244 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



him to conclude that these were equal in use and 

 effect to one thousand loads of turnips, and to three 

 hundred loads of hay. At Parlington in Yorkshire, 

 the stock of a farm, consisting of twenty working- 

 horses, four bullocks, and six milch cows, were fed 

 from the end of September to the beginning of May 

 on the carrots produced from three acres of land. The 

 animals, during the whole of that period, lived on 

 these roots with the addition of only a very small 

 quantity of hay, and thirty hogs were fattened on the 

 refuse left by the cattle. 



The greater part of the alimentary portion of the 

 carrot consists, according to Sir Humphrey Davy's 

 analysis, of saccharine matter, which may in a con- 

 siderable degree account for its antiseptic qualities. 

 The quantity of nutritive matter is nearly ten per 

 cent in the whole weight of carrot, being 98 parts in 

 1000, and of these, three are starch or mucilage, and 

 the remaining ninety-five saccharine matter. The 

 quantity of ready formed saccharine matter in carrots 

 is much greater than in any of the cerealia, being % 

 per cent more than in barley, and about six times 

 more than the quantity contained in potatoes. It is 

 presumed, therefore, that carrots are much better 

 adapted than the latter for the distillery. Dr Hunter, 

 in the e Georgical Essays,' details experiments made 

 to prepare from carrots a beverage resembling beer, 

 and subsequently a spirituous liquor; the former proved 

 unsuccessful; but the result of the latter was, ac- 

 cording to the Doctor's opinion, very encouraging. 

 ' From a gross calculation,' he concludes, ' I am in- 

 duced to think that a good acre of carrots manu- 

 factured in this manner will leave a profit of forty 

 pounds, after deducting the landlord's rent, the cost of 

 cultivation, distillation, and other incidental expenses. 

 In this calculation I presume that the spirit is worth 

 six shillings per gallon, and not excised.' This is 



