UMBELLIFER.E. CXXXI. DAUCUS. 



355 



cultivated variety is large, succulent, and of a red, yellow, or 

 pale straw colour. 



Use. It is used in soups and stews, and as a vegetable dish. 

 Parkinson informs us that, in his day, ladies wore carrot leaves 

 instead of feathers. In winter, an elegant chimney ornament is 

 sometimes formed by cutting off a section from the head or 

 thick end of a carrot, containing the bud, and placing it in a 

 shallow vessel with water. Young and delicate leaves unfold 

 themselves, forming a radiated tuft, of a very handsome appear- 

 ance, and heightened by contrast with the season of the year. 



Varieties. Those in common cultivation are : 



1 Large red or jield carrot, grows to a large size, and is 

 chiefly cultivated in fields, and in farmers' gardens, for colouring 

 butter. 



2 Orange carrot. The root is long and large, of an orange 

 colour, and is the best sort for the main crop. 



3 Early horn. Root short, smaller. It is the best kind for 

 a small, early crop ; also for shallow soils. 



4 Late horn. With the same characteristics as the preceding, 

 but suited for a late crop. 



William Christie enumerates the following sorts of horn car- 

 rots : Early red, common early, long horn. Of long carrots : 

 White, yellow, long yellow, long orange, long red, and the Al- 

 tringham, or superb, originally from Cheshire. 



Soil. The carrot requires a light mellow soil, mixed with 

 sand, which should be dug or trenched one or two spades deep, 

 breaking well all the lumpy parts, so as to form a porous bed, 

 and an even surface. The orange and red sorts, on account of 

 their longer roots, require a soil proportionally deeper than 

 the hornj. 



Seed estimate and sowing. The seeds have numerous forked 

 hairs on their ribs, by which they adhere together, and therefore 

 should, previously to sowing, be rubbed between the hands, and 

 mixed with dry sand, in order to separate them as much as pos- 

 sible. They are also very light, and therefore a calm day must 

 be chosen for sowing ; and the seeds should be disseminated 

 equally, and trod in before raking. Previously to sowing, if 

 convenient, the seed should be proven, by sowing a few in a pot, 

 and placing it in a hot-bed, or hot-house, as it is more frequently 

 bad than most garden seeds. For a bed 4| feet by 30, one 

 ounce will be requisite, and the same for 1 50 feet of drill rows. 



Times of sowing. To have early summer carrots, sow on a 

 warm border in the beginning of February, or, to have them 

 still more forward, sow in a moderate hot-bed, giving copious 

 admission of air. In the open garden, begin with the early 

 horn, in the last fortnight of February, or first week of March, 

 as dry, fine, and open weather may occur. The first sown beds 

 should be assigned a favourable situation, and covered for a 

 time with haulm. Follow with the orange, in the first fortnight 

 of March, and make successive sowings thence to the 20th of 

 April for main crops. Add smaller sowings twice in May, for 

 plants to draw young late in summer ; also sow a few at the 

 commencement of July, for a later succession of young carrots 

 in summer and autumn. Lastly, in the beginning of August, 

 two separate small sowings may be made for plants to stand the 

 winter, and afford young roots early in spring, March and 

 April. 



Insects. Carrots, when they come up, are apt to be attacked 

 by insects, like the turnip ; the most approved remedies for 

 which are thick sowing, in order to afford both a supply for the 

 insects and the crop ; and late sowing, especially in light soils, 

 thus permitting the grubs to attain their fly state before the seed 

 comes up. 



Culture. When the plants are up 2 or 3 inches in growth, in 

 May and June, they will require thinning and clearing from 

 weeds, either by hand or small hoeing. Thin from 3 to 5 inches' 



distance, such as are designed for drawing in young and mid- 

 dling growth. But the main crop, intended for larger and full- 

 sized roots, thin to 6 or 8 inches' distance. Keep the whole 

 clean from weeds in their advancing young growth. Some of 

 small and middling growth will be fit for drawing in June and 

 July ; large sizeable roots, in August and September ; and those 

 of full growth, by the end of October. 



Preserving in winter. Carrots are taken up at the approach 

 of winter, cleaned, and stored among sand. They may be built 

 very firm, by laying them heads and tails alternately, and pack- 

 ing with sand. In this way, if frost be excluded from the store- 

 house, they keep perfectly well till March or April of the fol- 

 lowing year. Some persons insist that the tops should be 

 entirely cut off at the time of storing, so as effectually to pre- 

 vent their growing ; while others wish to preserve the capability 

 of vegetation, though certainly not to encourage the tendency to 

 grow. 



To save seed. Plant some of the largest best roots in Octo- 

 ber, November, or the last fortnight of February, 2 feet apart ; 

 insert them a few inches over the crowns. They will yield ripe 

 seed in autumn, of which gather only from the principal umbel, 

 which is likely not only to afford the ripest and largest seed, but 

 the most vigorous plants. A considerable quantity of carrot- 

 seed, for the supply of the London seedsmen, is raised near 

 Weatherfield in Essex ; and much is imported from Holland. 



Field culture of the carrot. It is observed, by a judicious wri- 

 ter, that the carrot has been too much neglected on lands, where 

 it would have yiehled a more valuable product in agriculture 

 perhaps than any bulbous or tap-rooted plant whatever. Several 

 contradictory experiments in its culture have been detailed in a 

 number of publications, from which the practical husbandman 

 will be at a loss to draw any definite conclusion. But in a com- 

 munication to the board of agriculture from Robert Burrows, 

 an intelligent Norfolk farmer, who has cultivated carrots on a 

 large scale, and with great success, for several years, so accurate 

 an account is presented of the culture, application, and extraor- 

 dinary value of this root, that carrots will probably soon enter 

 more largely into the rotation of crops on suitable soils. 



Varieties. The only sort adapted for field culture is the long 

 red or field carrot. New seed is most essential, as it will not 

 vegetate the second year. 



The best soil for the carrot is a deep rich sandy loam ; such a 

 soil ought at least to be a foot deep, and all equally good from 

 top to bottom ; on any other the field culture of the carrot will 

 not answer. 



In preparing the soil for the carrot, it is essential to plough it 

 before winter, that it may be pulverized by frost, and to work it 

 well in the spring to at least the depth of a foot. This deep 

 tillage may be perfectly accomplished by means of the trench 

 plough, following the common one, or even by the common one 

 alone with a good strength of team ; but the former method is to 

 be preferred, wherever the lands are inclined to be stiff or 

 heavy. Three ploughings are mostly found sufficient where the 

 land has been previously in a state of tillage, but more may in 

 other cases be necessary. As soon as the last ploughing has 

 been made in March, the land should be harrowed, and the sur- 

 face made as fine as possible. In Suffolk the farmers sow car- 

 rots after turnips, barley, and peas, set upon a rye-grass ley ; 

 the crops upon the first have generally been most productive ; 

 next to that they prefer the latter. In the -first place, they feed 

 off the turnips by the beginning of February, and then lay the 

 land up in small bulks or furrows, in which state it remains till 

 the second week in March, when it is harrowed down, double 

 furrowed to the depth of about a foot, and the seed sown. 



The climate most suitable to the carrot is the same as for the 

 turnip ; but they will thrive better than the turnip in a dry and 

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