SELECTION OF PLANTS FOR SEED. 477 



sample than that harvested in the preceding manner. 

 Those who are particular in regard to their seed, especially 

 where grown for home sowing, always select those seeds 

 growing on the outer edge of the umbels, the rest being 

 prepared in the usual way as a market sample. 



In the light-soil districts of Belgium and Holland, 

 where carrots are cultivated to a far greater extent than 

 with us, it is a common practice to grow them mixed with 

 a crop of rye or of flax. In the former case the rye is 

 sown early in the autumn, so as to root well before the 

 winter sets in, and thus come early to harvest the following 

 year. In the spring, the carrot seed is sown broadcast as 

 late as the growth of the rye will admit of the harrows 

 being used to cover in the seed. This germinates and 

 continues its growth until the rye is ready for cutting, 

 which usually takes place about the second or third week 

 in June. It is then mown with a cradled scythe, care 

 being taken not to cut it so closers to injure the top of 

 the root of the young carrot plants, which by this time 

 have acquired a size about the thickness of one's finger. 

 The field is cleared as quickly as possible of the stocks, 

 the harrows are sent over the ground to disturb the surface 

 and to drag up the roots and stubble that are left, while the 

 remaining weeds are carefully removed by the hand. The 

 liquid manure cart follows with a good supply of rape 

 cake mixed up with "puriii," and in a few days the young 

 plants, which had been mown down by the scythes of the 

 harvest- men, begin to show themselves again, and by the 

 end of the autumn are in a condition to yield a weighty 

 crop of roots, which, when forked up in the usual manner, 

 leaves the land in excellent condition, both chemically 

 and mechanically, for the succeeding crop of corn. When 

 sown down with flax the carrot has a better chance, the 

 land being better prepared, in higher condition, and better 

 attended to during the growth of this crop than with rye. 



