12 



And this weak, watery rcot has been the pnncipai food of im- 

 mense flocks of store sheep, during the winter : and when 

 plentifully given, only with the addition of straw, has served 

 to fatten cattle and sheep for the market. 



Carrots. Even these plants, so long after they vegetate ex 

 tremely small, were also raised from seed sown broad-cast 

 But this awkward practice, [ believe, has generally given way 

 to the row-culture, whether the seeds were sown by hand, or 

 by the instrument called a drill. In very rich land, great crops 

 have been raised where the rows were only from twelve to fif- 

 teen inches apart. The great crop of 752 bushels, weighing 

 eighteen tons and three quarters, raised on one acre, in Salem, 

 by Erastus Ware, in 1817, was in rows about sixteen inches 

 apart. The seed was sown the 1 4th of May. But 1 am inclined 

 to think a preferable mode would be, to sow the seeds in 

 double rows about ten inches apart, with intervals of three feet 

 between the double rows, so as to admit a small plough, as well 

 as the hoe, in their cultivation. In this case, a deep furroT? be- 

 ing opened by the plough, the manure should be regularly 

 thrown into it, and covered by four back furrows, so form- 

 ing a ridge over the manure ; and this ridge being laid level 

 with a light harrow, or with rakes, or if the soil be in fine tilth, 

 by a light roller, will then be ready to receive the seed. — As 

 soon as the carrots are plainly to be seen, they should be hoed 

 and weeded ; or the weeds will soon outstrip the carrots 

 (which are of very slow growth at first) and render their 

 cleansing va'^tly more troublesome and laborious. They 

 should also be thinned, to stand single, and only from three to 

 five inches a[)art in the rows ; or the roots will be small, and 

 cost much more time in handling and topping (cutting or wring- 

 ing oiT the tops) at the time of harvesting them. The entire 

 crop, too, will doubtless be smaller than when the plants are 

 thinned as here recommended. 



Th*: Mangel Wurtzf.l. This plant yields a much more 

 abundant cro}) than the Carrot ; and at the same time contains. 

 in the same quantity or v.'eight of roots, a great deal more nour- 

 ishmrnt : whence it is natural to suppose that it requires a richer 

 soil than Carrots, I have not made sufficient trials to en^ible me 



