OBOWING G ABBOTS ON RTDGES. 



89 



CDapur U— Carrots. 



" The easiest vegetable in the garden to grow/' says the man with a 

 deep, light, sandy soil. " About the worst you can have to do 

 decently," growls the one with tenacious clay. 



Carrot culture is a much more simple business in friable than in 

 clinging soil, and if the ground is not naturally suited to the crop, 

 the task of making it so is often undertaken with grumbling. Long 

 Carrots of fine grain " and rich colour are grown on the Surrey and 

 other sands, and on the alluvial soil of the Lea and Medway valleys ; 

 moreover, they are produced without much labour. To get equal 



FIG. 53.-GROWING CARROTS ON RIDGES. 



The left-hand ridge at the top shows the soil drawn up, the 

 others show drills made ready for sowing. 



quality on stifi'er stuff the cultivator has to exercise his ingenuity 

 and his muscles. 



There are three ways of achieving the object in view. The first is 

 to trench the ground, the second is to make holes with a crowbar and 

 fill them up with fine potting soil, the third is to make ridges. 



The trenching system is attended with such excellent results that 

 it may always be safely recommended for general adoption on the lines 

 already laid down in this book, but it may be usefully supplemented 

 by one of the other plans. Long, symmetrical and clean Carrots 

 may be secured by making holes 30 inches deep, filling them up with 

 loam and sand, sowing three or four seeds in each, and thinning the 

 plants down to one. 



The ridge system is less familiar, and although it does not yield 

 such fine individual show roots, it gives a heavy and clean crop with 

 trifiing trouble. By resorting to it on the Wealden clay 1 have 



