Book VI. THE PARSNEP. 797 



4947. In comparing the carrot vnth the potatoe, an additional circumstance greatly in 

 favor of the former is, that it does not require to be steamed or boiled, and it is not 

 more difficult to wash than the potatoe. These and other circumstances considered, 

 it appears to be the most valuable of all roots for working horses. 



4948. The use of the carrot in domestic economy is well known. Their produce of 

 nutritive matter, as ascertained by Sir H. Davy, is ninety-eight parts in one thousand, 

 of which three are starch, and ninety-five sugar. They are used in the dairy in winter 

 and spring to give color and flavor to butter. In the distillery, owing to the great pro- 

 portion of sugar in their composition, they yield more spirit than the potatoe : the usual 

 quantity is twelve gallons per ton. They are excellent in soups, stews, and haricots, and 

 boiled whole with salt beef. ^ 



4949. To save carrot seed, select annually some of the most perfect and best-shaped 

 roots in the taking-up season, and either preserve them in sand in a cellar till spring, 

 or plant them immediately in an open airy part of the garden, protecting them with 

 litter during severe frosts, or earthing them over, and uncovering them in March follow- 

 ing. The seed is in no danger of being contaminated by any other plant, as the wild 

 carrot, even should it happen to grow in the neighborhood, flowers later. In August 

 it will be fit to gather, and is best preserved till wanted on the stalks. This is the most 

 certain mode of procuring genuine and new seed, but still it will be found advisable to 

 change it occasionally. 



4950. The diseases of carrots are only such as are common to most plants, such as mildew, 

 insects, &c. The mildew and worms at the root frequently injure crops, and are to 

 be guarded against as far as practicable by a proper choice of soil, season of sowing, and 

 after culture. 



Sect. IV. The Parsnep. Pastinaca sativa, L. Pentan. Dig. L. and Umbelliferce, J. 

 Le Panais, Fr. ; Pastinake, Ger. ; and Pastinaca, Ital. 



4951. The parsnej) is a biennial plant with a fusiform root like the carrot, and nearly 

 equal in its products of nutritive and saccharine matter. It is a native of most parts of 

 Europe and generally cultivated in gardens, but is only of late and very partial intro- 

 duction as a field plant. Its culture has been chiefly confined to the island of Jersey, 

 where it attains a large size, and is much esteemed for fattening cattle and pigs. It 

 is considered rather more hardy than the carrot, and its produce is said to be greater. It 

 may be sown either in autumn or spring, and its seed admits of drilling by machinery. 

 The plants when they come up are, more easily recognized than carrots, and therefore 

 their culture is on the whole more simple, less dependant on manual labor, and, there- 

 fore, more suited to farming. For the rest, their culture is the same as that of the carrot. 



4952. The variety best suited for the field is the large Jersey, the seed of which should 

 be procured from the island, as that of the garden parsnep sold by the seedsmen never 

 attains the same size. 



4953. The soil, preparation, and manure for this plant are the same fis for the 

 carrot. 



4954. The quantity "if seed for sowing in drills is from 4 to 5 lbs. per acre, and for 

 broad-cast 6" or 8 lbs. It must always be new, as two years seed does not come up freely. 

 It may or may not be prepared by steeping, but it requires no earth or sand, or rubbing, 

 as it passes freely through the same drill that will sow tares or pease. 



4955. T/ie a'me o/*soit;m5^ is generally about the middle of February; but some sow 

 in September, in which case the seed does not vegetate till early in spring. This last 

 method, however, is obviously against the culture of the soil, which must thus remain a 

 year in a consolidated state. 



4956. The manner (f sowing is generally in drills at fifteen or eighteen inches distance: 

 but some sow broad-cast and harrow in the seed ; and in Jersey parsneps and beans are gene- 

 rally cultivated together. The beans are first dibbled in, and afterwards the parsnep seed 

 scattered over the surface and harrowed. It is acknowledged that a good crop of both 

 plants is never obtained ; and therefore, though this mode may be found to answer in the 

 mild climate of Jersey, it is not to be imitated in other places. Drills or broad-cast with- 

 out any intermixture of plants are the only advisable modes. 



4957. The after-culture and taking up is the same as for the carrot, with this difference, 

 that the parsnep when sown broad-cast is generally thinned out to twelve inches at an 

 average plant from plant, and when in rows eighteen inches apart, to nine inches in the row. 



4958. The produce is said to be greater than that of carrots ; and the economical applica- 

 tion the same. In the fattening of cattle it is found equal if not superior, performing the 

 business with as much expedition, and affording meat of exquisite flavor and a highly 

 juicy quality. The animals eat it with much greediness. It is reckoned that thirty 

 perches, where the crop is good, will be sufficient to fatten an ox of three or four years 

 old when perfectly lean, in the course of three months. They are given in the proportion 

 of about thirty pound weight morning, noon, and night; the large ones being split in 



