Remarks on the Culture of the White Carrot. 209 



ground-floor apple-room, and have found them to keep very 

 well till June. 



Frithsden Gardens, Ashridge^ Herts, Feb. 17. 1840. 



Art. XII. Some Remarks on the Culture of the White Carrot. 

 By W. Masters, F.H.S. &c., of the Exotic Nursery, Canterbury. 



Whenever a new vegetable is introduced, although I would 

 by no means put aside the varieties in common use to which it 

 most nearly approximates, yet I would recommend that the 

 novelty should have a fair trial against those of long known and 

 established repute ; and then, even if it is not found in itself to 

 be superior, before it is utterly discarded, I would ascertain if it 

 possesses properties that, either by culture or by hybridising, 

 would increase its own merits or those of its nearest allies. By 

 this means we may hope that one out of many novelties will 

 prove of superior value to those already in cultivation ; and that 

 progressive improvement will be realised, either in increased, 

 production on a given space, or in better flavour, or more nutri- 

 tive qualities, in the subject of our experiments. 



About seven or eight years ago I received from the Horticul- 

 tural Society^, and also from France, a few seeds of the White 

 Carrot, which I sowed in the nursery in company with the sorts 

 that are usually grown, and found the new comer increase in size 

 more rapidly than the Orange, or even the Altringhani varieties. 

 At that time, believing them adapted only for kitchen use, we 

 repeatedly tasted them during their growth, and also when they 

 had acquired maturity: my friends' and my own opinion coincided; 

 we mutually pronounced them, neither in flavour nor appearance, 

 at all equal to the common kinds. 



The greater weight that the white variety acquired, under pre- 

 cisely similar circumstances, was an object too important to be 

 passed over, and accordingly several of our agriculturists were 

 induced to grow patches of the White Carrot in their fields as 

 food for horses ; and in the neighbourhood of Ashford, in this 

 county, many acres have been grown during the past year, and, 

 as far as weight is concerned, with entire success. The land 

 best adapted for its culture appears to be of a sandy character, 

 and even in some instances a considerable growth has been ob- 

 tained upon almost a pure sand- This, then, constitutes its chief 

 value; it may be profitably cultivated upon lands that are at 

 present utterly worthless. In our county there are hundreds of 

 acres between Deal and the Sand Hills, now waste, that might be 

 made to produce this vegetable ; and in Suffolk, near Brandon, 

 where many acres of a similar character exist, and that hitherto 

 have neither yielded employment to tiie labourer nor profit to 



