January 23. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
313 
day, the houses freely ventilated constantly, day and ' 
night, and water used liberally, morning and evening, 
about the floors, &c.; but still, through the ventilation, 
not a drop rests on 'the blossoms. Let me again re¬ 
commend those who do not well understand this in- j 
valuable winter flower, this bouquet favourite, to shape 
their practice in this manner. R. Ebrington. 
PRESERVING AND PROPAGATING CARROTS 
AND SIMILAR-ROOTED PLANTS. 
About this time of the year, or, indeed, any time in 
winter, if the snow or frost put us in-doors, I remember 
a job which we used to be put to, when I was a lad, but 
now you seldom see or hear a word about it. 1 allude I 
to the dressing of Carrots and Parsnips, by cutting off a 
slice of the “ quick” from each root, along with tho 
entire top; after that is done they can never sprout 
again; but if the place is moist, or at all damp, both 
the Carrot and the Parsnip will make abundance of 
white roots. At the time I refer to, there was a notion 
among old gardeners that Carrots and Parsnips eat all 
the sweeter if they are allowed to “ malt,” and no more; 
that is, allowed to make these small roots an inch long, 
and then be dried off. When P>arley is malted, it is 
allowed, or, rather encouraged, to sprout so far, and 
after drying a long time is much sweeter than Barley 
that is not malted. But if the Carrot and Parsnip 
are allowed to sprout by the top, they soon turn to 
a wilder taste, so to speak; to prevent this was the 
reason assigned for topping them to the quick. Now, 
whether there is really any foundation for these old 
notions, I cannot say from experience ; but people do 
say that Parsnips, at least, ought to be well frosted before 
they are taken up; the frost is said to make them more 
mellow and sweeter. Whether this notion is new or 
old, does not matter; it is certainly erroneous. My own 
Parsnips are sweeter this winter than I ever remember 
them, and they had no frost to speak of; but they had 
malted before the new year, without being taken up. 
They ripened early, and the mild weather caused them 
to root vigorously, and I was obliged to take them up 
by the middle of January—to stop the process of malt¬ 
ing—just at the right stage to suit my own taste. I 
also topped them, taking a thin slice of tho quick so as 
to prevent the sprouting running away with the sweet¬ 
ness. Now, if everybody took the same precautions, 
and watched the rooting, or malting, of these useful 
“ roots,” so as to have them just to his or her own taste, 
and then keep them so long as they lasted, everybody 
would get to be fond of Parsnips, the most wholesome 
root in the garden. After topping mine, 1 let them lie 
out on tho ground to dry, aud till a slight frost put a 
stop to their rooting; after that, I put them up, and I 
mean to keep them as diy as possible, without being too 
dry—that is, sufficiently dry to keep them from rooting 1 
any more ; but not so dry as that any part of them can j 
shrink in the least. I do not grow Carrots, else I would 
try the same experiment with them ; for I have a great 
respect for many of the old ways which are now little 1 
thought of; but, depend upon it, we have been going 
too fast, in many wrong things, ever since the last war; 
so fast, indeed, in some things, that if Experience dared 
to open her mouth, she was bull-and-mouthed out of 
countenance with go-a-head “deductions,” which pro¬ 
pagated faster than you could write your own name. 
This brings us to propagation, for which we started; and 
what I was going to ask is this—Has any one tried to 
propagate good or superior varieties of the Carrot or the 1 
Parsnip from sets, like a Potato ? And as the new Yam 
Potato must bo propagated from the root, it does not 
seem, by all accounts, to have eyes all over it like the 
Potatoes, but only at the top, just as the Parsnip and 
Carrot; and they say, if you only cut off the top part, 
or growing point, and a little of the root with it, that is 
all that is necessary for “ seed,” or another crop, some¬ 
thing in the way we manage the Horseradish, but not 
to be planted so deep. If you buy a dish of Sea-kale in 
Covent Garden, you will have root enough with each 
head to make a good plant for a new bed ; but so much 
root is not at all necessary, only it is the fashion to have 
it so in London, where, if the Kale is not sold as fast as 
they send it in, the couple of inches of the root, or root- 
stock, will keep it in suction till all is sold oft’ next 
week. 
The old way of making new beds of Sea-kale with 
“ sets,” or pieces of the roots, is now given up, or ought 
to be, because seedlings do so much better, and in 
quicker time. It may be the same with Carrots and 
Parsnips, but still we have no experience to prove that 
the case is so. There is only one variety of Sea-kale, 
and then there is nothing gained by keeping it “ true ” 
by root-cuttings; but every bed of Carrots and Parsnips, 
even if from the purest aud best-selected seeds, produces 
more varieties than many of us are aware of, and it 
strikes me that the reason why both are much better in 
kind, is that we rely so much on the seed; if we were to 
propagate the largest Carrot, the sweetest, or the shortest, 
or longest of the season, from top-sets, and the same 
with Parsnips, there can be no doubt about a sudden 
improvement in both, provided these roots are capable 
of being reared profitably by sets, or as much so as 
they are from seeds ; that point ought to be ascertained 
at once. I shall try some of my best Parsnips very 
soon, and put in one row of sets by the side of another 
row from seeds, and I shall taste, try, and know the 
difference, in one season, or else lose a whole row by the 
experiment. I shall cut off one full inch from the top 
with the leaves, or where the leaves come from. I have 
done so already; but when I plant, about the middle 
of February, 1 shall divide some of my top-sets into 
halves, and some into quarters, and note the difference. 
I mean to open a drill for these sets about the same 
depth as for early Peas, to put in wood and coal-ashes 
under the sets, and some all round them, with no more 
earth at first than will just cover the crowns; when the 
leaves are five or six inches long, I shall fill one-half 
the row level, and the other half will he left hollow all 
tho season; as, perhaps,the Parsnip docs not do so well 
if much covered over the crown—at least, that is the 
prevailing idea; but we shall see. Did any of my 
readers ever hear of a Parsnip ten feet long? I once 
heard about a longer one, from a spirited young Irish¬ 
man, who wrought with me in Edinburgh. The story 
ran thus:—Ilis father was a farmer, who burned lime 
from a chalk pit; but the Peelers ruined him. Finding 
himself going down, he gave up the lime kiln, and filled 
it from a sandy bank, such as the Experimental Garden 
in Edinburgh lies on; over this he sowed his last crop 
of Parsnips in November, and next autumn some of the 
“ fruit,” or Parsnips, reached down to the very bottom 
of the lime-kiln, but I forget the depth ; however, they 
had to pull down the kiln before they could take the 
crop. So you see we have still a great deal to learn 
about “ common things.” Who knows but November 
is the best time to sow Parsnips, after all? Perhaps it 
should bo put in after the "Wheat in October. All I 
can say on the subject is, that frost never hurts tho 
seedlings, as I have often noticed; but perhaps part of 
the crop would go to seed if sown in the autumn. But 
all this we have to learn yet from experience, if no one, 
who has already tried the plan, will come forward and 
tell us. 
Carrots will graft on Carrots, and Parsnips on Pars¬ 
nips; Dahlias on self, and ditto the Poeony; but nothing 
now need be expected from that kind of propagation, 
