long beforehand; 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." (Supp. &c.)

4937. Crude, the French translator of Von Thaer's work, describes in a note (tom. iv. 237.) a practice nearly similar to that of Burrows. Crude uses sciure (night soil) instead of earth, and waters with the drainings of dunghills. He keeps the mixture in a warm, but shady situation for eight days; by that time the seed is nearly ready to vegetate, and he sows it immediately.

4938. The quantity of seed when carrots are sown in rows, is two pounds per acre, and for broad-cast sowing five pounds. Burrows sows ten pounds per acre in the broad-cast manner.

4939. The usual mode of sowing the carrot is broad-cast; but a much better mode in our opinion would be to sow them in rows at twelve or fourteen inches distance; drawing the drills, and hoeing the intervals by any suitable drill and hoe. The most common practice, however, when carrots are best cultivated, is the hand or broad-cast method, the seed being dispersed as evenly as possible over the land, after the surface has been reduced to a very fine state of pulverisation by harrowing, in order to provide a suitable bed for it to vegetate in; being then covered in by means of a light harrow. As the seed of the carrot is not of a nature to be depo sited with much regularity by the drill, and as the young plants can be easily set out to proper distances in the operation of hoeing, this is probably the most appropriate method of putting such sort of seed into the ground. And an additional proof of it is indeed found, in its being that which is almost universally adopted in those districts where carrot-husbandry is practised to the greatest extent. But with the view of having the after-culture of the crops more perfectly performed, and at the same time to save the great expense of hand-labor in hoeing the crop, the drill method has been attempted by some cultivators, but we believe without complete success. The work is finished in equi-distant rows at the distance of from twelve to fifteen or eighteen inches from each other, according to the mode of hoeing that is practised. In this business some cultivators do not make use of drill-machines, but strike the land into small furrows by hoes or other implements contrived for the purpose, and then cast the seed over the ground by the hand, covering it in either by slight harrowing, or hoeing in the tops of the ridgelets. It is added, that "in this method, where a drill-machine is used, 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 sawdust and dry-mould, in the proportion of one peck and a half of each to a pound of the 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."

4940. The after-culture given the carrot consists entirely of hoeing and weeding. In Suffolk they are hoed generally three times in the season. The first time, as soon as the plants can be distinguished from the weeds which surround them, which should be done with three-inch hoes, having handles not above two feet in length. It is an operation that requires to be performed with great attention, as it is extremely difficult to distinguish and separate the young carrots from the weeds. The second hoeing should be given in three or four weeks afterwards, according to the forwardness of the crop ; it may be performed with common hoes, care being taken to set out the plants at proper distances. 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' 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 closer together. The third hoeing is commonly made about the middle or end of June, and in this, besides destroying the weeds, another material circumstance to be attended to, is to set out the carrots at proper distances, and also, wherever any have been left double at the former hoeings, to take the worst of the two plants away.

4941. Carrots sown according to the plan of Burrows, are ready to hoe within about five or six weeks. He hoes three and sometimes four times, or until the crop is perfectly clean: the first hoeing is with hoes four inches long, and two and a quarter inches wide. The second hoeing invariably takes place as soon as the first is completed, and is performed with six-inch hoes, by two and a quarter inches wide. By this time the plants are set; the first time of hoeing nothing was cut but the weeds. He leaves the plants nine inches apart from each other; sometimes they will be a foot, or even farther asunder.

4942. Carrots are taken up generally in the last week of October. Burrows's practice is to let the work to a man who engages women and children to assist him;

the work is performed with three-pronged forks; the children cut off the tops, laying them and the roots in separate heaps, ready for the teams to take away. "I take up in autumn a sufficient quantity to have a store to last me out any considerable frost or snow that may happen in the winter months; the rest of the crop I leave in the ground, preferring them fresh out of the earth for both horses and bullocks. The carrots keep best in the ground, nor can the severest frosts do them any material injury; the first week in March, it is necessary to have the remaining part of the crop taken up, and the land cleared for barley; the carrots can either be laid in a heap with a small quantity of straw covered over them, or they may be laid into some empty outhouse or barn, in heaps of many hundred bushels, provided they are put together dry. This latter circumstance, it is indispensably necessary to attend to, for if laid together in large heaps when wet, they will certainly sustain much injury. Such as I want to keep for the use of my horses until the months of May and June, in drawing over the heaps, (which is necessary to be done the latter end of April, when the carrots begin to sprout at the crown very fast), I throw aside the healthy and most perfect roots, and have their crowns cut completely off and laid by themselves; by this means, carrots may be kept the month of June out in a high state of perfection.' (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. vii. p. 72.)

4943. The storing a whole crop of carrots may be a desirable practice when winter wheat is to follow them, in which case the same mode may be adopted as for turnips or potatoes, but with fewer precautions against the frost, as the carrot, if perfectly dry, is very little injured by that description of weather.

4944. The produce of an acre of carrots in Suffolk, according to Arthur Young, is at an average 350 bushels; but Burrows's crops averaged upwards of 800 bushels per acre, which considerably exceeds the largest crop of potatoes.

4945. The uses to which the carrot is applied in Suffolk are various. Large quantities are sent to the London markets, and also given as food to different kinds of live stock. Horses are remarkably fond of carrots, and it is even said, that when oats and carrots are given together, the horses leave the oats and eat the carrots. The ordinary allowance is about forty or fifty pounds a day to each horse. Carrots when mixed with chaff, that is, cut straw, and a little hay, without corn, keep horses in excellent condition for performing all kinds of ordinary labor. The farmers begin to feed their horses with carrots in December, and continue to give them chiefly that kind of provender till the beginning or middle of May; to which period, with proper care, carrots may be preserved. As many of the farmers in that country are of opinion that carrots are not so good for horses in winter as in spring, they give only half the above allowance of carrots at first, and add a little corn for a few weeks after they begin to use carrots.

4946. The application of the carrot to the feeding of working cattle and hogs is thus detailed by Burrows. "I begin to take up the carrot crop in the last week of October, as at that time I generally finish soiling my horses with lucern, and now solely depend upon my carrots, with a proper allowance of hay, as winter food for my horses, until about the first week of June following, when the lucern is again ready for soiling. By reducing this practice to a system, I have been enabled to feed ten cart horses throughout the winter months for these last six years, without giving them any corn whatever, and have at the same time effected a considerable saving of hay, from what I found necessary to give to the same number of horses, when according to the usual custom of the country, I fed my horses with corn and hay. I give them to my cart-horses in the proportion of seventy pound weight of carrots a horse per day, upon an average, not allowing them quite so many in the very short days, and sometimes more than that quantity in the spring months, or to the amount of what I withheld in the short winter days. The men who tend the horses, slice some of the carrots in the cut chaff or hay, and barn-door refuse; the rest of the carrots they give whole to the horses at night, with a small quantity of hay in their racks; and with this food my horses generally enjoy uninterrupted health. I mention this, as I believe that some persons think that carrots only, given as food to horses, are injurious to their constitutions; but most of the prejudices of mankind have no better foundation, and are taken up at random, or inherited from their grandfathers. So successful have I been with carrots as a winter food for horses, that with the assistance of lucern for soiling in summer, I have been enabled to prove by experiments conducted under my own personal inspection, that an able Norfolk teamhorse, fully worked two journies a day, winter and summer, may be kept the entire year round upon the produce of only one statute acre of land. I have likewise applied carrots with great profit to the feeding of hogs in winter, and by that means have made my straw into a most excellent manure, without the aid of neat cattle; the hogs so fed are sold on Norwich hill to the London dealers as porkers." The profit of carrots so applied, he shews in a subsequent statement, together with an experiment of feeding four Galloway bullocks with carrots, against four others fed in the common way with turnips and hay. (Communications, &c.)

4947. In comparing the carrot with the potatoe, an additional circumstance greatly in favor of the former is, that it does not require to be steamed or boiled, and it is not more difficult to wash than the potatoe. These and other circumstances considered, it appears to be the most valuable of all roots for working horses.

4948. The use of the carrot in domestic economy is well known. Their produce of nutritive matter, as ascertained by Sir H. Davy, is ninety-eight parts in one thousand, of which three are starch, and ninety-five sugar. They are used in the dairy in winter and spring to give color and flavor to butter. In the distillery, owing to the great proportion of sugar in their composition, they yield more spirit than the potatoe: the usual quantity is twelve gallons per ton. They are excellent in soups, stews, and haricots, and, boiled whole with salt beef.

4949. To save carrot seed, select annually some of the most perfect and best-shaped roots in the taking-up season, and either preserve them in sand in a cellar till spring, or plant them immediately in an open airy part of the garden, protecting them with litter during severe frosts, or earthing them over, and uncovering them in March follow. ing. The seed is in no danger of being contaminated by any other plant, as the wild carrot, even should it happen to grow in the neighborhood, flowers later. In August it will be fit to gather, and is best preserved till wanted on the stalks. This is the most certain mode of procuring genuine and new seed, but still it will be found advisable to change it occasionally.

4950. The diseases of carrots are only such as are common to most plants, such as mildew, insects, &c. The mildew and worms at the root frequently injure crops, and are to be guarded against as far as practicable by a proper choice of soil, season of sowing, and after culture.

SECT. IV.

The Parsnep. - Pastinaca sativa, L. Pentan. Dig. L. and Umbelliferæ, J.
Le Panais, Fr.; Pastinake, Ger. ; and Pastinaca, Ital.

It

4951. The parsnep is a biennial plant with a fusiform root like the carrot, and nearly equal in its products of nutritive and saccharine matter. It is a native of most parts of Europe and generally cultivated in gardens, but is only of late and very partial introduction as a field plant. Its culture has been chiefly confined to the island of Jersey, where it attains a large size, and is much esteemed for fattening cattle and pigs. It is considered rather more hardy than the carrot, and its produce is said to be greater. may be sown either in autumn or spring, and its seed admits of drilling by machinery. The plants when they come up are more easily recognized than carrots, and therefore their culture is on the whole more simple, less dependant on manual labor, and, therefore, more suited to farming. For the rest, their culture is the same as that of the carrot. 4952. The variety best suited for the field is the large Jersey, the seed of which should be procured from the island, as that of the garden parsnep sold by the seedsmen never attains the same size.

4953. The soil, preparation, and manure for this plant are the same as for the

carrot.

4954. The quantity of seed for sowing in drills is from 4 to 5 lbs. per acre, and for broad-cast 6 or 8 lbs. It must always be new, as two years seed does not come up freely. It may or may not be prepared by steeping, but it requires no earth or sand, or rubbing, as it passes freely through the same drill that will sow tares or pease.

4955. The time of sowing is generally about the middle of February; but some sow in September, in which case the seed does not vegetate till early in spring. This last method, however, is obviously against the culture of the soil, which must thus remain a year in a consolidated state.

4956. The manner of sowing is generally in drills at fifteen or eighteen inches distance: but some sow broad-cast and harrow in the seed; and in Jersey parsneps and beans are generally cultivated together. The beans are first dibbled in, and afterwards the parsnep seed scattered over the surface and harrowed. It is acknowledged that a good crop of both plants is never obtained; and therefore, though this mode may be found to answer in the mild climate of Jersey, it is not to be imitated in other places. Drills or broad-cast without any intermixture of plants are the only advisable modes.

4957. The after-culture and taking up is the same as for the carrot, with this difference, that the parsnep when sown broad-cast is generally thinned out to twelve inches at an average plant from plant, and when in rows eighteen inches apart, to nine inches in the row. 4958. The produce is said to be greater than that of carrots; and the economical application the same. In the fattening of cattle it is found equal if not superior, performing the business with as much expedition, and affording meat of exquisite flavor and a highly juicy quality. The animals eat it with much greediness. It is reckoned that thirty perches, where the crop is good, will be sufficient to fatten an ox of three or four years old when perfectly lean, in the course of three months. They are given in the proportion of about thirty pound weight morning, noon, and night; the large ones being split in

three or four pieces, and a little hay supplied in the intervals of those periods. And, when given to milch-cows with a little hay in the winter season, the butter is found to be of as fine a color and as excellent a flavor as when feeding in the best pastures. Indeed, the result of experiment has shewn, that not only in neat cattle, but in the fattening of hogs and poultry, the animals become fat much sooner, and are more bulky, than when fed with any other root or vegetable. And that, besides, the meat is more sweet and delicate.

4959. Parsnep leaves being more bulky than those of carrots may be mown off before taking up the roots, and given to cows, oxen, or horses, by whom they will be greedily

eaten.

4960. The use of the parsnep in domestic economy is nearly the same as that of the carrot. They are much esteemed to salt fish, and are sometimes roasted for that purpose. Their produce in nutritive matter is 99 parts in 1000, of which 9 are mucilage, and 90 sugar. Gerarde says, that a very good bread was made from them in his time. They afford as much spirit as the carrot, and make an excellent wine.

4961. To save parsnep seed, proceed as with the carrot. The parsnep being more hardy and luxuriant than the carrot, is less liable to the mildew and worms, but equally so to become forked if the soil be not deep and well pulverized, and the manure minutely divided and equally distributed.

SECT. V. The Field-Beet.-Beta, L. Pentan. Dig. L. and Chenopodea, J. Betterave, Fr. ; Mangold-würzel, Ger,; and Biettola, Ital.

4962. The field-beet, commonly called the mangold-würzel, and sometimes erroneously the root of scarcity in German mangel würzel), is supposed by Professor Thaer to be a mongrel between the red and white beet. It has a much larger bulb than either, and that bulb, in some varieties, grows in great part above ground. It has been a good deal cultivated in Germany and Switzerland, both for its leaves and roots; the leaves are either used as spinach or given to cattle; and the roots are either given to cattle, used in distillation, or for extracting sugar. The culture of the field-beet in Britain is very recent, and it may be questioned whether it has any advantages over the turnip for general agricultural purposes. It admits, however, of being cultivated on ridgelets and with as little manual labor as the turnip, while it will prosper on a stronger soil, and near large towns it is not liable to the depredations usually committed on turnips or carrots, as the root is unpalatable either raw or boiled.

4953. The variety preferred in Germany is one slightly tinged with red for cattle, and the pale-yellow variety for the distillery and sugar manufacture. The seed must not exceed a year old, and great care should be taken that the seed of the common red and white beet are not mixed with it. The seed of every variety of beet is very apt to dege

nerate.

4964. Any soil will suit this plant provided it be rich; immense crops have been raised on strong clays; but such soils are not easily prepared for this sort of crop, and are also ill adapted for after-culture. The preparation should be exactly the same as for turnips; and the seed should be sown on the ridgelets in the same manner. Some, however, dibble in the seed in order to save the expense of thinning. The season of sowing is the same as for the parsnep, and should not be deferred later than the middle of April. The after-culture consists in horse-hoeing, hand-hoeing, and weeding, as in the culture of the turnip, and the plants are thinned out to about the same distance in the Blanks may be filled up by transplanting, or, as in the case of the Swedish turnip, whole crops may be reared in this way; but the produce is never so large. As the transplanting, however, takes place in May, more time is afforded, and drier weather obtained for cleaning the soil. The plants are set by the dibbler along the centre of the ridgelets, which are previously consolidated by rolling.

rows.

4965. The produce is, cæteribus paribus, about the same as that of the Swedish turnip, but the nutritive matter afforded by the beet is 136 parts in 1000, of which 13 are mucilage, 119 sugar, and 4 gluten. According to Von Thaer, they afford 10 per cent. of nutritive matter, and are in that respect to hay as 10 to 46, and to potatoes as 20 to 46. An acre would thus appear to afford more nourishment than either turnips, carrots, or parsneps.

4966. The application of the field-beet is almost entirely to the fattening of stock, and feeding of milch-cows. Near London they are in repute for the latter purpose; and, according to Von Thaer, they cause a great increase of milk, as well as improve its flavor. The tops are first taken off, and given by themselves, and then the roots are taken up, washed, and given raw. The roots are much more easily injured by frost than the turnip, carrot, or parsnep, and are stored with difficulty. The leaves make a very good spinach, but the roots cannot be used in cooking like those of the red beet. In the distillery it is nearly half as productive as the potatoe; but, according to Von Thaer, it is not likely to yield much profit in the manufacture of sugar.

4967. To save seed, select the finest specimens, preserve them in sand during winter, and plant them in an airy part of the garden in March. The rest is easy. 4968. To diseases no plant is less liable than the beet.

-

SECT. VI. The Cabbage Tribe. Brassica, L. Tetrad. Siliq. L. and Cruciferæ. J. Chou, Fr.; Kohl, Ger. ; and Cavolo, Ital.

4969. The cabbage tribe are of the greatest antiquity in gardens, and most of them may be cultivated in the fields with success. For the common purposes of farming, however, there can be little doubt that they will afford less profit than any of the plants hitherto treated of in this chapter; but near large towns or sea-ports, they may answer the purpose of the farm-gardener. Cabbage culture, Brown observes, is much more hazardous, far less profitable, and attended with infinitely more trouble than that of turnips, while the advantages to be derived from them are not, in our opinion, of a description to compensate the extra hazard and trouble thereby incurred.

4970. The culture of cabbage has been strongly recommended by several speculative agriculturists, and examples adduced of extraordinary produce and profits; but any plant treated in an extraordinary manner will give extraordinary results; and thus an inferior production may be made to appear more valuable than it really is. One reason why so much has been said in their favor by Arthur Young and other southern farmers, is, that they compare them with the produce of turnips, which, in the south of England, is averaged at only 15 tons per acre.

4971. The variety of cabbage cultivated in the fields for cattle, is almost exclusively the large field cabbage, called also the Scotch, Strasburg, drumhead, &c. For the purposes of domestic economy, other varieties of early and late cabbage, as the York, Battersea, sugar-loaf, imperial, &c. are grown, and also German greens, Savoy cabbage, and even Brussels sprouts and brocoli. The Kohl rübe, or turnip-cabbage, has also been

tried, but it is not fit to use in British cookery, and in respect to its properties in any other respect, it has not one to recommend it.

The

4972. Any soil that is rich will suit the cabbage, but a strong loam is preferred. best mode of preparation for field cabbage is that for potatoes or turnips, the plants being dibbled along the centre of each ridgelet. For early cabbage no ridgelets are required, as the plants are inserted in rows, by a line at much narrower distances.

4973. The season for planting for a full crop of field cabbages, is usually March; but cabbages may be planted as late as June, and produce a tolerable crop by November; and in this way they may sometimes be made to succeed an unsuccessful sowing of turnips. The plants used in March should be the produce of seed sown in an open loamy part of the garden in the preceding August; but those planted in May or June may be the produce of seed sown in the February or March of the same year.

4974. The preparation given to the plants consists in pinching off the extremity of their tap-root, and any tubercles which appear on the root or stem, and in immersing the root and stem in a puddle, or mixture of earth and water, to protect the fibres and pores of the roots and stem from the drought. The plants may then be inserted by the dibber, taking care not to plant them too deep, and to press the earth firmly to the lower extremity of the root. If this last point is not attended to in planting by the dibber, the plants will either die, or, if kept alive by the moisture of the soil or rain, their progress will be very slow. When the distance between the ridgelets is twenty-seven inches, the plants are set about two feet asunder in the rows, and the quantity required for an acre is about 6000 plants. Some recommend sowing as for turnips; but by this mode one of the advantages of a green crop is infringed on: viz. the time given to clean the land. Where cabbages are sown, that operation must be performed at least a month sooner than if they were planted; consequently, the best month of the cleaning season is lost. To plant or sow a green crop on land in good heart, that does not require cleaning, will seldom be found good husbandry. It may succeed near large towns, where roots and other green produce sells high, but it can never enter into any general system of farming.

4975. The after-culture consists in horse and hand-hoeing and weeding; and the crop is taken by chopping off the heads with the spade, leaving an inch or two of stalk to each. They may be preserved by housing, but only for a short time. The produce is said to be from 35 to 40 tons per acre. Sir H. Davy found that 1000 parts of cabbage gave 73 of nutritive matter, of which 41 are mucilage, 24 saccharine matter, and 8 gluten.

4976. The application of the field cabbage is generally to the feeding of milch-cows, and sometimes to the fattening of oxen and sheep. For the former purpose great care must be taken to remove the outside decaying leaves, otherwise they are apt to give an unpleasant flavor to the milk and butter. Cabbages are also eaten by swine and horses, and are reckoned excellent food for sheep that have newly-dropped their lambs, and for calves. A cow will eat from 100 to 150 lbs. of cabbage per day, and a sheep ten or twelve pounds, besides a moderate allowance of hay. Early or garden cabbages are sold