Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes

• Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (italics). • Text in bold is enclosed by equal signs (=bold=). • The following issues should be noted, along with the resolution:

5 dry lo[o/a]m for the carrot patch. Replaced.

16 three hundred sto[r/n]e hog so fat, that a man of Replaced. seventy-five

17 meal per day, I will fatten a three hundred Replaced. sto[r/n]e hog so

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INDEX.

PAGE Kind of Soil for Carrots, 5 Sowing Carrots, 6 Tilling ” 10 Hoeing ” 11 Weeding ” 12 Digging ” 13 Storing ” 15 The Value of Carrots, 16 Carrots vs. Other Roots, 17 How to Raise and Clean the Seed, 18 How to Select Good Seed, 19 Raising Cabbage, 20 Transplanting Cabbage, 21 Tilling ” 23 Heading ” 23 Lice on ” 24 Gathering ” 25 Five Acres Enough, 26 To Make Plenty of Manure for these Five Acres, 27 Every Man his own Barometer, 28 Weather Sayings, &c., 30

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TEN YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

IN RAISING

CARROTS AND CABBAGE.

H. A. COOK, Hillsdale, Col. Co., N. Y.

New York: BROWN & HEWITT, PRINTERS, 37 PARK ROW. 1866.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by

H. A. COOK,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

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INTRODUCTION.

Having observed from early youth by the little garden bed that carrots were a greatly productive crop, and the most nutritious root that I grew, I desired to try their cultivation on a large scale.

The idea seemed to be indelible on my mind, and as soon as age and circumstances would allow I essayed to gratify my desire. My great obstacle was Mr. Weed, which was bound to get ahead of my carrots; but being somewhat indefatigable in my energies, I gave close application to years of experiments in devising a plan how I should raise them without such a heavy tax upon the back, which seemed to almost “crack” under the old system. I first saw that I must be careful in selecting my seed, then I must devise a plan to force it, and then seek a plan to sow it (seeing that I could not sow it with a drill), then I must devise a different mode of cultivation, and lastly a plan to gather them more easily.

After having reduced my experiments to a system, and found that I could raise them with less than half the expense of the old way, I conceived the idea of putting my plan of raising in the form of a pamphlet, and disclosing it to the world. While raising carrots I also experimented on cabbages, and found them also to be a remunerative crop. The success which I reached in raising them I attribute to a composition which I apply to the roots, so that they may be transplanted in a dry day instead of a wet one, thereby leaving the ground mellow; my entirely new mode of culture, and, lastly, my valuable composition (which is simple, cheap, and in the reach of all) for the heads, which augments the crop by half at least. Here, reader, I will leave you to peruse the following pages.

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TEN YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

IN RAISING

CARROTS AND CABBAGE.

I estimate that I can raise one acre of carrots as easily as two acres of corn. Upon keeping a close account in the year 1864 of my expenses in raising an acre of 500 bushels, I found it to be $50, aside from interest of land. At least he who will follow the instructions of the following pages may raise them at a cost of 10 cents per bushel.