466 THE CARROT CROP. 



proportion of air and carbonic acid which it always con- 

 tains, but also some of the soluble matters of the surface- 

 soil through which it had to pass. These are to a great 

 extent arrested in the subsoil, while the rain-water, whose 

 oxidizing and solvent powers are greatly increased by 

 its additional constituents, assists materially in rendering 

 the natural ingredients of the substratum more available 

 and assimilable by the roots that penetrate it. 



Besides these two necessary conditions in all carrot 

 soils depth and drainage the tilth and general condi- 

 tion so important to the good cultivation of our other 

 crops are equally desirable for this, though probably the 

 carrot would be less injuriously affected by their absence, 

 than either of the cruciferous crops already described 

 would be. As a general farm rule, they should always be 

 secured as far as possible, as they both have a strong and 

 permanent bearing upon all our crops, from the earliest to 

 the latest period of their growth ; and it happens, therefore, 

 fortunately, that both the carrot and the parsnip suffer less 

 from the absence of that fine tilth so necessary for our 

 other "root and fallow crops," as, owing to the early season 

 at which they are sown, a fine division of the soil can 

 very rarely be obtained. 



The proper place in the rotation for carrots is always 

 admitted to be between two straw crops. The stubble 

 of the preceding crop being ploughed in, assists benefi- 

 cially in keeping the soil well open, and exposed to 

 the weathering action of the winter season, while the 

 deep tillage and general careful cultivation which the 

 carrot crop receives, leaves the field in admirable con- 

 dition for the crop that has to follow it. In this respect 

 it is equally well suited with the turnip to act as a 

 fallow and consuming crop to the straw or selling 

 crop, and owing to its habit of growth in seeking its 

 food ingredients from the lower strata of the soil, and 



