VEGETABLE GROWING 403 



ings of the Early Nantes, Champion, or Model, short, blunt-rooted Carrots, from 5 to 6 

 inches long and of delicious quality, should be made in light, well-pulverised, and deep- 

 worked soil. Drills for these should be 10 inches apart, the seeds being thinly sown to 

 save labour in thinning the plants later. It is a good plan to dress the ground, and well 

 point it in with a fork before drawing the drills, with a mixture of wood ashes, soot, and 

 guano, the latter in the proportion of one-tenth to the others. The bed should be 

 trodden moderately firmly after the seed is sown. 



Carrots, Main Crop, are of longer form, and should not be sown until the end of 

 April or early in May. The best variety for this purpose is that known as St. Valery, 

 New Intermediate, or Matchless. This is a broad-shouldered Carrot, tapering hand- 

 somely to a root-point, and is usually from 10 inches to 12 inches long. It is the heaviest 

 cropper of all Carrots grown. The soil for the crop should be deeply trenched, and, if 

 manured, the dressing should be added in the early winter when the trenching is done. 

 In the spring the surface should be lightly forked over, and a dressing added as previously 

 mentioned. Drills, as drawn with a broad hoe beside a garden line, should be 12 inches 

 apart and comparatively shallow, as it is only needful to bury the seed about half an inch 

 in depth. Sow seed thinly, and cover up quite evenly with fine soil, raking over the entire 

 surface of the bed, treading and leaving it until good growth has followed. The first 

 labour should be directed to thoroughly hoeing the soil between the rows ; then when the 

 young plants are well up, these should be thinned in the rows to some 6 inches apart. A 

 free use of a hoe between the plants during the summer is the chief attention requisite. 

 Very large Carrots, especially if the seed be sown early, are apt to split. Without doubt, 

 the best flavoured roots for cooking are those of medium size and of clean growth. Main 

 crop Carrots have to be lifted from the ground and stored, when cleaned of dirt and side 

 roots, in dry sand or ashes in any cool, airy cellar or outhouse, the crowns being in all 

 cases outwards. So cared for the roots keep well for many months. It may be needful 

 now and then to run each of the roots through the hand to remove root or other growths, 

 replacing them in the sand or ashes as before. Where there is a summer sowing the 

 main crop or large roots may be used for soups and stews, whilst the younger ones are best 

 for table. Carrots are very nutritious food, and when well grown as advised are fit for 

 any table. 



Summer Sowing. Although it is sometimes difficult to get Carrot seed to germi- 

 nate when sown in July, yet it should be the aim of all who like these roots young and 

 tender during the winter, to make a good sowing of seed in that month. Just then 

 early Peas, Potatoes, and other crops being removed leaves ground available for a sowing 

 of Carrot seed, not necessarily a large one. The best varieties are the blunt-rooted 

 Model or the New Intermediate, because, whilst of good size under ordinary conditions, 

 the roots from a July sowing are not so and need little thinning, as the chief object 

 is to have plenty of comparatively small roots to pull that are soft, succulent, and of 

 delicious quality all the winter. One excellent result of such a summer sowing, made in 

 drills 10 inches apart, is that the tops keep green all the winter. It is needful when severe 

 weather sets in to cover up a portion of the bed with long straw-litter or ferns so as to 

 exclude frost and enable pullings to take place. 



Cauliflowers. These are more tender in constitution and texture than Broccoli. They 

 are also properly annuals, as the plants can be readily induced, by early sowing of seed 

 under glass, to produce heads, and from these flowers the same season. Cauliflowers 

 also are so far tender that they will not endure exposure to ordinary winters in this 

 country. There are dwarf and tall, early and late varieties, the earliest being Snowball 

 or, as sometimes called, Matchless, and Sutton's First Crop. These, when mature, 

 produce close, compact, very white heads, some 6 inches clear and almost close to the 

 ground. To have these forms giving heads early it is well to sow seed in shallow boxes 

 or pans in gentle warmth either in a frame or greenhouse during February. Growth is 

 then quick, and the plants should be, when 4 inches in height, dibbled out into other 

 boxes 2 inches apart, and be grown on in a cool house or frame, kept near the glass so 

 as to induce them to become stout and sturdy. From the boxes each plant, being lifted 

 with a trowel and balls of soil and roots attached, should be planted out on a warm border 

 about the middle of April in rows 18 inches apart. For this purpose the soil should be 

 well manured and deeply dug. From such a planting generally heads may be cut early 

 in June. It is possible where a frame is at disposal to plant some into it 12 inches apart 

 and thus secure white heads some two weeks earlier. Some gardeners even put plants 

 singly into 6-inch pots, and stand them in a vinery or peach house where they head in 

 very quickly, though small. Still Cauliflowers are not generally much forced. If a 

 further sowing of this early strain be made in March or April plants give heads outdoors 

 in due succession. Sowings maybe made of later and larger varieties, both in frames 

 and in beds, or in drills outdoors in April, as these need a much longer season to mature. 

 A good summer variety is Early Giant, and others equally good are Kinver Monarch and 



