Part 2
_Storing._—After they have remained in heaps above ground and dried thoroughly, which is the whole secret of having them keep well through the winter, they may be put in the cellar in a large bin with impunity, to be kept till sowing time again, although it is not advisable to have many left after the middle of April.
After they are dried in the heaps they should be hauled over again and buried beneath plenty of straw and dirt, though they need not be secured with manure like potatoes, for it does not hurt them to freeze a little if they may stay beneath the dirt till it has drawn out the frost. From this we might suppose that they would keep in the ground without digging all winter, yet they will not. I suppose the main reason is because one end of the carrot comes to the surface.
Should they freeze in the heaps at digging time before you get them secured, throw some dirt upon them till the frost is out, or take them to the cellar as quickly as possible, to escape the sun, and likewise put on a little dirt. This page is also mostly applicable to the 42d degree of latitude.
On Long Island carrots are buried without straw, with a little chimney in the centre. Probably this mode of burying will do on a sandy soil, but I think not on a soil of loam.
_The value of Carrots._—It is generally admitted that the carrot is the most nutritious of all roots. But the great desideratum has been it takes so much time and patience to raise them, and many have concluded and howled their conclusions abroad, that (because they did not know how to raise them) it was an awful job to raise them, and moreover, they were very uncertain to come up.
No root can be used in so many ways with such grand results as the carrot. Feed them to the horse and he keeps on much less grain and hay, drinks less, his coat slickens (and that which makes his coat shine does him good surely), not so liable to take cold, does not fever up when standing still. To learn a horse to eat them cut a few very fine and mix with his oats.
You can with carrots make as fine butter in winter as summer by feeding them to the cow, or by grating them and squeezing out the juice and putting it in the cream.
Sheep are very fond of them and fatten fast. Hogs will winter well on them, better if boiled. With boiled carrots, and one quart of meal per day, I will make a three hundred stone hog so fat, that a man of seventy-five years can catch him in an open field. Then for a fine pie they are first in the catalogue of kitchen vegetables, likewise for coffee, pickles, soup, &c., &c. A clip from the _Country Gentleman_ by this Author:
CARROTS VERSUS OTHER ROOTS.—Your correspondent J. V. K., Seneca Falls, N. Y., wishes a “short account,” &c., about raising turnips, beets and carrots for dairy use. You have appended some useful remarks in answer. Please allow me to add a few more. I have been engaged in root raising to the extent of many hundred bushels each year for several years, both for my farm stock and marketing. I have experimented in French turnips, beets and carrots, and consider the carrot decidedly superior to any other root. Reasons—Beets require as much labor as carrots—no, say you, but you do not know my mode of raising carrots yet—they must needs be transplanted; they wither more after pulling, will not keep as long, are superior for no stock to the carrot; horses do not love them; they will not make yellow butter like carrots; will not make a fine pie like carrots. In consuming them stock is obliged to eat too much dirt; and more, if you would have them keep at all good, you must put them away with much dirt. Not so with carrots, if they are thoroughly dried. These same remarks are also applicable to the turnip, except that they are easier raised than either beet or carrot. But even the beet far surpasses them for milk or fattening; they require cutting, and then seem to hurt the creature’s mouth. Hogs do not like them except boiled, and then are not eager for them, while they can be well wintered with either of the first two. With boiled carrots and one quart of meal per day, I will fatten a three hundred stone hog so fat that a man of seventy-five years can catch him in an open field. Besides, carrots are the cleanest root (if dug when the ground is dry, as they should be), and lighter to handle because clean. Therefore, for the aforesaid reasons I have ignored raising other roots besides the carrot, except, perhaps, a few French turnips after some early crop, rather than have the ground go to weeds, and even then I think perhaps it is better to plant the ground to marrowfat beans, unless a few turnips are desired for table use. I have not spoken of field turnips. I always raise what I can of them, for they don’t cost much, and are not worth much.
A word in regard to the aforesaid idea that “carrots can be raised easier than any other root.” I find that I can raise one acre of carrots as easy as two of corn; or at the expense of ten cents per bushel, believing that the tops for stock will pay for gathering. In abstracting my mode of raising them, I would say, that I consider them the most sure of all seeds to come up, if I can select and manage the seed; that with me I can get them up in five days after sowing two inches ahead of weeds. I can sow one and a half acres a day with a boy. I would not take a drill as a gift. Having so much the start of the weeds, I go among them with a horse cultivator of my own invention. I dig them without handling them till they are ready to put into the cart. In fine I will say, that he who farms without his carrot patch, ought to be classed among the old fogy farmers of the past century.
H. A. COOK.
_Hillsdale, Dec. 4, 1865._
_How to raise and clean the Seed._—This, too, is very profitable far from cities where good land is cheap, for I estimate with proper care $200 or $300 worth can be grown to the acre. Set them out as early as the state of the ground will admit, by the use of a crowbar, about two and a half feet asunder, and hoe them often if you wish nice, plump seed. Weeds should not be allowed to grow among them, as the heads will fall down among them and mildew. They should be tied or poled up, as it will save a large percentage of the heads; never touch the blossoms lest you blast them, and a false head is the result. When they are all brown cut them, and lay them away in an upper chamber till a cold, north-wind day of winter, when lay them upon a tight floor and whip off the seed (if you have but a small lot) with a pliant stick. Sort out the stalks, then continue to whip the seed till that little fuzz which adheres to every seed is entirely separated, then sieve and blow away the chaff as best you may. Do not attempt to sink them in water, as it will be fruitless. They are very difficult to clean, yet with care it pays largely. I would advise any one to change his seed at least every other year, as they will then grow much more prolific, both as regards raising the root or seed.
_How to select good Seed._—New seed is of a deep green color, and should be plump and even in size. Old seed is of a yellowish hue, and dead cast, and is much longer germinating than new seed. In fine, never sow old seeds of any kind, because they are always tardy in sprouting. I have seen carrot seed three years old come and do well, but it was a great task to keep down the weeds, for the carrots were so long in coming to the surface. I never practice buying many seeds from the sixpenny papers found at the stores, for I have no chance to examine them. They are often old seed, or if not entirely so, a large percentage almost invariably is old seed.
_A true Saying._—Take care of the weeds, for “one year’s seeding, makes seven year’s weeding.” This remark should ever be fresh in the gardener’s mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAISING CABBAGE.
Next to the carrot crop, I consider that cabbages will, considering the amount of labor, bring the best and quickest returns if managed according to the following pages.
In latitude north of 41° but one crop in a season should be attempted, in which case the “winter drumhead” variety is probably the most profitable, and the most marketable. In more southern latitudes the Sugar Loaf and Early York are probably the best early varieties, which may be succeeded the same season by the winter Drumhead, in which case, the early variety should be started in the fall in a cold frame, and haste must be observed in putting in the second crop as soon as the first will do to go to market. Have your plants ready of a goodly size for the second sitting.
Select strong ground and manure well, but not with hog manure for this will cause many club-footed cabbages. My experience is, that it will effect them thus in a measure even two years after it is put on. Do not work your ground when it is wet. If you are in Lat. 41° construct a cold frame (or, as it is often called, a hot bed) as early as the ground will admit, in which to sow your cabbage seed. Sow in drills that you may till them somewhat, as every plant of whatever kind should be cultivated when young, which is a great defect of most cultivators. I have heard some remark in that latitude that they did not wish to set out their winter cabbage too early, lest some of them burst before gathering time, but it is my observation that he who sowed late was troubled more with false or loose heads in the fall than with burst heads, while he has the privilege of taking out his heads that get ripe so early as to burst, and either use or sell them. However, I assert that I can make them head if the soil will grow them in time.
_Transplanting._—Do not perform this when the ground is wet. _Here_ is where I differ from all other cultivators. Do not allow an animal or human being upon the ground when it is wet, if you do, look for hard and lumpy ground when it becomes dry. Stretch a line across your patch; if it is sideling, stretch it up and down the slope, so that when you cultivate the young plants you will not be liable to throw dirt upon them. Now make a thick solution of water, muck, plaster (plaster of paris) and ashes, and draw your young plants (about a half dozen at once) through this solution, when each plant will have a little clump of mixture adhering to it. Do not dip them directly _down_ into the mixture, if so the little rootlets will turn up and cleave to the sides, and not be of any use to the plant when set out, when they are very essential to its prosperity. The muck and plaster are both adhesive, drawing moisture and giving strength to the young plant, and causing it to stand as erect beneath the rays of a midday sun as if it had not been transplanted, while the ashes not only give strength to the plant, but have a tendency to keep away the grub that often commits such depredations among the young plants. Do not allow the sun upon the young plants during the process of transplanting, nor take up too many at a time. Let not over a half hour elapse between taking up and setting. Place them in a pan with care that you do not dirty nor break the leaves (as they are the lungs of the plant). Let the leaves get a pretty good size, as the grub has less time to work at them after they are transplanted.
Now, having stretched your line across the patch, take a sharpened hard wood stick, one and a half inches diameter, two and a half feet long, rather bluntly sharpened, that the dirt will not so easily fill the hole which it makes, and of hard wood that it will not dull easily. Now take your pan of plants in one hand, and stick in the other, sticking holes about two feet asunder, and dropping a plant to each hole, while a faithful boy who is honest to do his duty, and will not curl up the roots, setting just a little deeper than they were in the bed, and pinching the bottom of the hole as well as the top firmly about the root as he sets the plants, the neglect of which will result in the loss of many plants. In this way, in the middle of a hot day, I have set out four hundred plants per hour, when two successive hot days followed, and not over five per cent. of the plants even wilted from the effects of the sun’s rays. The ground was free from lumps and loose all about the plants the season through. When gathering time came those which were thus set out had nearly double the bulk of heads in comparison with those which were transplanted when the ground was wet.
The main reason was, the little rootlets had mellow ground to push out into all the season; while lumps and hard ground must abound, especially on loose ground, to some extent, when the ground is wet enough to transplant without the composition. But we will not stop to consider the convenience of transplanting in a dry day rather than a wet one, for what gardener has not been bedaubed with wet and mud from head to foot transplanting cabbage. So much then for our compost on the roots. With beets, tobacco, &c., this compost gives the same result.
Set the line off again two feet and proceed as before. It is not necessary to have them in rows but one way, that you may go among them with a horse, but that way have them precisely straight, the utility of which will become manifest when you come to cultivate. If the grubs eat them, sprinkle them every third morning while the dew is on with a little dust of ashes—say a teaspoonful. Where one is eaten off take the trouble to dig out the grub, or he is liable to take off several successive ones.
_Tilling._—The plants should be hoed a little about the third morning after they are set out, and then scratch about them a little every week—if oftener it’s all the better. Stir the ground deeply, at least twice with the plow. Till them in the morning, though a bean never should be tilled in the morning. It is not necessary to go among them with a horse till the leaves become as large as your hand, when stir the ground deeply; deep culture is the great desideratum with any good crop. See to it that you strike the corner of your hoe down deeply beside the young plants, that the side rootlets may be unobstructed in their course. Early cabbage may be planted nearer than two feet.
_Heading Cabbage._—The most important part, for a good crop, is yet to be performed. After having tilled them enough, you can yet make half difference in number and bulk of heads. You have hoed often and tilled deeply, which are essential, yea, indispensable to a good growth, while in the meantime the leaves can be forced to curl up and form the head, and not retard the growth, but, on the contrary, facilitate it. This is done by the use of another mixture of salt and plaster, two-thirds of the former to one of the latter. When the leaves are about half size, and the inner leaves just commence curling, sprinkle in each plant about a teaspoonful of the mixture when the cabbages are damp. In about two weeks sprinkle them again, adding with impunity a little _more_ of the mixture. Thus, I estimate you will get $10 per day for your time in applying it, and $5 a quart for your mixture, for it is evident to my mind that the crop can thus be increased nearly half. If you choose to have every head lay close to the ground you can do so by commencing with this mixture early and applying frequently, and hilling up the dirt slightly. Let the quantity of the mixture generally be governed by the size of the plant. By a flat culture and withholding the mixture till the cabbage has its height, you may grow tall cabbage but not the bulk of heads.
_Cabbage Lice._—During the seasons of 1864 and ’65, it being so dry, they were great pests. They are of a slate color, with many legs, greatly inclined to assemblages, and very hardy, for a severe frost does not seem to harm them. If they are very thick upon a head they will greatly deter it from heading, and, being very similar to stock lice, will cause the body to dwindle, and in many cases die from their effects. Wet weather seems to affect them more even than September frosts. However, in ordinarily wet seasons, I think they are not much to be feared. The only way I have ever mastered them was to sprinkle soot or fine ashes upon them when they were damp. The lye of the ashes is more than they can stand. The ashes should be finely sifted that no particles of fine coal, &c., will be found in the head.
_Gathering._—Let them stand (your winter heads) till you fear the ground will freeze so hard that you cannot pull them. Two inches of frost (that is, when the ground freezes two inches,) will not hurt the heads if they remain till the ground has drawn all the frost out. If they are pulled ere the moisture of the earth has done this complete they will not keep as well. Winter cabbage will continue to head till late in the fall, if the weather is not too severe.
Procure a crotchet stick with a long handle (willow wood is best, because the lightest) and run it under each head, lift it, and turn the head upside down, hitting the roots with one prong of the crotch to knock off the dirt, but not so hard as to sever the head from the stump. If you wish to retain the root this mode of pulling will be a great saving to the back, if you do not, cut out the heads as you like. But you need not expect them to keep hard long unless the root is retained. The leaves and stumps are excellent for stock, being green at a time when nearly all else is frost-bitten, and will go far in paying for raising the crop—a half acre bearing many side board loads of fine, fresh leaves, as refuse from the marketable heads.
Dig a trench the depth of the length of the stem, in which transplant the loose ones two heads in width and as closely as possible, lengthwise with the trench, placing a board on each side, simultaneously pressing the heads together slightly, and cover with straw and dirt securely from the mice and water. In Spring, if you have not pressed them too hard, these loose heads will all be hard and as fresh as in autumn. Yet it is a question in my mind whether they are not worth as much for the cow as to bury, considering the labor. Do not open them till the frost has left them, but do it as soon, lest they begin to rot. Like all buried vegetation they will not keep long after being exposed to the air. It will not do to transplant hard heads thus, for they are apt to burst. They should be turned bottom up in the trench and covered as before, in northern latitudes, but in southern latitudes a dirt covering is sufficient, leaving the roots to the air. They should never be thrown promiscuously in the cellar as they will wilt, and then they are poor food. For winter’s use put the roots in dirt in the cellar, guarding against mice and rats. A good plan is to put the roots in a tub filled in with dirt, then you have fresh cabbage at any time. In short, properly managed, cabbages are a very profitable crop, still they do not seem to be very exhausting to the soil. Like other garden crops rotation is necessary. _Remember and not use hog manure for cabbage, lest they head in the ground._
_Five acres enough._—Thus with five acres of good land well manured, and planted to carrots and cabbage, tilled and harvested according to the instructions of this pamphlet, any industrious and saving man, with, or without a family, may be on the high road to wealth. At the same time he is not a slave to manual labor, although it will be necessary for him to be alive spring and fall. There are no two crops of vegetables in more demand or more sure to yield a good return for labor. Ten years ago the first man who raised carrots to sell in my town found hard work to sell twenty bushels at the low price of twenty cents per bushel. Now, say for the last two years, a neighbor and myself have found a home market for one thousand bushels at 45 and 60 cents per bushel, although the number of inhabitants have but slightly increased. The demand is yearly increasing rapidly, till now many farmers think they cannot winter stock healthy (verily they cannot) without roots, and have concluded that carrots are the best root, containing the least per cent. of water, cleanest to feed, and the lightest to handle. Each property alone is very essential. A few fed to the horse each day gives him a slick coat, and that which gives a slick coat gives health, keeps him from catching cold, and saves much grain and hay. Store hogs can be wintered finely with carrots without any grain. A few fed to the cow, or a little juice squeezed into the cream, gives a rich yellowish color to the butter. Sheep fatten rapidly upon them. Cut up to the size of corn kernels and browned, they make an excellent coffee. Boiled, and forced through a cullender, they make a fine pie. For pickles and soup, they are excellent. In short, there is no vegetable that can be used more advantageously considering their cost than the carrot.