124 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



small seedling's will not be overrun with weeds; the sur- 

 face soil should be kept loose and mellow throughout the sea- 

 son. It is a good plan to sow a few radish seeds with the car- 

 rot seed, so that cultivation may be commenced early, as the- 

 latter start slowly. The seed of the small kinds should be 

 sown very early in the spring and will produce roots big 

 enough for table use by early summer: but for the main crop 

 the seed should be sown about the middle of May in rows four- 

 teen inches apart. A fair crop may be expected, even if the 

 seed is not sown until the middle of June, although the dry 

 weather which generally prevails at that time of the 

 year is liable to prevent or retard the germination of the seed 

 or to burn up the seedlings just as they are pushing out of the 

 ground. The crop is sometimes sown in rows two feet apart 

 and cultivated with a horse implement. If the seed is good, 

 two pounds per acre, or about ten seeds to the foot of row, is 

 plenty to sow. Very thick seeding is not desirable, as the 

 cost of thinning in such a case is considerable. It is bast for 

 the experienced grower to have all the conditions right and 

 then sow the seed so that little, if any, weeding will be neces- 

 sary. The beginner will be very likely find it safest to sow a 

 large amount of seed, perhaps three pounds per acre, and thin 

 out so that the plants will stand three inches apart in the row; 

 The richer the soil, the more room the roots require in the row: 

 if small roots are wanted, they may be left an inch apart 

 in the row. 



Gathering. One of the greatest outlays in raising carrots 

 is in gathering and topping the crop. This work may be done 

 by hand, but hand labor is very costly. Some growers go 

 over the rows and cut the tops off with a sharp hand hoe. but 

 generally they are topped by hand after being plowed out. If 

 the tops of the roots are cut off a little, no harm is done, as it 

 does not increase the liability to rot as is the case with beets. 

 The roots are. perhaps, dug most easily by plowing close to 

 each row and then pulling the roots out by hand. For this 

 purpose a subsoil plow is best, but any good plow will answer 

 the purpose fairly well. If some short rooted variety is grown 

 and the land is mellow, the plow may often be run so as to turn 

 the roots out on top of the furrow slice, which is a most con- 

 venient way of gathering them. 



