136 CARROT. 



considerably here. The rind is barely scraped when cooked, as its 

 peculiar taste resides in it. Few dinners are made without it in 

 France and Germany. This turnip grows on almost any soil, and 

 without manure. By sowing turnips broad-cast in spring and summer, 

 they may be obtained during all the year. They are thinned and 

 hoed, or left thick, so that the turnip-fly will spare sufficient for use. 



Turnips often acquire great weight, even 29 pounds, and a yard in 

 circumference, it is said. An oz. of seed is said to contain near 15,- 

 000 single seeds; each weighs, therefore, a 15,000th part of an ounce. 

 Its growth, when uniform, increases 15 times its weight in a minute, 

 and it has been proved that turnips have increased 15,990 times the 

 weight of their seed every day ! The weight and surface of turnips, 

 in regard to soil, is also very great. An average crop yields 11,664 

 roots per acre ; and if each average 6 pounds, the whole will be 69,- 

 994 pounds. 



The rind of the common turnip should be carefully peeled off before 

 being eaten, as it contains an acrid principle, as in mustard and the 

 rind of radishes. Boiled or mashed in milk, turnips are a light and 

 wholesome food, especially to the plethoric and sanguine. The com- 

 position of the turnip is chiefly water combined with nutritive matter, 

 of which 4 or 6 parts are saccharine, 8 or 10 starch, &c. The juice, 

 after boiling, coagulates and deposits albumen. 



B. rapa; root a continuation of the stem, orbicular, flattened, fleshy; 

 radical leaves, lyrale, rough ; stem-leaves entire, smooth ; stem erect, 

 branched, round, smooth ; flowers yellow ; calyx yellow ; pods round. 



CARROT, Daucus Carota. C. 5.01. Umbilliferse, sp. 8-17. Dh. 

 Tr. 2 ft. The wild plant is a small woody root, but the cultivated 

 carrot is large and succulent. It contains much nutriment, but il must 

 be perfectly boiled. It is an excellent food for horses and cows in 

 winter, with hay, causing in the latter an increase of milk ; swine also 

 thrive well on it, as it contains much saccharine matter. 10 pounds 

 of carrots yield half a pint of strong ardent spirits, and an acre pro- 

 duces 240 gals. A syrup made of the roots, and clarified with the 

 white of eggs, is useful for many domestic purposes, and the juice and 

 an infusion of the seeds are some used for the gout, &c. For scurvy 

 a marmalade is made of them, and they are used as a poultice for gan- 

 grenous ulcers. With a paste of flour and arsenic, crickets are effec- 

 tually destroyed by it. 



The carrot is supposed to have come from Candia, but the wild plant 

 grows here and in Enrope. It is much used for soups, stews, &c., and 

 forms a fine side dish with boiled meats ; it likewise makes an excel- 

 lent pudding, and in some places it is much eaten pickled. There are 

 several varieties (Loudon reckons 10 garden varieties). The early 

 orange is best for the garden, and the long orange, or red, for field 

 crops. The horn carrot is a good crop for thin soil, being both early 



