734 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cester, an intelligent observer, that he has known carrots 

 grow well seven years successively. Most other crops do well 

 after carrots, especially onions. It is a general practise, by 

 best cultivators, to prepare the land for onions, by one or two 

 crops of carrots. I say prepare for onions, because there is no 

 crop that yields so good a return, for the labor applied, as the 

 onion — the net proceeds to the acre often being more than one 

 hundred dollars. 



Upon the carrot there sometimes appears a blight or rust, 

 tm-ning the tops yellov^- before the roots are fully grown. The 

 cause thereof I do not understand. 



The venerable Timothy Pickering, first president of the 

 Essex Society, says, in speaking of the culture of the carrot: 

 " Even these plants, so long after they vegetate extremely 

 small, were formerly sown broadcast. But this awkward 

 practise has generally given way to the row culture." " I 

 think," says he, " a preferable mode would be, to sow the seeds 

 in double rows, about ten inches apart, with intervals of about 

 three feet between the double rows." (See his Address to the 

 Essex Society, 1820, for much valuable instruction on Root 

 Culture.) It vnll be well to look back and see what Pickering, 

 Lowell and Quincy said, forty years ago, and endeavor to im- 

 prove upon their instructions. They brought clear heads, fair 

 minds and strong arms to the work. 



Mr. Coleman, in his Second Report of the Agriculture of 

 Massachusetts, speaks highly of the culture of the carrot. 

 Upon authorities cited, he estimates that an acre of carrots 

 will furnish food for working horses, equal to sixteen acres of 

 oats. K this be so, where land has any value in it, it would 

 seem to be labor misapplied and land wasted, to raise oats 

 for horses in preference to carrots. Certainly, as many tons of 

 carrots should be raised as of oats ; and most persons would 

 think, twice as many. I know that Mr. C. sometimes permit- 

 ted his credulity to run away with his judgment, but not so as 

 essentially to impair his authority. 



In Bristol, R. I., I am informed, that carrots are grown on 

 the same ground v^dth the onion, in alternate rows, the carrots 

 being sown after the first weeding of the onions ; and that fair 

 crops of both are thus raised. This may do where the land is 

 quite clear of weeds ; but I think will not do on ordinary land. 



