Carrot (Daucus Carota)

This highly esteemed root is one of the most profitable crops that can be grown, provided the grub can be avoided. Carrots love a deep, generous, and rather sandy soil,.but almost any free soil of a good depth will produce them in tolerable perfection. As to manures, a soil in good heart, after being manured for a previous crop, is preferable to one recently fertilised. When fresh manure is used it should be kept well down, not a particle should be nearer the surface than five or six inches. Sow the little Early Horn on a warm border, or in a frame, in February or March, and again in July; the larger kinds, such as Altringcham, Long Red Surrey, etc., in April, in rows one foot apart, the seeds being merely covered with a slight coating of very fine soil. Thin out to six inches apart in the first instance, and as soon as the roots are large enough to draw for table thin to a foot asunder. By this method a supply may be kept up throughout the summer, and a sufficiency of roots retained for winter storing. In soils too shallow for such deep piercing roots, very good crops may be obtained by sowing Intermediate, which may bo left to mature at six inches apart in every direction.

In October, or early in November, at the latest, carrots should be taken up and stored in sand, previous to which the tops and every vestige of soil must bo removed.

Cauliflower (Brassica Oleracea, Botrytis Canliflora)

The only difference between this and the broccoli is that the former is neither so hardy or so coarsely flavoured as the latter. The cauliflower is comparatively worthless unless well grown, to ensure which a rich soil and the most liberal cultivation possible is necessary. In a word, they must not be allowed to suffer from drought or to attain any great size in the seed-bed. Sow in gentle heat in February and March, and in the open ground from the beginning of April to the end of June. Prick out the seedlings on a bed of rich mellow soil, to strengthen them previous to planting them out finally. When put out to flower or head, let the rows be from two and a half to three feet apart, and the same distance asunder in the rows. For keeping over winter, the seed should be sown in August, September, or October, according to the climate of the place, the cultivator taking care not to have his plants too forward or too luxuriant in habit before the winter sets in, or he may lose them by frost. In the extremo south-western counties these plants are wintered in the open air, under the shelter of a fence or wall only, but, generally speaking, they require to be wintered under hand-glasses or in frames, and should throughout the winter have as much air as can be given with safety.

They ought to be planted out as early in March or April as possible, even if it be requisite to cover them with inverted flower-pots or hand-glasses, while severe east winds or frosts prevail, for a long season of growth is absolutely necessary for the production of a nice, close, white, tender flower. These, like broccoli, should be cut early in the morning, while the dew is upon them, as, if left later in the day, they become soft and withered, and consequently do not boil so well.

Celery (Apium Graveolens)

This crop prefers an unctuous soil, slightly adhesive, but will succeed in almost any ordinary garden soil, if plenty of manure be applied. This is a crop that must not be subjected to rough-and-ready treatment; it will not put up with it; on the contrary, it requires great care and attention to bring it to perfection. A few words of advice to start with may prove of service to those who have had but little experience in its cultivation. The seed should not be sown too long before it is required, for where the seedlings are permitted to starve in seed-pans and frames for want of attention, it never acquires its full degree of vigour; hence it is of inferior quality to a plantation of the same sort and age that has received no check from beginning to end. It is preferable to sow rather late, and then keep it going by diligent and liberal cultivation, than to make too early a start that cannot be followed up with earnestness. In a word, sweet and crisp celery cannot be obtained unless it be kept growing from the first appearance of the seedlings to the time of earthing up.

For the earliest supply, sow a pinch of seed in February of the smaller-growing sorts on a gentle hot-bed; and as soon as the plants are large enough to handle, prick them out three inches apart on a nice mellow bed of rich soil, on a half-spent hot-bed; give them plenty of light, abundance of fresh, air in favourable weather, and moderate supplies of water. A second sowing may be made in March, and the plants pricked out as before; but in case there is no hot-bed available, a well-pro-pared bed in a frame in a sunny aspect will suffice; or, if the season is somewhat advanced, a bed of well-rotted stable-dung, two or three inches deep, on a piece of solid ground, will answer very well, provided the plants are kept regularly watered. From this bed they will lift with good roots for planting-out, hardly feeling the removal at all. Seed may also bo sown, without any protection, in April and May, and if carefully managed will produce useful crops for soups. When preparing trenches for celery do not bo sparing of manure, for without plenty of that and water the plants will not succeed. These trenches should bo four feet apart and fifteen inches wide, and the plants from eight to ten inches asunder in the trench.

During the progress of the crop a dressing of well-pulverised earth may be occasionally thrown into the trenches to encourage the free spread of the roots; but the regular earthing up should not be commenced until the plant is nearly full grown, for the process tends to check growth very materially. This earthing up should bo performed in dry weather only, and great care should be taken to keep the mould from entering the hearts of the plants. It will be necessary to earth up the late crops, whether they be full grown or not, in time to protect them from frost; and in low-lying districts it will be policy to take up the best sticks in time to save them from frost, and store them in dry earth in a shed where the enemy cannot reach them. Celery is not much troubled with insects; occasionally a kind of green-fly or aphis will attack them, but they seldom do much injury. A maggot now and then attacks the young leaves, out by early attention this too can be got rid of. On some old soils of a light and loose character it is liable to a kind of canker in the root, but this usually commences in the seed-bed, and may be obviated by planting in properly prepared compost.