862 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



can be placed upon fresh mould, as this disease has been known to prevail upon lands that had scarcely 

 ever before borne a crop of turnips [Farmer's Magazine, vol. xiii.)". The only effectual preventive would 

 be to hinder the insect from laying its eggs. 



5441. The canker attacks the roots, and partly the bulbs, of turnips, and is known by the ulcerated ap- 

 pearance it produces. Some consider it owing to the presence of too much iron in the soil, and recommend 

 liming as a preventive. 



5442. Wasting and putrefaction, from excess of water or frost, are to be prevented by earthing up the 

 bulbs, or taking up and storing. 



Sect. III. The Carrot. Tiauciis Carota L. ; Pentdndria Digynia L., and UmbelU- 

 fercB J. Carotte, Fr. ; Gelbe Riibe, Ger. ; Carota, Ital. ; and Chirivia, Span. 

 5,443. The carrot is a biennial plant, a native of Britain ; but though long known as 

 a garden plant, it is comparatively but of recent introduction in agriculture. It appears 

 to have been cultivated from an early period in Germany and Flanders, and introduced 

 from the latter country to Kent and Suifolk early in the 16th century. As the carrot, 

 requires a deep soil, inclining to sand, it can never enter so generally into cultivation as 

 the potato or turnip; but, as observed by a judicious vi^riter, it has been too much 

 neglected on lands vi'here it would have yielded a more valuable product, perhaps, than 

 any bulbous or tap-rooted plant whatever. Several contradictory experiments in its 

 culture have been detailed in a number of publications, from which the practical hus- 

 bandman will be at a loss to draw any definite conclusion : but, in a recent communication 

 to the Board of Agriculture, from Robert Burrows, an intelligent Norfolk farmer, who 

 has cultivated carrots on a large scale, and with great success, for several years, so accurate 

 an account is presented of the culture, application, and extraordinary value of this root, 

 that carrots will probably soon enter more largely into the rotation of crops on suitable 

 soils. {Svpp. c^c. ) This person had more experience than any one ; but he, after a few 

 years, discontinued to cultivate carrots so extensively as he did at the time the commu- 

 nication to the Board of Agriculture was made. The consumption of carrot seed in 

 Norfolk had, in 1821, diminished from three or four tons a year to as many cwts. 



5444. The varieties of carrot cultivated in gardens are numerous, and readily increased 

 by the usual means ; but the only sort adapted for the field is the long red or field carrot. 

 New seed is mo.st essential, as it will not vegetate in the second year. Old seed, or a 

 mixture of old and new, and also the mixture of the horn carrot, the seed of which is 

 sent over in large quantities from Holland, ought to be carefully avoided. 



5445. The best soil for the carrot is a deep rich sandy loam ; such a soil ought at least 

 to be a foot deep, and all equally good from top to bottom. On any other the field cul- 

 ture of the carrot will not answer. 



5446. In preparing the soil for the carrot, it is essential to plough it before winter, that it may be pul- 

 verised by frost ; and to work it well by the plough and cultivator in spring, to at least the depth of a foot 

 This deep tillage may be perfectly accomplished either by means of the trench-plough following the 

 common one, or by the common one alone, with a good strength of team ; but the former method is to be 

 preferred, wherever the lands are inclined to be stiff or heavy. Three ploughings are mostly found suffi- 

 cient, where the land has been previously in a state of tillage; but more may in other cases be necessarj'. 

 The first ploughing should be made to the depth of ten, twelve, or fourteen inches, and be performed 

 when the soil is tolerably dry, about the beginning of October. It may remain in this condition till 

 towards the middle of February, when it shouid be turned over a second time, but in a cross direction, to 

 nearly the same depths. In March a third ploughing may be given, in order to the putting in of the seed. 

 This may be somewhat lighter than the preceding ones. As soon as the last ploughing has been given in 

 March, the land should be harrowed, and the surface made as fine as possible. 



5447. In Svffolk the farmers sow carrots after turnips, barley, and peas set upon a rye- 

 grass ley ; the crops upon the first have generally been most productive ; next to that 

 they prefer the latter. In the first place, they feed off the turnips by the beginning of 

 February, and then lay the land up in small balks or furrows, in which state it remains 

 till the second week in March, when it is harrowed dov/n, double furrowed to the depth 

 of about twelve inches, and the seed sown. 



5448. The climate most suitable to the carrot is the same as for the turnip ; but, from 

 the depth to which their roots penetrate, they will thrive better than the turnip in a dry 

 and warm climate. 



5449. Manure, according to some, should not be given to carrots the year they are 

 sown, as it is alleged that when the roots meet with it they become forked, scabbed, and 

 wormy. This, however, is chiefly applicable to cases in which recent unfermented 

 manure has been given, or where other manure has not been properly broken in pieces 

 and spread over the soil or in the drills. The Suffolk and Norfolk farmers, who are the 

 best carrot-growers, always use dung; a suitable proportion of well rotted farmyard 

 dung being constantly turned into the soil at the last ploughing in March . for it has been 

 fully shown, by various trials detailed in The Annals of Agriculture and other books on 

 husbandry, that though good crops of carrots may be occasionally grown without the use 

 of manure, it is only by the liberal application of that substance that the greatest produce 

 possible can be obtained ; as they are in general found to bear a relative proportion to 

 the quantity that may have been employed. 



5450. Burrows prepares the land with a good dressing of about sixteen cart-loads per acre of rotten 

 farmyard manure or cottager's ashes : the load is about as much as three able horses can draw ; and, if 

 bought, costs about four shillings and sixpence i>er load, besides the carting on the land. He usually sows 



