Carrot 



air to keep it down to that figure or to 65. It will probably decline 

 to 60 by the time the plant appears, but if the bed is a good one 

 it will stand at that figure long enough to make the crop. Thin 

 betimes to two or three inches, give air at every opportunity, let the 

 plant have all the light possible, and cover up when hard weather is 

 expected. Should the heat go down too soon, linings must be used 

 to finish the crop. Radishes and other small things can be grown 

 on the same bed. 



The first sowings on warm borders may need the shelter of mats 

 or old lights until the plant has made a good start, but it is not often 

 the plant suffers in any serious degree from spring frosts, as the seed 

 will not germinate until the soil acquires a safe temperature. All the 

 early crops of Carrot can be grown on a prepared soil, or a light 

 sandy loam, free from recent manure. 



For the main crops double digging should be practised, and if 

 the staple is poor a dressing of half-rotten dung may be put in with 

 the bottom spit. But a general manuring as for a surface-rooting 

 crop is not to be thought of, the sure effect being to cause the roots 

 to fork and fang most injuriously. It is sound practice to select for 

 Carrots a deep soil that was heavily manured the year before, and to 

 prepare this by double digging without manure in the autumn or 

 winter, so as to have the ground well pulverised by the time the seed 

 is sown. Then dig it over one spit deep, break the lumps, and make 

 seed-beds four feet wide. Sow in April in drills, mixing the seed 

 with dry earth, the distance between rows to be eight to twelve 

 inches according to the sort ; cover the seed with a sprinkling of fine 

 earth, and finish the bed neatly. As soon as possible thin and weed 

 the crop, but do not thin to the full distance in the first instance. 

 By a little management it will be an easy matter during showery 

 weather to draw delicate young Carrots for the final thinning, and 

 these will admirably succeed the latest of the sowings in frames and 

 warm borders. The Surrey and Altrincham must be in rows a foot 

 asunder, and the plants left to mature at ten inches apart in the 

 rows. Smaller sorts will, of course, require less space. 



In July, frame culture of the smaller sorts should commence, but 

 hot-beds may be dispensed with, and lights will not be wanted until 

 there is a crop needing protection, when the lights may be put on, or 

 the frames may be covered with shutters or mats. Thus, in addition 

 to the main crops, a constant succession of young Carrots will be 

 secured for the whole year round, and in every good household they 

 will be appreciated alike for their delicacy and their beauty. 



39 



