CARROT 185 



direction. As in the case of celery, the quality of cardoon suffers 

 from any cause that interrupts or retards development. At the 

 North, if the plants are desired for early autumn use, the seed 

 should be started early in the season in houses or hotbeds, prefer- 

 ably in 4-inch pots buried to their brims. If seed is sown in large 

 pots, the plants do not suffer a severe check when transferred to 

 the field. At the South, where the seasons are longer, seed may 

 be planted in the open at about the same time as corn. The plants 

 should be kept growing vigorously, and toward the close of the 

 growing season, as cool weather approaches, they should be pre- 

 pared for blanching. This consists in drawing the leaves of the 

 plant tightly together in an upright position, which should be 

 done only when both the plant and the soil are dry, incasing 

 the stalks in rye straw or some similar material, and earthing up 

 the same as celery. The plants are tender to frost and should 

 therefore be harvested or placed in a frost-proof cellar or pit before 

 severe weather sets in. 



CARROT 



The carrot is one of the garden plants of secondary impor- 

 tance from an economic point of view. It is less appreciated in 

 the United States than in foreign countries, yet it is found in 

 almost every kitchen garden in this country, and is regularly 

 grown by market gardeners both as a frame and as a field crop. 

 As a culinary vegetable it is chiefly used for flavoring soups and 

 stews. It is also often served as a separate table vegetable, and 

 as such it has grown in favor in this country in recent years, 

 although its use in this respect is limited as compared with most 

 other garden products. 



Botany. Botanically, the carrot, Daucus carota, belongs to the 

 great family Umbelliferce, which also includes celery, caraway, lov- 

 age, and parsnip. The wild carrot is a pestiferous weed of wide 

 distribution throughout the northeastern part of the United States. 



Cultivation. The carrot is a standard hotbed crop among gar- 

 , deners supplying the larger cities of the North, and in some sections 

 it is extensively grown as a farm crop for stock food. In the 

 market garden it is forced in hotbeds or coolhouses as a companion 



