Part 3

=Long Orange, or Long Surry.= This is a standard variety, and in its various strains is doubtless more generally grown than any other kind. The chief objection to it is the depth to which it penetrates the ground, and hence the extra work of digging it; while the end of the root which causes the extra work is of inferior quality when compared with the body, differing in this respect from the shorter varieties, which are of the same quality throughout. The heart is larger in proportion than in the shorter varieties, which is considered an objection. The keeping properties are excellent, and in this respect it is superior to the earlier kinds. On light soil the roots grow long, straight and make a fine show in the market.

=Altringham.= This is a Carrot of excellent quality for the table, the flesh being of a rich orange color, crisp and sweet, but as a cropper it is inferior to the Intermediate or Long Orange varieties, and hence is but little cultivated.

=Large White Belgian.= This is the largest of all varieties and will yield at least a quarter more than any other sort. The roots grow several inches out of ground, and all can be readily pulled by the hand. Analysis shows that it is nearly as sweet as the Mangold Wurtzel, rather sweeter than the Swede Turnip, and about two thirds as sweet as the Sugar Beet. The two objections to it are its color and its keeping properties; it being rather a poor keeper, while the color has made it a carrot for horses rather than cows. If farmers have but a small quantity of manure, the White Belgian is a good variety for them to raise for feeding early in the winter.

THE CULTIVATION, AND THE IMPLEMENTS NEEDED.

Just as soon as the young plants can be detected breaking round, the prudent farmer will push the slide hoe, and have his boy weeders follow immediately after it on hands and knees. Boys that have had a little experience, with their nimble fingers can do more work than men, while their wages are only about half as much. On the sea-coast we hire boys who make a business of weeding, for from seventy-five cents to a dollar a day. The one great danger in hiring boys is that careless ones are apt to break off the weeds instead of pulling them up by the roots. To ascertain their comparative faithfulness, it is well to quietly mark a few rows of the different weeders, at their first weeding, and by the time for the second weeding the difference between a good and a bad one will be very plainly visible.

Don’t accept that theory of the shiftless man, that it is well to have the weeds grow pretty tall before the first weeding, that the plants may be protected from the sun. I have noticed that oftentimes those who act on this theory give over their weeding, and plough up the bed before they have half finished it. Promptness in the first hoeing and weeding is exceedingly important in the management of all root crops, and it is where the greatest mistake is apt to be made in their cultivation.

There are a few implements that are specially needed in the cultivation of root crops, and of these, every wise farmer will get the very best attainable. These implements are the Seed Sower, the Hand Weeder, the Slide Hoe, the common Wheel Hoe, and one for weeding both sides of a row at the same time. Of these there are a great many varieties, each of which are more or less popular among a class of growers. The engravings illustrate such as are in use in my own section of country, where root culture forms a very important part of the agriculture of farmers. Both the slide and the wheel hoe, for rapid work, far surpass the common hand hoe, while they cut up the weeds equally clear. The double wheel hoe is used until the tops of the crops become so large as to be in the way, when the single wheel hoe or slide hoe takes its place. Fuller’s Unique Hoe having a single wheel is preferred, to any double wheeled implement by many gardeners, especially so by reason of its stiffness. Each should be two inches narrower than the space between the rows. A slide hoe is an amazing handy implement about a farm for many uses other than between the rows of root crops. A new class of implements have been introduced within a few years which, to a degree, supersede the use of the common wheel or slide hoe, though there is yet a valuable sphere for each of them; I refer to the weeders which cut each side of the row at the same time. I have tested every variety of these and have found nothing now in the market superior to the McGee Garden Cultivator. These hoes which take each side of the row at once cannot safely be made to go over the ground as fast as those designed for use between the rows, but working close home to the growing crop, they save a large portion of the cost of hard weeding. Of seed drills there are a dozen or more in the market, several of which I have used on my farms. I prefer the Michigan over all others. Among other advantages it can be relied upon to drop almost any variety of small seed, while it is a good coverer and having a roller attached, it packs the earth over the seed, which, as every farmer knows, tends to keep the moisture in and thus hastens their germination. The hand weeder is an excellent little implement to facilitate the laborious work of weeding, especially when the surface is baked and therefore rather hard on the fingers.

GATHERING AND STORING THE CROP.

One of the greatest outlays attending the raising of Carrots is in the gathering and topping of the crop. The common process of digging with a fork and throwing into piles to be afterwards topped is laborious and costly. Where the crop is to be consumed on the farm, the labor and consequent cost may be greatly lessened by first cutting off the tops by a sharp shovel, spade or common hoe, or a slide hoe which has been weighed by a piece of lead pipe, or some similar heavy article, slid down the handle and fastened where that unites with the hoe. Should a slice be taken off the tops of the roots it will do no harm, as Carrots differ in this respect from other roots, in that, when the tops are cut they are not apt to rot; indeed, some practice cutting off a slice of the top when topping, to keep them from sprouting so readily when stored. The common way of gathering the crop, by loosening with spades or forks and then pulling out by the tops, throwing into heaps or scattering over the ground and afterwards topping with a knife, is a long and costly job. An improvement on digging is to run a plough close to the row and then pull out as many as possible by hand and dig up the remainder. Still a better course particularly when the Danvers variety is grown, is beginning in the middle of the piece, to run a subsoil plough close home to the roots, when, if run sufficiently deep it will lift the Carrots a little out of the ground. Follow with forks or hoes and draw the roots inward on the ploughed portion, so far as to give room for the horse to walk. Let the roots remain a few hours scattered over the surface, when in picking up and tossing them into carts or baskets, any earth adhering will be jarred off.

Let the crop remain out as late as it can be risked without freezing; and if they are in good growing condition this will be well towards November, in the latitude of central New England, and even into the first week of that month in the milder temperature of the sea-coast. Roots not fully matured will keep better than those fully ripe when dug, on the principle that the varieties of apples we call “winter” apples are simply those kinds that do not ripen on the tree--they are not winter apples, because they are Baldwins, or Greenings, for these same kinds in the South where the ripening season is longer, are Fall apples. If the Carrots have been planted too early they will ripen before digging, and be apt to send out roots and prove poor keepers, besides losing the advantage of October weather which is the Carrot month, doing more for the weight of the late planted crop than all the season besides.

Rake the tops off the bed but do not waste them, for they are highly relished by animals, and if the Carrots are harvested when they ought to be, to keep well, that is, when in good growing condition, there will be a great weight of tops, sometimes as high as a quarter of the weight of roots; and this mass of green fodder, coming at a time when the fields are usually bare of grasses, will prove very valuable and acceptable food for the cows.

In storing, one fact must be borne in mind; that Carrots will heat, sprout and rot, under circumstances in which Mangolds would keep sound and uninjured. I have several times lost quantities when buried in the ground where Mangolds and common table Beets, under precisely the same conditions, have kept perfectly sound. If the crop is to be fed at once, they may be dumped into the cellar or barn floor in the most expeditious way; but if to be fed into the winter, then all depth of the heap above two and a half feet means a proportionate increase of danger of heating, sprouting and rotting, and so much greater care to air the cellar in cool, dry weather. I need hardly state that cellars for keeping Carrots and all roots should be free from standing water, and as cool as possible without actually freezing. They should not be put directly on the cellar floor, but on a platform to admit air under them and it is an excellent plan to scatter a little sand among them. I find that Carrots keep exceedingly well if poured (not placed) in a trench 14 inches wide and 2½ feet deep, to be covered slightly at first and more as cold increases, so that they have first a little coarse litter, then a foot of earth, and on this about 18 inches of waste or cheap hay. When the roots are large they will keep sufficiently better to pay for the extra trouble, if they are piled “heads and points” to the height of two and a half feet, with a slight space for air between the piles. If there are not cellar conveniences for storing the entire crop, with a good protection of hay under and around them, a few tons may be stored, for early feeding, in the barn, provided it is not so cold as to freeze them.

RAISING CARROTS WITH ONIONS.

I transfer from my Treatise on Onions, a paragraph relative to growing Carrots with onions.

The plan of raising Carrots with onions is considered an improvement by some who have adopted it, as the yield of Carrots is thought to be clear gain, diminishing but little or none the yield of onions. Carrots are planted in two ways; one by sowing them in drills between every other row of onions, and the other, which is considered an improvement, called the Long Island plan, by planting the onions in hills from seven to eight inches from center to center, dropping a number of seed in each hill, and from the first to the twelfth of June, planting the Carrot seed, usually by hand, between these hills in two rows then skipping one, and thus on through the piece. The onions, as they are pulled are thrown into every third row, the Carrots being left to mature. By this method from two to six hundred bushels of Carrots are raised per acre in addition to the crop of onions. More manure is required for the two crops than for the onions alone.

The machine used for sowing in drills has two boxes attached to the axle at equi-distance from the wheels; there are three or four holes in the axle that communicate with the seed in the boxes, and as these holes pass under the boxes they are filled with seed, and as they turn the seed are dropped into the earth. Screws are sunk into the holes, which can be sunk more or less at pleasure, and the quantity of seed which the holes will contain is thus graded.

The machine should first be tested, and so regulated that on a barn floor it will drop from eleven to twelve seed from each hole. When so regulated, on using in the field it will drop but from seven to twelve, owing to the more uneven motion.

MARKETING AND FEEDING.

In the cities there is a large market for Carrots as feed for horses, it being very generally accepted that a few given daily or every other day, aids the digestion of grain-fed animals, adds to the gloss of the hair, and are of special medicinal value. The largest, smoothest and darkest orange colored roots sell the best in the market. The price varies all the way from ten to twenty dollars a ton of 2,000 pounds, depending in part on the value of hay. Where the quantity fed daily is small, a large knife or a shovel will answer to cut them up in pieces of suitable size; but if the quantity amounts to several bushels daily, then a root-cutter will be needed. There are two classes of these, one for sheep, and the other for large stock, the essential difference being that those designed to cut roots for sheep cut into smaller pieces. Of those designed to cut roots for large stock, the Whittemore machine is as good a machine as any, having a capacity to cut up a bushel in about half a minute. Among farmers there is much unnecessary fear about the danger of animals choking while feeding on apples, potatoes and roots. For the last ten years I have fed to my cows not far from three hundred tons of squashes, potatoes and roots, (mostly squashes) and never yet lost an animal or had any very serious trouble from choking. My habit is to feed them while quietly in their stalls, with a division board between the feed of each. All cases of choking that have come to my notice have occurred where the animal was suddenly disturbed while eating. There is a great difference of opinion as to how many roots can be fed to stock daily without injuring them. The proportion will depend somewhat on the constitutional peculiarities of individual cows, but when the bowels are all right the appetite of the animal is probably the safest guide. I have had a large and extended experience in feeding squashes to milch cows,--the Boston Marrow, Hubbard and other varieties; beginning with a half a bushel to each animal, I increase the quantity until the daily consumption has averaged a hundred pounds a day to each. Under such heavy feeding, after a while their appetites clog somewhat, but I am inclined to the opinion that beginning with a moderate feed, they would soon readily eat seventy-five pounds daily with a relish, for as long a period as they might last. When feeding Carrots or any roots, the most economical method is to give meadow or salt hay, with a small quantity of flax-seed or cotton-seed meal. The effect of the roots and these rich meals is to give to these inferior varieties of hay, the nutritious value of the best upland English.

Carrots fed too liberally to horses, will make them soft, and cause them to sweat at the least exertion. The manure made by animals fed on Carrots or any other roots is of poor quality and therefore for the farm’s (as well as the animal’s) sake a proportion of grain, or its equivalent, should always be fed with them.

MANGOLD WURTZELS.

What is a Mangold Wurtzel? A number of years ago I raised a piece of Early Turnip Beet seed in a very isolated location; there was not another piece of Beet seed growing within half a mile, at least. A good deal of the seed wasted, as is usual when the seed is allowed to ripen well on the stock before cutting. From this waste seed thousands of young plants sprang up, many of which survived the winter, by the help of the protection of chickweed and snow. They had got so far along when ploughing time came, I left the piece unploughed, thinning them out that they might produce early beets. As the season advanced a good many of them pushed seed shoots and ripened a crop of seed. Some of the seed I gathered and the next season planted it to see what it would produce. The crop was “everything;” all the way from a nice, dark colored Early Turnip Beet, through different sizes, colors and forms, up to a light-fleshed Mangold Wurtzel! As the original Beets were a very pure Turnip Beet, and during several years of careful cultivation for seed purposes had shown no admixture with any other variety, the experiment proved either that the coarse variety of Stock Beet, which we call Mangold Wurtzel are but sports from our fine-grained table Beets, or that the Beets class are sports from Mangolds,--most probably the former.

Mangold Wurtzels differ from table Beets in their general coarseness of structure, and the larger size to which they grow, the elements which enter into the composition of each being the same in kind.

What is a Sugar Beet? The term “Sugar Beet” is an unfortunate one, as the word “Sugar” had already been appropriated to express the sweet flavor of the varieties of Beets raised for table use, while the word Beet is strictly a misnomer, the vegetable Sugar Beet being in reality a Mangold Wurtzel. A generation ago our fathers used the term “Sugar” as a familiar designation for any sweet variety of beet raised for table use, and at the present by the great majority of the public the term is still so used. As the new industry of manufacturing sugar from the beet grew on the continent of Europe, seedsmen were called upon to supply for commerce seed of the best variety for this purpose. It was necessary that this variety should be as free as possible from all coloring substance as this would, as a matter of course, give a stain to the juice, and impose on the manufacturer the labor of purifying it. The ones at first selected were the long, white Mangold Wurtzel, and these were called the “Sugar” Beet in commercial parlance. These white Mangolds were not entirely white, the portion that grew above ground being usually colored a light green by exposure to the sun’s rays; it became therefore an object for the manufacturer to still improve on them to the end that all the coloring should be eliminated. The intelligence and enterprise of the seedsmen of Europe responded to this want, and in the course of a few years two prominent varieties were produced, that have nearly completely satisfied it,--one of these was sent out by the estimable house of Vilmorin Andrieux & Co., of Paris, and is named “Vilmorin’s New Improved White,” and the other “White Imperial Extra,” by the distinguished German house of Ernest Benary.

These improved Sugar Beets of commerce grow nearly entirely under ground, and when grown these beets define themselves to be the Mangold variety, by the coarser structure of the root, the stouter ribs and the greater coarseness of the leaves, which spring in larger masses directly from the crown, than is the case with beets for the table.

The moral of all this for my farmer friends is, that if you want a beet for table use do not order “Sugar Beet” or you will be very likely to find a Mangold growing in your garden, a return, but not a recompense for the sweat and toil of the husbandman.

VARIETIES.

About twenty varieties are catalogued by seedsmen, many of which are but strains of the same kind, bearing the name of the grower, who by careful cultivation has endeavored to improve it. Classified by form they come under three classes, viz.:--the long, the round and the ovoid or intermediate varieties. Classified by color we have the red or scarlet, the pink, the yellow or orange, and the white varieties.