CARROT. 
39 
Field culture. —“ The only sort of carrot adapted to field culture," says 
Loudon, “is the long red, or field carrot. New seed is most essential, as it 
will not vegetate the second year. Ttie best soil for the carrot is a deep, 
rich, sandy loam ; such a soil ought to be at least a foot deep, and all equally 
good from top to bottom. On any other the field culture of the carrot will 
not answer. 
“ The usual preparation of the seed for sowing is the mixing it with earth 
or sand, to cause it to separate more freely; but Burrows adds water, turns 
over the mixture of seeds and moist earth several times, and thus brings it 
to the point of vegetating before he sovcs it. Having weighed the quantity 
of seed to be sown, and collected sand or fine mould, in the proportion of 
about two bushels to an acre, I mix the seed with the sand or mould, eight 
or ten pounds to ev.ery two bushels, and this is done about a fortnight or three 
weeks before the time I intend sowing; taking care to have the heaps turn 
ed over every day, sprinkling the outside of them with water each time of 
turning over, that every part of the sand heaps may be equally moist, and 
that vegetation may take place alike throughout. I have great advantage in 
preparing the seed so long before hand ; it is by this means in a state of for¬ 
ward vegetation, therefore lies but a short time in the ground, and, by 
quickly appearing above ground, is more able to contend with those numer¬ 
ous tribes of weeds in the soil, whose seeds are of quicker vegetation."* 
The quantity of seed, when carrots are sown in rows, is two pounds per 
acre; and, for broad-cast sowing, five pounds. The rows for the larger or 
proper field carrots, should be from 14 to 16 or 18 inches apart; and the car¬ 
rots thinned, in hoeing, to 3 or 4 inches apart in the rows. The seeds will do 
best when sown by hand, as their shape does not well admit of their being 
sown by machines. Loudon says, “ It has been advised, by an intelligent 
cultivator, to deposit the seed to the depth of one inch in the rows, leaving 
the spaces of fourteen inches between them as intervals; the seed in these 
cases, being previously steeped in rain water for twenty-four hours, and left 
to sprout, after which it is mixed with saw-dust and dry mould, in the pro¬ 
portion of one peck and a half of each to a pound of seed. The land 
is afterwards lightly harrowed over once in a place. Two pounds of seed, 
in this mode, is found, as has been observed, sufficient for an acre of land. 75 
After-culture .—The first hoeing of carrots must be by hand—an operation 
which requires a great deal of attention, as it is difficult to distinguish and 
separate the weeds from the young carrots. Loudon says, “From eight to 
fifteen or eighteen inches, each way, is the common distance at which they 
are allowed to stand; and it has been proved, from many years 7 experience 
in districts where they are most cultivated, that carrots which grow at such 
distances always prove a more abundant crop than when the plants are 
allowed to stand -^oser together.” Deane observed, “ It is not amiss if they 
