212 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ing this crop, and they are always more expert than our best 

 hay hands in weeding and tending. For this reason I have 

 found it difficult after driving hay harvest to get good hay 

 hands to work on vegetables in fine weather, and in foul I had 

 rather they would rest. The rows were about sixteen inches 

 apart, and the plants were about ten or twelve inches. In this- 

 way I can grow more weight and sounder roots. In order to 

 insure a sufficient number of plants, I sow three times the quan- 

 tity of seed I formerly did, and let all grow till the second 

 weeding, when they are thinned to my liking. It dosts no more 

 to pull a carrot root than a weed, and the ground is perforated 

 to the advantage of the standing plant. Prepared manure, of 

 whatever kind, is the only fertilizer to be used. The compost 

 may be saturated with salt brine strong enough to kill the weed 

 seed there may be in its ingredients. 



The rates, as given in the bill of costs, it is believed, will 

 entirely cover all expenses. The land was measured by Mr. 

 Sibly, a practical surveyor. The entire crop was actually 

 weighed as the loads were sold, and all certified to but one 

 load, which was weighed in baskets. 



Sutton, November 7, 1S54. 



Mr. Merrifield's carrots offered for premium were on half 

 an acre of ground, ploughed twelve inches deep, manured with 

 ten common ox-cart loads of barn-yard compost manure, spread 

 and ploughed under the fall before the sowing of the seed. 

 This crop of carrots was the third or fourth crop in succession 

 grown on the same land. The rows were about thirteen inches 

 apart, and were situated in the rows similar to Mr. Dodge's, 

 except some few vacant places where the seed did not vege- 

 tate, and with the exception, also, that the carrots were more 

 interested in the subsoil, at the same time taking as great an 

 interest in the frccsoil as Mr. Dodge's, if they did not crowd 

 quite so hard for their political rights. The length of the car- 

 rots was from seven to ten inches generally. The labor of 

 hoeing and weeding was performed by Irish laborers by the 

 day, under the direction of the owner, but only occasionally in 

 his presence, he I 1 in other business besides farin- 



Mr. Merrifield's half acre, although managed by men who 



