Book VI. THE CARROT. 863 



wheat stubbles after clover, ploughing the first time in autumn, and once more in the early part of the 

 month of February, if the weather permits ; setting on the manure at the time of sowing, which is about 

 the last week in March, or sometimes as late as the second week in April. 



5451. In Suffolk, when carrots are intended to be soivn after peas, they usually plough the stubble as 

 soon as the harvest is over, in order that the land may clear itself of weeds ; in December it is laid up in 

 small balks, to receive the benefit of the frosts ; in February it is harrowed down, and manured at the 

 rate of fifteen loads per acre ; the manure is ploughed in to the depth of about four inches ; and in the 

 month of March the land is double furrowed, and the seed sown. By pursuing this method, they say, the 

 manure lies in the centre of the soil, and not only affords nourishment and support to the carrot in its 

 perpendicular progress, but renders it easy to be turned up by a single ploughing, and greatly promotes 

 the growth of the succeeding crop of barley. In Norfolk it is the practice to sow carrots after a crop of 

 turnips. The manure, after being put on the land in the beginning of March, is first ploughed in with a 

 common plough, and afterwards trench-ploughed about fourteen or fifteen inches deep ; it is then har- 

 rowed very fine, and the seed sown about the middle of March. 



5452. The season preferred by Burrows for sowing the carrot is the last week in March 

 or first in April ; but he prefers the first period, having generally found early-sown crops 

 the most productive. 



5453. The usual preparation of the seed for sowing, is mixing it with earth or sand, to 

 cause it to separate more freely ; but Burrows adds water, turns over the mixture of 

 seeds and moist earth several times, and thus brings it to the point of vegetating before 

 he sows it. " Having weighed the quantity of seed to be sown, and collected sand or 

 fine mould, in the proportion of about two bushels to an acre, I mix the seed with the 

 sand or mould, eight or ten pounds to every two bushels, and this is done about a fort- 

 night or three weeks before the time I intend sov/ing ; taking care to have the heaps 

 turned over every day, sprinkling the outside of them with water each time of turning 

 over, that every part of the sand heaps may be equally moist, and that vegetation may 

 take place alike throughout. I have great advantage in preparing the seed so long be- 

 forehand ; it is by this means in a state of forward vegetation, therefore lies but a short 

 time in the ground, and, by quickly appearing above ground, is more able to contend 

 with those numerous tribes of weeds in the soil, whose seeds are of quicker vegetation." 

 {Supp. ^c) 



5454. Crude, the French translator of Von Thaer's work, describes in a note {torn. iv. 237.) a practice 

 nearly similar to that of Burrows. Crude uses sciure (night soil) instead of earth, and waters with the 

 drainings of dunghills. He keeps the mixture in a warm but shady situation for eight days ; by that 

 time the seed is nearly ready to vegetate, and he sows it immediately. 



5455. The quantity of seed when carrots are sown in rows is two pounds per acre, 

 and for broad-cast sowing five pounds. Burrows sows ten pounds per acre in the 

 broad-cast manner. 



5456. The usual mode of sowing the carrot is broad-cast ; but a much better mode in 

 our opinion would be to sow them in rows at twelve or fourteen inches' distance ; draw- 

 ing the drills, and hoeing the intervals with any suitable drill and hoe. 



5457. The most common practice, when carrots are best cultivated, is the hand or broad cast method, 

 the seed being dispersed as evenly as possible over the land, after the surface has been reduced to a very 

 fine state of pulverisation by harrowing, in order to provide a suitable bed for it to vegetate in ; being then 

 covered in by means of a light harrow. As the seed of the carrot is not of a nature to be deposited with 

 much regularity by the drill, and as the young plants can be easily set out to proper distances in the opera- 

 tion of hoeing, this is probably the most appropriate method of putting such sort of seed into the ground ; 

 and an additional proof of it is indeed found i^its being that which is almost universally adopted in those 

 districts where carrot-husbandry is practised ro the greatest extent. But with the view of having the 

 after-culture of the crops more perfectly performed, and at the same time to save the great expense of 

 hand-labour in hoeing the crop, the drill method has been attempted by some cultivators, but we believe 

 without complete success. The work is finished in equidistant rows at the distance of from twelve to 

 fifteen or eighteen inches from each other, according to the mode of hoeing that is practised. In this 

 business some cultivators do not make use of drill-machines, but strike the land into small furrows by 

 hoes or other implements contrived for the purpose, and then cast the seed over the ground by the hand, 

 covering it in either by slight harrowing, or hoeing in the tops of the ridgelets. It is added, that " in this 

 method, where a drill-machine is used, it has been advised by an intelligent cultivator to deposit the seed 

 to the depth of one inch in the rows, leaving the spaces of fourteen inches between them as intervals ; the 

 seed in these cases being previously steeped in rain,water for twenty- four hours, and left to sprout, after 

 which it is mixed with saw-dust and dry mould, in the proportion of one peck and a half of each to a 

 pound of the seed. The land is afterwaids lightly harrowed over once. Two pounds of seed in this mode 

 are found, as it has been observed, sufficient for an acre of land." 



5458. The after-culture given the carrot consists entirely of hoeing and weeding. 



5459. In Svffolk they are hoed generally three times in the season. The first time, as soon as the plants 

 can be distinguished from the weeds which surround them. The operation should be performed with 

 three-inch hoes, having handles not above two feet in length ; and it requires great attention, as it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to distinguish and separate the young carrots from the weeds. The second hoeing should 

 be given in three or four weeks afterwards, according to the forwardness of the crop ; it may be performed 

 with common hoes, care being taken to set out the plants at proper distances. From eight to fifteen or 

 eighteen inches, each way, are the common distances at which they are allowed to stand ; and it has been 

 proved, from many years' experience in districts where they are most cultivated, that carrots which grow 

 at such distances always proves a more abundant crop than when the plants are allowed to stand closer 

 together. The third hoeing is commonly given about the middle or end of June ; and in this, besides 

 destroying the weeds, another material circumstance to be attended to is, to set out the carrots at proper 

 distances, and also, wherever any have been left double at the former hoeings, to take the worse of the 

 two plants away. 



5460. Carrots sown according to the plan of Burrows are ready to hoe within about five or six weeks. 

 He hoes three and sometimes four times, or yntil the crop is perfectly clean : the first hoeing is with hoes 

 four inches long, and two and a quarter inches wide. The second hoeing invariably takes place as soon 

 as the first is completed, and is performed with six-inch hoes, by two and a quarter inches wide. By this 

 time the plants are set ; the first time of hoeing nothing was cut but the weeds. He leaves the plants nine 

 inches apart from each other j sometimes they will be a foot, or even farther asunder. 



