330 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY, 



with the same amount of manure used for the carrots, and was 

 by no means such as would be selected as best adapted for the 

 growth of this crop. The large crop obtained was the result 

 mainly of very careful and very thorough management. In those 

 days of low prices the total cost of the cultivation and harvesting 

 was only $30 per acre — about three cents a bushel for the roots 

 produced. Of course, so cheap a result could not now be ob- 

 tained, and it is not likely that it ever can be again ; though when 

 we consider the relative value of the crop, as compared with that 

 of others requiring more or less labor, any yield nearly so large 

 as this must be obtained at a cheap rate. 



As they require considerable more labor and are not quite so 

 easily kept in winter, carrots are not so valuable to the farmer as 

 either rutabagas or mangels. A small quantity should always be 

 raised as giving an excellent variety in feeding ; but the main crop 

 should be of the other roots, unless there is some reliable local 

 demand for carrots, as there sometimes is, for feeding livery and 

 private horses. Whenever so high a price as 30 cents a bushel 

 can be relied on, and especially where women and children can 

 be hired to do the weeding and thinning, for a portion of the crop, 

 (on shares,) or for moderate daily wages, it will pay exceedingly 

 well to raise carrots. They may be raised, year after year, on 

 the same land ; and, if the crop is kept thoroughly cleaned 

 throughout the season, the work of weeding will be yearly less 

 and less. 



Carrots are grown very largely in certain districts of New 

 England as a second crop among onions, and probably a great 

 deal of the accumulated capital of the farmers of the island of 

 Rhode Island has been derived from this double cultivation. 

 Latterly, the injury of the onion crop by the maggot has 

 greatly lessened the extent of their growth, and the consequent 

 production of carrots. The custom in Rhode Island is, to plant 

 the onions at regular intervals in narrow rows, planting a few car- 

 rot seeds between each two plants of every row. After the onion 

 crop is taken off the carrot has all the time that it requires to 

 make a handsome growth ; but, owing to the fact that the carrots 



