ROOT CROPS. 213 



were most of the time their own masters, produced twenty 

 thousand three hundred and eleven pounds of carrots, at a cost 

 of fifty-one dollars and fifty cents, and worth, as appears by his 

 statement, one hundred and thirty dollars — leaving a balance 

 of profit of seventy-six dollars and fifty cents. 



Statement of William T. Merrijield. 



The crop of carrots which I enter was grown on a lot meas- 

 uring one-half acre. In 1853 the land was under a state of 

 good cultivation, and was manured with fifteen loads of compost. 

 Twenty thousand pounds of carrots were raised on three-fourths 

 of the half acre. In the spring of 1854 the land was in about 

 the same condition as it was in 1853. After harvesting last 

 year, ten loads of barn-yard manure were put on, spread, and 

 ploughed in, and this season seventeen ounces of good quality 

 orange carrot seed put in. The seed was sown with a machine 

 on the 13th of June, and the carrots weeded with hoes in July 

 and August. Every tenth row was weighed when harvested ; 

 and taking them for average, the crop weighed twenty thousand 

 three hundred and eleven pounds. The ploughing and sowing 

 occupied four and a half days, the weeding ten days in July 

 and ten days in August, and the harvesting sixteen days. The 

 seed cost one dollar, the manure ten, and the labor forty dollars 

 •and fifty cents. The total value of the crop was one hundred 

 and thirty dollars. In 1852 there were raised on the same lot 

 thirty-one thousand two hundred pounds. 



Mr. Perry's field of carrots offered for premium contained 

 half an acre of land, ploughed twelve inches deep, and manured 

 at the rate of about fifteen common ox-cart loads of green ma- 

 nure annually to the acre. Carrots and other root crops had 

 been raised on the same ground three or four years in succes- 

 sion previous to this crop. The hoc was the only implement 

 used among his carrots except fingers ; and the labor of hoeing 

 and weeding was mostly performed by boys ten years of age, 

 for recreation during the recess of their school days. His car- 

 rots came up more even in the rows than the other two lots, 

 which made their arrangement in the rows of a more suitable 



