200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



observation warrant me in saying that it is safe to leave the 

 roots in the ground until the 13th of November. I have 

 known the ground to close up on the 13th, 14th, or 16th, a 

 great many times, but it is very rare indeed, in our part of 

 the State, that roots are not safe in the ground up to the 13th. 

 We may have a little freeze before, — perhaps we did this year, 

 — but it will be warm afterwards ; but it is not safe to run the 

 risk of the ground being open after the 13th of November. 

 Therefore, I commence harvesting my carrots about the first 

 of November. My method is this ; and I will be particular 

 in describing it, because I claim that it is a great improvement 

 over the common practice. In the first place, take a long- 

 handled square shovel, and grind it sharp. A man will go 

 along with that shovel and cut off the carrots, a row at a time, 

 as fast as he can walk. When the tops have been cut, rake 

 them up in piles and cart them off to your barn, and feed 

 them out to your cattle and horses. They are excellent food ; 

 if you do not need them for that, they make a good mulching 

 for anything you want to cover during the winter. When 

 you have got the top out of the way, then take a subsoil 

 plough to loosen the roots. And, by the way, that is the only 

 use to which I could ever put a subsoil plough, — o t ne of those 

 common, old-fashioned, lifting subsoil ploughs. Take two 

 horses, and run the plough just at the left of the row of 

 carrots. They are already topped, you will understand. 

 This subsoil plough lifts them out of the ground about two 

 inches. To do the work properly, you want four or five men 

 to a pair of horses. You will strike out as much land as you 

 think you can manage in one forenoon, go round that piece 

 with the plough, and have two men on one side of the land 

 and two on the other, with potato-diggers, or forked hoes, 

 and they will rake out the carrots each way. If the men are 

 smart, they will just about keep up with the plough. You 

 may work with your team until noon, digging out the carrots 

 in that way. Mind you, a hand has not been touched to 

 them yet. We will suppose this to be a dry day, as it should 

 be, and those carrots have been drying on the surface of the 

 ground all the forenoon. After dinner, have two teams, and 

 four men will fill one cart while the fifth man takes a load to 

 the barn cellar, and they will cart in the afternoon what they 



