Thus an acre is readily trenched in 
as before. 
one day to the depth of fifteen or eighteen inches, 
and all the weeds are buried: carrot ‘or parsnip 
seed is sown on the surface and slightly harrowed 
In 
99 
° 
[Rham’s Dictionary of the Farm. | 
Carrot seed, selected for sowing, ought to be 
ripe and heavy; yet.if two or even three years 
old, will vegetate as well as if quite new. Great 
care should be used in selecting good seed; and 
when much nicety is desirable, only such seeds 
as have grown on the outer border of the umbel 
should be chosen. The seed is extremely light, 
adheres in groups by means of hooked hairs 
which spring from its husks, and, if not some- 
what forced before sowing, is so very long in ger- 
minating as to be preceded and sometimes almost 
choked by weeds. Its lightness requires that it 
should be sown in calm weather, and during a 
somewhat dry condition of the soil. Its strong 
adherence into knots and bunches by means of 
| its hooked hairs, requires that, previous to sow- 
ing, it should be well mixed with fine dry sand; 
and even then, this property renders the proper 
sowing of the seed in drills very difficult, and oc- 
casions the young plants to come up in tufts, and 
often at too great intervals. The slowness of the 
seed’s germination may, by a very easy method 
of previous forcing, be so greatly quickened as to 
let the young plants rise in ample time to make 
a successful contest with weeds, and to be hoed 
without risk of injury. The method is to add so 
| much water to the mixture of seeds and sand as 
will thoroughly moisten it, to place it in a moder- 
| ately warm temperature, and, during from ten 
| to twenty days, daily to turn it over and make 
fresh sprinklings upon it of water. Burrows, 
who fully tested this method, and brought it into 
notice, says, “ 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, | mix the seed with the sand or mould, 
eight or ten pounds to every two bushels, and 
this is done about a fortnight or three weeks be- 
fore the time I intend sowing; taking care to 
have the heaps turned 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 ad- 
vantage in preparing the seed so long before- 
hand; it is by this means in a state of forward 
vegetation, therefore lies but a short time in the 
ground, and, by quickly appearing above ground, 
is more able to contend with those numerous 
tribes of weeds in the soil, whose seeds are of 
quicker vegetation.” 
The earlier in the spring carrots are sown, pro- 
vided the weather be dry and the climate mild, 
the larger will be the crop, and the better the 
quality of the roots. About the middle of March 
is usually the best time in the southern counties 
of England ; but the middle of April, or even the 
latter part of that month, may be early enough 
from accompanying weeds. 
in some good farming districts in the north of 
England and the south of Scotland. If the de- 
cided goodness of the seed can be depended on, 
two pounds per acre may be sufficient in drills, 
and between four and five pounds broadcast ; 
but if the quality of the seed be in the least de- 
gree doubtful, the double of each quantity ought 
to be sown. Burrows always sowed ten pounds 
per acre broadcast. When the land is dry, rather 
more seed is required than when the land is moist. 
The drill method of sowing is greatly preferable 
for the facility of weeding ; but, on account of the 
peculiar character of the seeds, it cannot easily 
be practised. The drills may be fourteen or fit 
teen inches distant from one another; and the 
seed may be deposited either by a machine or by 
hand. The broadcast method is generally prac- 
tised in all carrot-growing districts ; and it simply 
requires a finely powdered soil, a smooth surface, 
and a very light harrowing-in. 
The after-culture of the carrot-crop consists | 
wholly of hoeing and weeding. Though the plant 
has the appearance of obtaining its chief nourish- 
ment from the lower end of the root, yet, on ac- 
count of the multitudinous minute radicles which 
grow horizontally from every part of the root, and | 
on account especially of its acquiring so large a 
portion of its bulk from the free circulation of 
the atmospheric gases and moisture, it receives 
very great advantage from judicious and repeated 
stirring of the soil. When the crop is sown on 
raised drills, the hoeing and cleaning may be 
effected in the same manner as in turnip crops; 
and when sown in flat drills, they must be thin- 
ned, cleaned, and hoed with the hand-hoe. When 
the crop is broadcast, three or perhaps four hoe- 
ings must be given in the season, each with a size 
of hand-hoe suited to its precise object, and the 
first with extreme care, as the: carrots cannot, 
without difficulty, be at that time distinguished 
Burrows’ method, occurs about five or six weeks 
after sowing, and cuts up weeds without thinning 
the carrots, and is performed with hoes four | 
inches long and two and a quarter inches wide ; | 
the second hoeing is given as soon as the first is 
completed and the plants are set, and is performed 
with hoes six inches long, and two and a quarter © 
inches wide; and the third and fourth hoeings 
effect the complete and final cleaning of the 
ground, and the thinning out of the plants to 
distances from one another of from nine to twelve 
inches. In Suffolk, the first hoeing is given as — 
soon as the carrots can be distinguished from | 
weeds, and is performed with three-inch hoes, | 
having handles of not more than two feet in | 
length ; the second hoeing is given three or four 
weeks after the first, and is performed with com- 
mon hoes, and not only takes up weeds and stirs | 
the ground, but thins out the carrots; and the 
third or final hoeing is given about the middle or | 
end of June, and, besides destroying weeds, effects 
such a final thinning as to leave all the carrots 
The first hoeing, in | 
CARROT. 713 | 
