance of twelve to sixteen 

 inches ; but some persons use hoes of seven inches, which set out the plants 

 from nine to twelve. Careful farmers, indeed, frequently also hand-weed 

 their crops; and all these operations, requiring great nicety and attention, 

 should never be confided to any other than very experienced labourers, for 

 the haulm of the carrot is so very trifling, and lies so very close to the 

 ground, that it has very little chance among weeds, which, if suffered to 

 grow up, will soon choke its vegetation, even if it had the start of them. 



The species are all of the same original nature, differing only in colour 

 and flavour as the sorts have been rendered by cultivation more appropriate 

 to the field or garden, and are usually distinguished as the " early horn" 

 and the " long orange." The first, which is much grown in the neigh- 

 bourhood of great towns for the use of the table, is of a bright red, the 

 root short and rather thick, terminating in a fine thread. Its growth is rapid, 

 and its top small, con?equently it may stand closer upon the ground than 

 any of the other varieties; and when sown, it ought to be at the end of 

 February or the beginning of March, and is usually in a fit state to be taken 

 up about the close of Julv. The long orange, which is chiefly cultivated in 

 the sandlings of SuflTolk, at Sandwich in Kent, and near Bigpleswade in 

 Bedfordshire, from which places it is also sometimes named — is of a pale 

 yellow, bearing roots of a larger size, though coarser, and of inferior 

 flavour, but extensively grown by farmers, on account of its great produce, 

 for the use of cattle. 



In addition to these, tliere is also the "Altrincham carrot," so called 

 from a jilace in Cheshire, where it was originally produced, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of which it is very highly esteemed, and is now cultivated upon 

 the greatest scale as being the most productive, both in root and haulm, of 

 any species known. It grows to the extent of about two inches above the 

 ground, of a green colour ; the root attains a very great size, and is of a 

 bright orange, with a small dark coloured rind*. 



The harihn of the carrot is so delicate and slender, that it is by no means 

 vnifrequently mown for the use of cows, who are said to relish it extremely. 

 We have even heard of its having been made into hay, of which so much 

 as three or four tons per acre has been produced. The elFects on the crop, 

 hke the effects of mowing the haulm of potatoes, are so differently and 

 oppositely stated, that it is hazardous to draw any general conchisiou 

 either for or against the practice. It has, however, been thought probable, 

 * Trans, of the Hort, Soc. vol, iv. Art. 55. 



