210 CARROTS. 



best crops of Carrots have been obtained by turning over a good 

 clover sod late in August, on ground that had been previously 

 well subsoiled, harrowing lengthwise of the furrow, and in the 

 spring mellowed up thoroughly with a two-horse cultivator. The 

 seed should be got in as soon as the ground is warm, and sown 

 with a liberal hand. It pays better to thin out the young plants 

 afterward, than to be so sparing of seed as to have large blanks 

 in the rows. The young plants are so feeble, that when they 

 stand singly they are often unable to force their way through tho 

 crust that frequently forms over the surface of the soil, but when 

 sown thick, their united efibrts seem to be able to break the 

 crust that was too strong for a single plant. It is a great mis- 

 take to sow Carrots on ground that is full of seeds of weeds. If 

 it be possible to till the ground with some hoed crop, such as 

 early potatoes or early cabbages, the season before, and after the 

 crop is taken off plough and harrow, and when the weeds start 

 harrow again with a heavy harrow, and in this way turn up as 

 many of the weed seeds as possible to the surface, and after they 

 start to grow kill them with the harrow or two-horse cultivator, 

 much labor of weeding the next season after the ground is sown 

 to Carrots will be spared. 



The seed should be sown in drills about one inch deep and 

 twelve to fourteen inches apart. Just as soon as the rows of 

 young Carrots can be seen, they should be gone over with the 

 hoe and carefully cleaned out. If once the weeds are allowed 

 to get the start of the young Carrots and choke them, an irre- 

 parable injury will have been done them, and the labor of weed- 

 ing more than doubled. In their earlier life Carrots are feeble 

 plants, and easUy stunted and injured by an overgrowth of 

 weeds. When they have become fairly established they should 

 be thinned out to about four inches apart, and the ground kept 

 clean, and stirred frequently during all the growing season. 



In the autumn the roots should be taken up and secured 

 before the frosts are hard enough to injure them, that is, before 

 the frost is hard enough to freeze the ground. Those that are 



