Ch. XXIII,] ON CAPvROTS. 287 



" that the mowing of tlie top of carrots will not injure the roots much, as it 

 evidently depends for its sustenance u])on the soil, and little, if at all, upon 

 the atmospliere ;" tlie different effects attributed to the practice may there- 

 fore result from the difl'erent states of the crop and of the weather*. 



The Storage does not often occasion much inconvenience, for tlie carrots 

 bear tlie cold so well, that farmers sometimes keep them in the ground 

 during a great part of the winter, taking them up only as they are wanted ; 

 but it is a slovenly practice, and they should be taken up whenever they are 

 evidently done growing, or at the latest, some time in November. 



In the neighbourhood of towns, wliere large quantities of roots are con- 

 sumed, they are taken up, bunched, and washed for the market in the fol- 

 lowing manner : Two men, a woman, and a boy, are employed. One 

 man takes up the roots with a pronged fork, the other bunches them ; and 

 the boy carries them to the woman who washes them, and from the buncher 

 to the cart. In order that the buncher and the washer may perform their 

 several tasks with convenience, two holes are dug in the field, sufficiently 

 deep and wide to permit the persons in them to move round, and to stand 

 nearly breast high, and so near, that the person in the one can reach to the 

 other. The buncher has a board placed before him, on the surface of the 

 field ; and the washer a large tub before her, in which she washes them 

 carefully, and then hands them over to the man, who, after cutting off the 

 haulm and the ends of the roots, ties them up in bunches on her board. 

 The charge near London is paid by the load of 40 bushels, at rates varying 

 from ten to twelve shillings to the labourers ; the man who digs them 

 getting four to five shillings for himself and boy, and the buncher from six 

 to seven shillings for himself and partner, which, added to the cost of car- 

 riage, renders the expense very considerable ; but when only intended for 

 the use of cattle, the cost of washing and bunching is of course not 

 incurred. 



When stored for j^i'osei'vation during the winter, different modes are 

 practised, according to the conveniences possessed by the farmer. Those 

 who have a sufficient range of outbuildings, lay clean dry straw on the 

 floor, on which they pack the carrots, the haulm being first cut off, to the 

 height of five or six feet, and straw is again laid close upon the top of the 

 heap. Others, who have not that room, make pits with a trench round 

 them, in some dry sandy spot, at the bottom of which they place a consi- 

 derable quantity of pea or wheat straw, and then alternate layers of carrots 

 placed close to each other in an upright position, with a layer upon them of 

 sand and straw, carried up in the form of a ridge, and upon the top of the 

 last layer of straw, a layer of earth well pressed down with the spadef. A 

 better mode is, however, instead of pits, to pile the roots upon an eartlien 

 bank, in short spaces, raised a little above the level of the soil ; upon this 

 to spread a layer of straw, in which they are to be placed two or three 

 deep, with successive intervening- strata of straw ; the tops being turned 

 upwards, and their ends folding over the centre, while the smaller roots are 

 topped and thrown in between. The stacking may be continued in the 

 ridge- form to the height of about four feet, which should then be well 

 thatched. Another line should then be commenced, leaving room for one 

 to pass between; and the intervals are filled up with fern, or any dry stuff", 

 stacked down, or fastened with hurdles J. 



* Stevenson's Rep, of Surrey, p. 284. 

 f Stevenson's Surrey, p. 2S7. Malcolm's ditto, vol, ii, p. 481. 

 + Complete Grazier, Gih edit, p. 52C. 



