238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



throw them into one, and so pass over the ground. Let them 

 lie there two or three weeks. The first two or three days, let 

 them be together ; that helps decay the tops. Then give them 

 a very gentle raking with wooden rakes. There is a great deal 

 of damage done raking too hard and rough. Then they are 

 taken into a shed and topped, or topped on the ground. If they 

 are topped on the ground, they can be marketed without any 

 handling. 



Carrots are not so easily handled. There are several ways in 

 which carrots can be managed. The common way is to take a 

 digging fork and go along and start them, and then have a boy 

 pull them. One boy can pull as many as two men can start. 

 Another way is to take a subsoil plough and run it under the 

 roots, after which some, take them out with a rake, others pull 

 them out. Anx)ther way is to take a slide hoe and slide the tops 

 off, and then run the subsoil plough along. It makes rather 

 rough work, but carrots will bear a little cutting. Some cut off 

 a piece of the top purposely, thinking as this hinders sprouting 

 the carrot won't rot so quick. When the season is long 

 and they are planted early, there is this risk : they will some- 

 times begin to make a second growth. That is a critical time. 

 If they do so it deteriorates the quality. It is apt to happen 

 when the carrot has got nearly mature, after a long drought, 

 and they have been checked in their growth ; if then there 

 comes a rain, they will start a new bunch of leaves, and on 

 di;.ging them you will find that they have made a great many 

 fibrous roots. Such carrots will not keep as long, and the fibre 

 is more woody. They have begun a second stage of growth. 

 It is, therefore, unfortunate to have a bed of carrots start the 

 second time. Sometimes carrots will go to seed badly. I do 

 not know what the reason is. I do not think the seed has any- 

 thing to do with it. The short horn carrots are more apt to do 

 this than the long orange. 



Varieties. — Of beets, there are a great many varieties. On 

 the Continent they do not use beets for the table, nor grow them 

 to any extent, except mangolds, which are raised for stock, and 

 the Silesian white beet for sugar. We have a very good beet in 

 Dewing's Early. That is a variety which has been started some- 

 where in the vicipity of Boston by a first-rate market gardener, 

 and it is a very nice beet indeed. Simon's Early Turnip, a 



