Culture of carrots.
Soil.—The ideal land for carrots is a deep, sandy loam or an alluvial soil. Carrots grow well on deep, peaty soils and give good crops on light soils if there is a good rainfall, or on clay loarns if well drained. The land should be well prepared, deep fall-plowing being recommended. The spring prep aration consists of harrowing with the disk or acme harrow and finally with the meeker harrow, the latter being an admirable tool for finishing the preparation of the seed-bed for all root crops.
Manuring.—It is preferable that the land be well manured for the previous crop. If this cannot be done, about twelve tons of rotted manure may be applied per acre in fall and plowed under, or rotted manure may be disked in in the spring. It is important that it be evenly distrib uted. One important reason for using rotted manure is that carrots are slow in germination and growth and permit weeds to grow apace. Manure introduces many weeds to land, and rotted manure is less likely to contain so many. A complete fer tilizer is usually applied, consisting of, per acre, 100 to 200 pounds of muriate or sulfate of potash, applied in fall or spring and harrowed in, although wood-ashes are sometimes used instead ; 400 to 800 pounds of acid phosphate, 16 per cent avail able, or its equivalent, i. e., 64 to 128 pounds of actual phosphoric acid, which is worked into the soil in the spring ; and 100 to 150 pounds of nitrate of soda, which is usually applied in the form of two top-dressings when the plants are growing. Liming the land at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre is frequently beneficial.
Seed and seeding.—Carrot seed is sometimes par tially germinated by mixing it with wet sand and leaving it for a few days, or by merely dampening it and leaving the seeds in a pile. Since carrot seeds, which are really fruits, carry many spines, the method of mixing in sand was formerly of value to prevent their sticking together. Today, seeds from which the spines have been removed may be purchased, and such will readily pass through the drill. The seeds should be sown on or
very close to the surface. They take ten to four teen days to germinate. Six to seven pounds may be sown per acre, although if the seed is of good germinating power four or five pounds will suffice. The rows may be narrow, eighteen to twenty-four inches apart when hand culture is used, or twenty eight to thirty-six inches apart for field conditions and when machinery is used. In the latter case the plants may be left three inches asunder in the rows, and 55,000 to 60,000 plants should be se cured per acre.
Subsequent cam—Shallow cultivation should be given as soon as the rows can be seen and be main tained until the foliage meets in the rows. The plants should be thinned to one in a place as soon as large enough to handle. The crop could well be grown after such a crop as cabbages or potatoes, or any other crop which has been well manured.
Harvesting.—The varieties that have part of the root out of the ground are easier to harvest but are more liable to injury by frost. A plow may be run beside the rows to loosen the ground in the case of other varieties. They are usually harvested before severe frost occurs and stored in root cellars or in pits as are other roots.
Ent. m ies.
The carrot has few troubles. A bacterial soft rot (Bacillus carotororusl, for which no remedy is known, gives trouble sometimes. The parsley worm sometimes attacks the leaves.
Brassica Rapa, var. hybrida, Fra ser. A cross between a rutabaga and a common turnip, made with a view to securing a plant pos sessing the desirable characters of both parents,— fur example, to secure the higher dry-matter con tent of the rutabaga in a plant which will mature in a shorter time. Such hybrids show characters of either parent. Some varieties are highly esteemed, as Fosterton Hybrid, Aberdeen Yellow, Carter Lightning and Commonwealth, Garton Pioneer. [For culture, see Turnip.] mange!. Beta vulgaris, Linn. Chenopo diacece.