Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/95

 A G R I C U L T U R E. 67 attend the plough are fufficient. After the field is once ploughed, it ought to be harrowed, by which fome of Of the Culture of Carrot. the potatoes will be raifed ; and, when thefe are gather- The carrot is but rarely cultivated in our fields : Ined, it ftiould be ploughed a fecond time. deed, the prefent market does not encourage the cultivation of this plant. But they have lately been found to be Of the Culture of Turnips. excellent food for horfes; they eat them greedily, and well fed by them. Carrots are not difficult to raife; Turnips have been long cultivated in England, and, are very fmall field is fufficient, and the trial may eafily be in fome places, are efteemed one of the moft valuable amade by any farmer, at a very fmall expence. crops that can be raifed. The trials made in Scotland beft crops of carrots, in our gardens, are produhave been very fuccefsful, which gives great encourage- cedThe by trenching. When the foil is hard below, though ment to proceed. be well dunged, it does not produce a good crop. The goodnefs of the crop depends more on the open- itWhenever reach the hard foil, they become nefs of the foil than its richnefs. Land newly broke up forked, e.thetheroots roots divide, which prevents them from is particularly proper for turnips. Though this kind of growing large. Trenching makes the earth deep, and, land be naturally poor, yet, with the afiiltance of a lit- by throwing what was on the furface into the bottom of tle dung, it feldom fails to produce an excellent crop. trench, lays good foil below for the roots to extend The land intended for turnips Ihould be ploughed and the themfelve^ into. Something like this muft be done in laid up in ridges before winter, that it may have the our benefit of the froft. This winter-ploughing, however, fields before we can expedt a good crop. Chateauvieux tried to raife a crop of carrots is unheceifary when the land is dry and light: The by M.the dehorfe-hoeing hufbandry, and was very fuccefsful. fpring is early enough for this kind of land. It may He fowed them in beds fix feet broad, on the 4th of get a fecond ploughing in the end of May, and a third May. He ftirred the alleys with the fpade on the 15th in the middle or end of June, when the feed is to be and 27th of July, and a third^ime on the 6th of Septemfown. Though three ploughings are here mentioned, ber. They were digged up on the 8th of November, no particulur number is intended ; for the land ought to be ploughed over and over,- till it be thoroughly pul- meafured from 18 to 2 J inches in length, and from two four in diameter, and weighed from 25 to 33 ounces. verifed. If dung be ufed, it fhould be well rotted, and to Land that has a hard bottom of clay or till is improper; laid on before the laft ploughing. Turnip-feed is ufually fown by the hand; and about and it is vain to expedt that fuch land can be prepared half a pound is fufficient for an acre. It ffiould be mix- for carrots by the plough, without great trouble and exed with fand; that it may be fcattered the more equally. pence. But, when land has a foft bottom, a good crop But fowing by a drill is'better than fowing by the hand, of carrots may be raifed at a fmall expence by horfeas, in this way, the plants can be more eafily hoed, and hoeing. thinned. Turnips fhould be hoed as foon as the. plants As the feed, in this country, muft be fown in March, can be eafily diftinguifhed; for they gsow quickly, the land ffiould get a ploughing before winter, and bo and, if they meet with any obftrudrion from, weeds, laid out in beds or ridges of the breadth propofed when they are apt to become fickly* and, when this happens, the carrots are to be fown; the furrows betwixt thefe they can never be recovered fo as to produce a good ridges ffiould be made as deep as poffible, becaufe it is' crop. upon thefe furrows that the rows of carrots are to be Turnips may be cultivated with great fuccefs by the fown. A fecond ploughing in Winter fhould reverfe the new hulbandry. They have been tried in ilngle, double, firft, and turn the furrows into crowns; and,, before and triple, rows, and, in alleys, from four to fix feet the carrots are fown, one bout of the plough may raife wide, according to the fituation of the land. The poor- the crown of the ridge ftill higher. Upon thefe crowns er the land is, or the more difficult to be reduced, the the feed muft be fovn out of the hand, into a fmall alleys ought to be the wider. After the ridges are form- trench, drawn as ftraight as poffible, and covered with a ed, the turnip ffiould be drilled upon the crowns; and, rake. as foon as they come up, and are pad all danger from When the weeds firft appear, the remaining part of the fly, they ffiould be horfe-hoed. the ridges may be ploughed out, turning the earth to the The turnip is proper food, either for ffieep or black rows, and taking care not to go fo near as to cover the cattle. When the land is dry and needs manure, the plants. Before the feed is fown, which is fome time in ffieep may be folded on it: But the fold mull be removed March, inftead of ploughing the whole ridge, the plough every day; for it is improper to allow them to eat more ffiould only go once about on the crown, to prevent the at once than they can confume in that time. When bad effects of too much moifture. the land is wet, or very rich, the turnip may be pulled, As foon as the plants can be eafily diftinguiffied,- they and the ffieep fed with them on another field that needs ffiould be hand-hoed, and thinned where they ftand too manure. But, when defigned for black cattle, they thick; and after this the alleys muft be regularly hoed, muft be pulled up and given them, either in flails or as diredled in the culture of turnips. in another field, ■ as the farmer ffiall find moft conve- It is natural to expecft, that carrots raifed in this way nient. ffiould be freer from worms, and much better every way.