ON ROOT CROPS. 105 



Such has not been the general experience by the cuhivators in 

 Essex. In the hope of throwing light on this question, Fran- 

 cis Dodge, of Danvers, who the last year obtained the Society's 

 premium, was requested to i)lant the same land with carrots. 

 This he did, but they came up so thin, that during the first 

 part of the season he had little hope of a middling crop. But 

 they continued to grow and almost made up in size what was 

 wanting in numbers, — he estimated the produce at twenty-three 

 tons to the acre, and thought if they had come up as he inten- 

 ded they should, his crop would have been as good as he ever 

 raised. This fact is rather against our preconceived notions, 

 but we state it as given, our purpose being to ascertain facts, 

 and not to establish a particular theory. 



We accidentally hap[)ened to be on the ground of John Stone, 

 Jr., of Marblehead, while he was gathering his carrots, and 

 complained to him that he had not asked the attention of the 

 committee to his crop. He said they came up so badly., that 

 he should be ashamed to speak of them. We saw among them 

 some carrots that were as much as sixteen inches in circumfer- 

 ence and twenty-foTU" inches long, and which would weigh six 

 pounds or more. Mr. Stone estimated his crop at twenty tons 

 or upwards to the acre, and he is not the man to overstate. 



On Mr. Mason's ground Ave saw a luxuriant field of carrots, 

 of the produce of which we should have been pleased to have 

 been informed, but as we are not we cannot say more. 



On the land of Henry King, of Danvers, we saw a beautiful 

 field of carrots, up well, and enough of ihem, — but when we 

 inquired the result, we were told a blight came upon them, the 

 leaves turned yellow, — and further our informant said not. 

 The same in substance, was the result of our inquiries of sev- 

 eral other cultivators of the carrot crop. 



Mr. Ware, of the committee, continues to entertain a favor- 

 able opinion of the cultivation of the carrot, as will be seen in 

 the letter annexed. 



Not having any statement of the culture of carrots the pres- 

 ent season, we have given the above facts that came within 

 our own observation, that some idea may be formed how the 

 carrot grows, comparatively with other crops. 

 14 



