Carrot Notes 



283 



first of August. Unless the soil is in very fine tilth and moist, 

 however, it is difficult to secure a stand as late in the season as 

 this. Carrot seed should always be sown thickly in order to allow 

 for any failure in germination. For an acre, 2 lbs. of seed is re- 

 quired; for 300 feet of drill, 1 oz., if the seed is fresh. 



The stump -rooted or half -long varieties are now chiefly 

 grown. These are early or mid-season varieties fit for using either 

 early in the season or late in summer. The Early Forcing is one 

 of the best for growing in hotbeds or coldframes, or for grow- 

 ing in the fall for home use. The Half-long Danvers is one of tha 

 reliable mid- season varieties. For late or main- season crop, the 

 Long Scarlet is excellent ; and for stock-feeding the Long Orange 

 and Long White are used. These latter varieties are also good for 

 home use, although wh.en they are allowed to reach their full size 

 they are likely to be somewhat coarse in texture. A good crop 

 of carrots is 200-300 bushels per acre. 



The carrot is an annual or sometimes a biennial. The early 

 varieties will send up flower- stalks the same year if left in the 

 ground ; but the roots of the late varieties must be stored during 

 the winter, and set out the following spring, when they will 

 quickly run to seed. The carrot has run wild extensively in the 

 eastern part of the country, where it is a bad weed in meadows 

 and along the roadsides. It loses the fleshy character of root 

 and is a partial biennial or an annual. It inhabits dry and poor 

 fields. Giving attention to securing more grass is the best rem- 

 edy. It is rarely troublesome in cultivated fields. 



For accounts of plant-breeding with carrots, consult Leveque 

 de Vilmorin, "Notice sur 1' Amelioration de la Garotte Sauvage," 

 Trans. London Hort. Soc, Ser. 2, vol. 2, p. 348; republished in 

 Paris in a new edition in 1886. See, also, Carriere, Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, 1865, p. 1154. 



The carrot is one of the Parsley family, Umbelliferae. It is 

 known to botanists as Daucus Carota. It has been in cultivation 

 for more than 2,000 years. Its native country is probably Europe 

 and western Asiaj. See Sturtevant, Amer. Naturalist, 1887, pp. 

 527-532, for history. 



In 1887, Goff (6th Rep. N. Y. State Exp. Sta., p. 133-146] made 



