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LETTER ON CARROTS. 



Boston, December 8, 1856. 



Dear Sir : — You ask for facts in relation to tlic cultivation of 

 carrots, and the product per acre. 



I have had five successive crops, (1855-1856,) the yield vary- 

 ing from 850 to 950 bushels per acre, and from one to two acres 

 under cultivation. 



The soil naturally good, having a thick loam surface, and clay 

 and gravel subsoil ; rather too wet, and never having been drain- 

 ed and subsoiled. I hope for increased product. It has been 

 ploughed once in autumn and twice in the spring. Southern 

 slope of a hill and well cleared of stones. 



The first year I put on seven to eight cords of manure, the land 

 having previously been badly used ; subsequently, about six cords 

 of cow and hoi-se manure. The rows twenty-four inches distance 

 for four seasons ; at the last, eighteen inches. Three weedings 

 by hand. I think I should have been a gainer by giving seven or 

 eight cords of manure. 



At forty bushels a ton of two thousand pounds, the crops have 

 averaged twenty-four tons. Sold, deliverable on the ground, at 

 $11.00 per ton, and if delivered, $12.00 per ton. In the spring 

 prices are two to four dollars higher. At $10.00 to $12.00 

 per ton, carrots, I apprehend, are cheaper food than hay at $25.00 

 to $30.00 per ton, or oats at sixty cents per bushel, — equal to 

 two cents per pound against carrots at half a cent per pound. 



My experience is too limited to give much weight to my returns, 

 but I am satisfied that carrots, at 600 to 700 bushels per acre, 

 are more profitable than hay, potatoes or maize, at such an ex- 

 tent as would be required for the consumption of Massachusetts. 

 But farmers whom I have consulted say they are unprofitable, and 

 one may see the reason by reference to the returns, which give 

 220 to 428 bushels to an acre, costing probably nearly as much 

 per bushel as my 900 bushels. 



I apprehend that fifty per cent, more potatoes and hay can be 

 obtained from our lands, if their cultivators would devote more 

 labor and capital to them, and emigrate less West, where capital 

 is wanting. The average of hay, (Enghsh hay,) in this State, is 



