650 



RADICACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



three or four in summer and autumn. The soil should be light and sandy, 

 and deep and rich, in consequence of being well trenched and manured the 

 preceding year. The first sowing of the early horn may be made in the 

 middle of February, in a warm border ; and if the family require a constant 

 supply of young carrots, successional sowings may be made, as recommended, 

 for a constant supply of turnips. From the middle of March to the first week 

 in April is the best time for sowing the main crop for taking up and preserving 

 through the winter ; and a crop of small carrots, to stand through the winter 

 and afford roots in February, March, and April, may be so^vn in the first 

 week in August. The early scarlet horn is by some the only carrot grown, 

 answering well both for an early and a main crop {G. M., 1840, p. 207, 

 and 1841, p. 27)- AH the crops that are to be drawn young may be sown 

 in drills, six inches apart, and the plants thinned out to three inches, but 

 those which are intended to produce carrots of full size should be sown in 

 drills eighteen inches apart, and the plants thinned out to from eight inches 

 to ten inches in the row. Carrots will grow in peat. Deep holes may be 

 made with a large dibber, and filled with prepared rich sandy soil, and 

 two or three seeds sown in each hole, to be afterwards thinned, so as to 

 leave the best in each hole. They may be produced of large size in this 

 way, even where the ground is too stiff to produce otherwise a good crop. 



Routine culture as in the turnip (1421), with this difference that the 

 soil between the rows should not be stirred deeper than is necessary to kill 

 the weeds ; for by so doing the lateral fibres will be encouraged to grow 

 large and disfigure the main roots. 



1430. Gathering and keeping. — Young carrots are drawn by hand, and 

 full-grown ones dug up with the spade or two- pronged fork, a trench being 

 made alongside one row after another, so as to admit of taking out the 

 carrots without, in the slightest degree, injuring their rind. A portion of the 

 main crop may be left in the ground, and covered with litter to be taken up 

 as wanted ; and the remainder may be preserved in cellars or in ridges by 

 some of the modes recommended for preserving turnips. When the top is 

 cut off along with a slice of the root, there is no difficulty in preserving 

 carrots till carrots come again ; indeed they have been so preserved for two 

 years (G. 31. vol. vii. p. 191) ; but we should prefer keeping on the tops 

 and burying the carrots in an ice-cold thatched ridge. 



1431. Diseases and insects. — The root is sometimes disfigured by ulcers, 

 supposed to be the effect of recent manure, and they are often attacked by 

 the grub of some dipterous insect, which in its perfect state may be prevented 

 from depositing its eggs, by watering the soil after the plants have come up 

 with some nauseous liquid manure, such as putrid urine or spirits of tar, at 

 the rate of about one gallon to every sixty square yards (C Mcintosh, in 

 Gard. Chron.for 1841, p. 58). Grubs already in the soil cannot so readily 

 be destroyed, unless the ground is so deep that they may be trenched down 

 when the want of air will kill them ; but some other crop may be grown on 

 it which the insects will not attack. 



1432. Seed saving. — Select some of the finest specimens and transplant 

 them in autumn, growing only the seeds of one variety in one year in the 

 same garden. The seed, if kept dry and adhering to the stalk, will keep 

 three or four years ; but if separated from the stalk, it will grow with diffi- 

 culty the second year. 



Forcing the carrot. See 1106, 



