THE CARROT 135 



stems are four inches above ground, the rows should be earthed 

 up with the draw hoe. The object of the earthing up is to keep 

 the rhizomes in the dark. Rhizomes exposed to light become 

 ordinary green stems and do not produce tubers. The earthing 

 up must be repeated about a month later. The chief qualities 

 required in a good variety of Potato are shallow " eyes," power 

 of resisting disease, good flavour and appearance when cooked, 

 and good keeping properties. The main crop Potatoes are ready 

 to be dug up when the aerial stems have begun to die down. They 

 are dug up with the fork, separated into three portions, according 

 to size, namely, for cooking, for seed, and for pig feeding. If 

 any disease has appeared the stems should be dried and burnt. 



To store Potatoes, they are piled in any convenient spot on a 

 bed of straw, and are also covered with straw. A trench is then 

 dug out all round the pile, and the earth taken from it is used 

 for the purpose of covering the straw. The thickness of this 

 covering depends on the locality, the point being that, as frost 

 destroys the Potato for cooking purposes, the Potatoes must be 

 adequately protected from frost. The thickness of the soil 

 covering must therefore not be less than three inches. It may 

 be more. 



The cultivation of the Potato lends itself to a variety of 

 simple, interesting, and important experimental work. It is 

 therefore recommended that every year in the school garden 

 comparative tests should be made : (a) of new varieties, or (6) of 

 various kinds and amounts of manures, or (c) of sprouted as against 

 unsprouted seed, or (d) of differences in distances and depths of 

 planting, or (e) different sizes of " seed " and cut tubers as 

 compared with uncut tubers. 



THE CARROT (Daucus Carota) 



The Carrot, together with the Parsnip, Celery, and Parsley, 

 belongs to the natural order Umbelliferae. The Wild Carrot is a 

 roadside plant found in most parts of the country. Generally it 

 is an annual, but occasionally it is a biennial, storing up reserve 

 material in the form of starch in the first year, and utilising 

 this store for the production of the fruit in the second year. By 



