CARROT. 



175 



siderable frost, but not severe freezing. Two seeds are pro- 

 duced by each flower; they are flat on one side and convex on 

 the other, and are partly covered \y minute bristles. When sold, 

 the bristles have generally been removed. Carrots are used to 

 some extent as a table vegetable, but they are especially valuable 

 as a food for horses and other stock. 



Cultivation. — The carrot ? of the easiest culture. It re- 

 quires a fine mellow, rich, uplanc soil. On moist land the roots 



are apt to branch and 

 are much liable to dis- 

 tjase. The seedlings 

 are quite delicate when 

 they first come up and 

 every precaution should 

 be taken to have the 

 land clean, so that the 

 small seedlings v%'ill not 

 be overrun with weeds; 

 the surface soil should 

 be kept loose and mel- 

 low throughout the sea- 

 son. It is a good plan 

 to sow a few radish 

 seeds with the ce^rrot 

 seed so that cultivation 

 may be commenced 

 early, as the latter 

 start slowly. If the 

 Figure 87-Carrot plant in fiower. seed of the small kinds 



are sow-.i very early in 

 spring they will pro- 

 duce roots big enough for table use by early summer; 

 but for the main crop the seed should be sown about the middle 

 of May in rows fourteen inches apart. A fair crop may be ex- 

 pected even if the seed is not sown until the middle of June, 

 although the dry weather which generally prevails at that time 

 of the year is liable to prevent or retard the germination of the 

 seed or to burn up the seedlings just as they are pushing out 



