218 
Cultivation of Carrots and Cabbages. 
obsti-uction from stones. I have never weighed a crop of cab- 
bages ; but, from having frequently weighed a given number of 
plants at maturity, I am able to estimate about an average yield 
per acre as 30 tons. On similar land, under the same treatment, 
the average yield of swedes would be about 18 tons ; and of 
mangolds about 22 tons. We have weighed many heads of 
cabbages in a crop weighing 26 lbs. and upwards ; and I have 
seen specimens grown in the neighbourhood which, I was in- 
formed, weighed 36 lbs. ; but under the treatment I have described 
I estimate 14 or 15 lbs. each as an averasre weight throughout 
the crop. 
Considering the comparative ease with which a cabbage-crop 
is kept clean, we do not consider the cost of the cultivation of it 
to exceed that of mangolds and swedes. The cost of labour 
attending the carrot-crop, when raised, will considerably exceed 
that required in maturing those crops ; but it must be borne in 
mind that the tops of the carrots, when the roots are taken up, 
greatly exceed in weight and nutritive value the tops of mangolds 
or of swedes at the season at which the latter are usually heaped 
or fed off on the grouad. 
Mode of Cultivation. — First, as to carrots. Under a strong im- 
pression of the feeding value of these roots, manv years antecedent 
to the publications to which I have referred, I have for a long 
period given much attention to the treatment of this root as well 
as cabbage, and I have devoted to them about one-sixth of my 
root-quarter. Assuming the selection of good clean seed, we allow 
5 or 6 lbs. per acre. For some years the great difficulty we had to 
encounter was the rapid growth of the ordinarv annual weeds of 
the field, as compared with the slow vegetation of the carrot- 
seed ; the consequent continual labour and cost in keeping the 
TOWS clean, — an expense which has led manv persons to abandon 
the crop. Another difficulty was the peculiar adhesive nature 
of the seed, in consequence of which the patchy and irregular 
plant of carrots in the field is matter of common observation. 
We have got over the latter difficultv bv mixing a moderate 
quantity of dry ashes witli the seed, and rubbing them together 
till the seed is well separated. W e then put the entire quantity 
for the acreage to be sown, thus separated, in a heap, and moisten 
it with a watering-pot, turning it over until the whole is damp, 
but not wet. This should be done aljout ten days before sowing 
the seed, and the heap should be turned over two or three times 
during that interval, until the commencement of vegetation* is 
perceptible. Before sowing, sufficient dry ashes should be scat- 
tered amongst the heap to insure its running freely through the 
drill. 
Carrot-seed is commonly sown too early : it will not vegetate 
