CARROT. 



223 



two spades deep for the long varieties, as they require a 

 deeper soil than any other garden vegetable. The manure 

 should be put as near the bottom as you can get it ; but 

 the soil should be fertilized by a previous crop if you 

 would have fine, smooth roots. Guano is an excellent ap- 

 plication to this vegetable. The seeds may be sown in 

 beds four feet wide, any time from January to April inclu- 

 sive, thinly in drills, twelve inches apart. Cover the seed 

 about half an inch deep. A carrot seed is very slow to 

 vegetate. The short-topped, scarlet radish may be sown 

 thinly in the same drills, just to mark the rows, that they 

 may be cultivated before they are overgrown with weeds. 

 By the time the carrots are well up, the radishes will be 

 fit to pull. The ground should be kept well worked, light, 

 and mellow. Thin the young plants, when two or three 

 inches high, to six inches apart. In short, the culture of 

 carrot is exactly the same as for the beet, which see. Six 

 hundred bushels have been produced from one acre. The 

 carrots need not be pulled, but may be left safely in the 

 ground to draw as wanted for use during the winter. In 

 severe weather, they may be protected by a covering of 

 litter ; but it is hardly necessary, except for the Altring- 

 ham. 



For Seed. — It is much the best practice to leave some 

 of the finest plants where raised, to blossom and seed the 

 next summer; save only the principal umbels. Eachhead 

 should be cut as it turns brown, dried in the shade, rubbed 

 out, and dried in paper bags. The seed will not vegetate 

 if more than two years old. 



Use. — The carrot is a very wholesome food for man or 

 beast. It contains almost six times as much nutriment as 

 the Irish potato in the same weight. It not only gives 

 sustenance itself, but renders other food more easily digest 

 ible, according to Professor Mapes. 



