AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fmprir to tmgrofce X\t |ar|jf % flatter, arur % (Sarlmr* 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. _Washington' 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. ALLEN & CO., 189 Water-st., New-York. 
VOL. XIY.— NO. 2 .] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. so 
fax prospectus, ®n*ms, $zc., 
^"SEE LAST PAGE.^gJ 
All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
Judd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
er business should be directed to Allen & 
Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
Every one writing to the Editor or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices," on last page. 
CARROTS AS A FIELD CROP- 
We have so often and so earnestly recom¬ 
mended the growth of carrots for winter¬ 
feeding, that we feel reluctant to recur to 
the subject again. We should not do so but 
for its great importance, and the further con¬ 
sideration, that many of our present readers 
may not have seen our former articles. 
Their Value for Market and Use. —There 
is no crop that we raise that is more profita¬ 
ble, whether we look to its immediate sales, 
or to its value when consumed by the farm 
stock. Their marketable value is rarely as 
low as half the price of potatoes, while their 
yield, on similar soil, will be more than 
double ; and with seldom or never a failure 
from disease, to which the potato has been 
so liable of late years. 
For Stock Feeding. —Carrots are highly 
relished by all the inmates of the stable and 
yard, and by most of the poultry also, either 
raw or cooked. They are unequaled in the 
vigor and healthful tone they give to the 
stomach, and the assistance they lend to the 
digestive organs, from a peculiar principle 
contained in them, called pecline. Whether 
fed for the purpose of securing the greatest 
amount of flesh, milk, wool, or farm-labor, 
we believe their value is seldom reached by 
the produce of any other crop on an equal 
area of land. 
Their Introduction and Use as a part of the 
Food for Draught Animals. —They have been 
growing in favor of late years, and will con¬ 
tinue to increase with increasing experience 
and intelligence. Although their nutritive 
properties are far below the relative value of 
oats or corn, bushel for bushel, yet consid¬ 
ered with regard to their healthful effects 
on the animal system, it is doubtful, when 
adopted as a partial substitute, whether they 
are not equally as valuable as either. 
The boil selected for Carrots, should be 
well-drained, rich, deep and friable. It mat¬ 
ters little whether it inclines most to clay or 
sand, provided the above conditions are se¬ 
cured. The preparation should commence 
the previous year, by heavy manuring, deep 
plowing and the clean cultivation of some 
other crop which will justify strong manures, 
such as corn, ruta baga, sugar beet, or man¬ 
gel wurtzel. 
Manures. —The carrot will not endure a 
large proportion of fresh or unfermented 
farm-yard manure. It is therefore necessa¬ 
ry to secure a liberal application the preced¬ 
ing year, which, by subsequent plowings, 
&c., becomes thoroughly incorporated in the 
soil; and in the absence of such condition, 
it must have an adequate supply of well- 
fermented barn-yard manure, or swamp 
muck, or the two mixed together, or the 
muck mixed with guano, which is one of the 
best of composts for any kind of crop. II 
there is any deficiency of the two first, guano 
should be applied at the rate of 300 to 600 lbs 
per acre,according to the condition of the land 
Bone-dust is an excellent manure for carrots; 
but unless finely ground—or, what is much 
better, decomposed by sulphuric acid—it can 
have little effect on the first crop succeeding 
its application, owing to its slow decompose 
tion in the soil. An excellent substitute for 
bones, for its immediate effect, is superphos¬ 
phate of lime, the most valuable portion of 
which is bone-dust, so thoroughly decom¬ 
posed as to be immediately available for the 
crop. Pigeon and other fowl dung is a very 
appropriate manure. It is a matter of so 
much importance to avoid weeds in the car¬ 
rot field, that nothing should be carried to 
them which contains obnoxious seeds or 
roots. 
Application of Manures. —We are no advo¬ 
cates for manuring in the hill, whether with 
long or short manures. The only excep¬ 
tions we should tolerate, are, first, in very 
poor soils where the roots would scarcely 
acquire size or strength enough during the 
growing season, to avail themselves of a 
thinly-scattered manuring; and especially 
where this is so porous (sandy or gravelly) 
as to permit a rapid evaporation or wasting 
of the manure ; and second, when a small 
amount of finely prepared manure, as guano 
and the like, is necessary near the seed, to 
stimulate its early and rapid growth, and 
lead away the rootlets of the plants in the 
first stages of their growth, to a wider range 
of pasturage. 
A Thorough Incorporation of the manures 
the soil, and to a depth of 12 to 18 inches, 
we deem indispensable to a large yield of 
carrots, or any other root crop. Light manu¬ 
ring and shallow plowing are illy adapted to 
a remunerating production of roots, however 
it may suffice for a moderate yield of grain 
or grass. When thus diffused throughout 
the soil, the little spongioles radiating from 
the main stem in every direction, are sure to 
find the manuies, and the augmented area 
over which they are thus invited to extend, 
adds largely to the product of each plant. 
It is better to plow the manure in the pre¬ 
ceding fall, unless it can be done early in the 
season ; and especially is this the case when 
long or unfermented manure is used. Its 
recent application is quite liable to produce 
sprangles, or multiplied, diminutive roots,and 
in ruta bagas frequently, causes the disease 
called fingers and toes. 
Sod-land, and Especially a rich Clover ley, 
if turned under long enough previous to 
planting to insure decomposition, (which is 
much more certainly secured when there is 
a considerable growth of grass or clover 
turned under with it,) is one of the best 
preparations for carrots and roots of every 
description, and indeed of almost every 
grown crop. There is also another import¬ 
ant condition secured by this practice, as the 
thorough and deep inversion of the sward, 
generally secures a more cleanly surface, 
and renders cultivation easier. 
Plowing and Preparing the Land. —The 
soil can not be too deeply plowed for carrots. 
The Flemmings and other Europeans, who 
raise the largest crops, generally trench 
their carrot-beds with the spade, taking up 
two and sometimes three spits of earth in 
depth, before they consider the soil properly 
prepared. The price of labor in this coun¬ 
try, will not permit the adoption of this prac¬ 
tice here, nor is it necessary. With a com¬ 
prehensive adaptation of means to ends, the 
Americans have succeeded in substituting 
animal force and labor-saving machinery, for 
human muscle, in the preparation of their 
land for a crop, equally with most of their 
other operations. By the construction of 
well-made plows, combining every requisite 
for effectually turning, and at the same time 
pulverizing the soil it lifts; with capacity for 
throwing a deep and wide furrow with an 
easy draught; and especially by the use of 
the subsoil plow, which follows after and 
deepens the soil to any required distance, 
we are enabled to dispense with expensive 
hand labor. 
Harrowing. —Most people are too easily 
satisfied with deeply plowing their \ 
m 
