306 OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 



fingers or divided roots ; whereas, when the dung is laid 

 full 16 or 17 inches deep, not a single fork-rooted carrot 

 will be seen. A singular proof of the advantage of laying 

 dung deep, at least for carrots. 



After the dung is spread according to the above-men- 

 tioned direction, the drills are split down, and raised up 

 the same way as before, going twice round every ridge, in 

 order that there may be fully 16 inches from the dung all 

 of good mould. 



The dung being at the bottom, makes the tap root of 

 the carrot push immediately down, and swell to an enor- 

 mous size, the roots being often 16 inches in girth, and 18 

 or 20 inches in length. Mr Scott has frequently had cart- 

 loads of them picked out, and shewn as a curiosity, and not 

 one of them of less dimensions. 



Before sowing the seed, a rut is made along the top, 

 about four or five inches wide, and three deep, by means of 

 a hoe, to nllow room to the plants to stand in this shape, 



along the top of the ridge or drills, 



similar to double rows. 



Many crops of carrots are lost by bad seed. The best 

 and cheapest Mr Scott ever got was from Messrs Dicksons, 

 Shakespcar Square, Edinburgh. As the quality of seed 

 varies in different seasons, he always tried it in a hot-bed, 

 or something similar, on purpose to see how it sprung. 

 This trial at once showed, what was the proper quantity to 

 sow. Six, seven, or eight pounds, per English acre, some- 

 times produced a greater number of plants, than sixteen 

 pound at other times, which quantity has been sown, and 

 the plants were far from being too thick.* 



It is the difficulty of procuring good seed, and the minute attention 

 required in the culture of carrots, that renders them so rare in our fields. 



2 . 



