CARROTS AND PARSNIPS. 65 



when it is found convenient to do so. This root is an excellent one 

 for dairy cows, and is extensively grown in the islands of Jersey and 

 Guernsey for this purpose. 



Carrots are chiefly grown for horses, but I consider them inferior 

 to Ruta Bagas for that purpose. Carrots require a similar soil and 

 the same preparation as for mangels. In a previously well manured 

 corn stubble, enough fertilizing material will be left to manure a 

 good crop of carrots or parsnips. Twenty tons of carrots per acre 

 have been grown on land in this condition, without using any 

 manure. The seed is sown any time in May; if sown with a drill, 

 about four pounds are used to the acre. The rows should be two 

 feet apart, and the plants thinned t>ut to five or six inches. An aver- 

 age crop is fifteen tons, or 700 bushels by measure, of the Long 

 Orange. This variety is the one usually grown for farm purposes. 



HARVESTING AND STORING ROOTS. 



(Mr. H.) The simple and cheap method of preserving roots in pits 

 in the open ground is better than any other. I will briefly describe 

 our plan, which I have practiced with all kinds of market garden 

 roots for twenty-five years. Mangels in this section of the country 

 are dug up toward the end of October, or just after our first slight 

 frosl ; they are then temporarily secured from severe frosts by placing 

 them in convenient oblong heaps, say three feet high by six feet wide, 

 and ^re covered with three or four inches of soil, which will be suffi- 

 cient protection for three or four weeks after lifting ; by that time, 

 say the end of November, they may be stowed away in their perma- 

 nent winter quarters. For turnips and carrots there is less necessity 

 for the temporary pitting, as they are much hardier roots, and may 

 be left in the ground until the time necessary for permanent pitting, 

 if time will not permit of securing them temporarily. The advantage 

 of this temporary pitting is, that it enables them to be quickly 

 secured at a season when work is usually pressing, and allows their 

 permanent pitting to be extended into a comparatively cold season. 

 This is found to be of the utmost importance in preserving all kinds 

 of roots ; the same rules regulating the preservation in winter apply 

 as in spring sowing. While in this section of the country it must be 

 done not later than the end of November, in some of the Southern 

 States the time may be extended a month later, while in the places 

 where the thermometor does not fall lower than twenty-five degrees 

 above zero, there is no need to dig up any of these roots at all, as that. 



