50 GARDENING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 



our bright American boys will soon learn to make the 

 horse do nine-tenths of the work of raising the carrots. 

 Just think of it ! When I was a boy, we used to make a 

 bed about fiye feet wide, trim it off at the edges with a 

 sharp spade, throw the soil on top from the alleys, rake 

 the bed, and then sow the carrot seed broadcast, and 

 make the bed smooth by patting it with the back of the 

 spade. These beds of carrots, onions, etc., looked very 

 neat and trim when first made, but oh ! the labor of 

 weeding them ! By and by we made a wonderful dis- 

 covery, we found that carrots, onions, etc., could be 

 sown in rows two or three inches apart, where we could 

 dig up the weeds with a knife or our fingers. Gradually 

 the rows were made wider apart, and now almost every 

 one drills in his carrots, onions, parsnips, etc., in rows 

 wide enough apart, to admit the use of a good American 

 hoe. 



IMPROVED CARROT GROWING. 



I want to do still better. I want the horse to do all of 

 the hoeing. I sow my carrots in rows twenty-one inches 

 apart, and cultivate them with a horse-hoe. If you have 

 a steady horse and a good cultivator, and will give your 

 mind to the work, you can run very close to the rows, and 

 leave very little to be done in the way of hand- weeding 

 or hoeing. In fact, if you will run the cultivator between 

 the rows once a week after the plants get fairly started, 

 they will 'grow so rapidly that they will smother out or 

 hold in check nearly all the weeds. I tell my boys that 

 cultivating between such narrow rows is an education. 

 It is good mental discipline, for they must keep their 

 mind constantly fixed on their work. 



Much of the success of the plan, however, will depend 

 upon having the land not only rich, but in the best 

 mechanical condition. Fortunately our inventors and 

 manufacturers are fully abreast of the times. We have a 



