ROOT CULTURE. 87 



The value of this crop is certainly great in the 

 e<onomy of the farm. Estimating the product at 

 twenty tons an acre, it will give 746 bushels of sixty 

 pounds each ; which, at the rate of two bushels a 

 day, would keep a cow, with the addition of a little 

 straw or chaff, 373 days, or somewhat more than a 

 year. Two tons of hay, the average product of ar. 

 acre, would keep the same animal, allowing a quar- 

 ter of a hundred per diem, but 160 days, or about 

 one third of the time that the wurzel from an acre 

 would keep her ; while the animal would be better 

 ?n flesh and milk on the roots than she would be on 

 the hay. 



In storing and keeping the mangold-wurzel in 

 winter, the same precautions must be taken, and the 

 same means adopted, as are required for securing 

 potatoes and ruta-baga. If deposited in pits, these 

 should be narrow, and ventilating holes made in the 

 crown of the pits. They are more liable to be in- 

 jured by frosts than the ruta-baga. 



III. THE CARROT. 



The soil best adapted to the growth of the carrot 

 is a deep sand-loam. The preparation of the ground 

 consists in ploughing to the depth of a foot, the ap- 

 plication of rotten manure, to be well incorporated 

 with the soil (except long manure has been applied 

 to the previous crop), and complete pulverization. 

 Ploughing the fall previously is recommended. 



The kind of carrot best adapted to field culture is 

 the long red. The seed should be of the preceding 

 year's growth. The best mode of culture is in drills ; 

 though in Suffolk, England, sowing broadcast is pre- 

 ferred. We have modern drill-barrows adapted to 

 the sowing of this seed, though the sowing it by 

 hand is not a tedious process, as a man may go 

 ahead in sowing in this way as fast as another drives 

 a barrow. The difference consists in making the 

 drill wit! i the hoe and covering the seed. As the 



