ESCULENT-ROOTED PLANTS.— THE CARROT. 



177 



attack of the carrot maggot, Psila rosce : 

 this, however, depends to some extent on 

 the season, for cold and late springs have 

 their effect upon the insect as well as upon 

 the germination of the plant. Many also 

 defer till the beginning of May, from the 

 apprehension that, if the seed is sown ear- 

 lier, the plants will be liable to run to seed. 

 Sow again in June and July, and lastly 

 towards the end of August or beginning 

 of September — the later crop to supply 

 autumn demands. Some depend on this 

 sowing for a winter supply, substituting 

 them for young carrots, for which they 

 are a poor representative, except in form, 

 being devoid of the same flavour and co- 

 lour ; and although they may pass with 

 some for such purposes, they will not 

 escape the keen eye of a French cook. 

 Forcing carrots during winter is no seri- 

 ous matter, if the conveniences of hot- 

 beds or tanked pits be at command ; and 

 those who will not go to the expense of 

 such conveniences must just go without, 

 or be content with such as are produced 

 by late sowing, and kept in the ground 

 till they are wanted. One great advan- 

 tage arising from not sowing too early, is 

 that the seed has a much less time to lie 

 in the ground before germinating, and 

 hence brairds as soon as the weeds, and 

 therefore admits of earlier hoeing ; where- 

 as, if very early sown, the weeds get the 

 start of the young carrots, and render the 

 operation of cleaning them more tedious 

 and less effective. The seed does not come 

 up for four or five weeks in spring, and 

 for three or four in summer and autumn. 

 The seed of chickweed, and many other 

 weeds, vegetates in much less time in the 

 same temperature, and hence the pro- 

 priety of bringing on an artificial germi- 

 nation, as afterwards to be noticed, recon- 

 ciling as near as may be the germination 

 of the carrots and the weeds. 



The ground intended for this crop 

 should be trenched not less than 2± feet 

 in depth, and well pulverised during the 

 operation. It should be in a sufficient 

 state of enrichment from the manuring of 

 the previous crop ; hence the ground from 

 which celery has been removed is deemed 

 the best, on account of its having been 

 well wrought during the previous summer 

 and autumn, and also as having been suf- 

 ficiently enriched. Notwithstanding this, 

 trenching is desirable ; and if this opera- 



tion has been carried on as the ground 

 became vacant, and thrown up in rough 

 ridges, so much the better, as all that will 

 be required at the period of sowing the 

 carrots will be to level down the ridges 

 and break down the clods with a coarse 

 rake, rendering the surface sufficiently le- 

 vel and smooth for the drawing of the 

 drills; for carrots should, for principal 

 crops, be always drill-sown. When the 

 ground is dry and prepared as above, the 

 drills may be drawn with the drill-rake in 

 the way described under section Onion, 

 p. 33 ; a very slight pressure will give 

 them the proper depth — an inch and a half. 

 The distance at which the teeth should be 

 set depends on the distance the rows are 

 to be apart from each other ; 9 inches 

 being the usual distance for horn carrots, 

 and 1 foot for the larger-growing kinds. 

 The head of the drill-rake being marked 

 off in inches, the three screws are to be 

 slackened, the teeth set at their respec- 

 tive distances, and the screws to be tight- 

 ened up again. 



Previous to sowing, the seed should be 

 well separated by rubbing between the 

 hands with an admixture of a little dry 

 sand, or finely-sifted coal-ashes, without 

 which preparation the seeds would not 

 separate freely, and hence the crop would 

 come up unequal and patchy, besides 

 wasting much of the seed. A quiet still 

 day should be chosen, as the seed is so 

 very light that it would be liable to be 

 blown away before it could be covered in. 

 Sow thinly in the drills ; and as the seed 

 is committed to them it should be covered 

 in immediately : by walking along each 

 drill with a foot on each side of it, and by 

 drawing the feet along, one after the other, 

 the process of covering will easily be 

 effected ; or, if the ground is wet, by go- 

 ing down every fourth or fifth space, the 

 same number of drills may be covered by 

 the head of a wooden rake. In this state 

 the ground should be left ; all scratching 

 and raking, after the seed is sown, is so 

 much labour thrown away, and the ground 

 anything but improved by the operation. 

 In extremely light soils it may, however, 

 be slightly footed over, or trod in, as it is 

 technically termed, because such soils are 

 improved mechanically by the process of 

 compression ; hence in old and long- 

 wrought market-gardens, where the soil is 

 soft and spongy, a light wooden roller is 



