LARGE CARROTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2107, 4 October 1890, Page 4

LARGE CARROTS.

A correspondent of the Auckland News writes: —

Having seen in the columns of the News a short time since notices of large carrots, it may be interesting to your readers to know that one has been grown here measuring 21 inches in circumference, and weighing b. Of course this does not eclipse the one reported, that would require to be split up with maul and wedges to enable it to be bagged. I may stste the, carrot mentioned above is the heaviest ef ihe crop found so far, but the crop ■ has yielded plenty between 81V> and 91b.—1 am, &c., AamcoiUM, Moawhango, Napier, July 26,1890.”-—Eeply : While growers of roots, such as carrots, mangolds and turnips like to obtain immense crops and very large specimens, yet it should be borne in mind that unusually big roots are not always as nutritious as medium-sized ones, the large ones always proving more watery. This is especially the case with mangolds, and to some extent it may hold good with carrots. Not long , ago in California, there were some pigs actually killed by being fed on large mangolds, vybich averaged in weight about 501 b, and were nearly all water. To obtain about four pounds of inferior foods the pigs had to swallow some fifty quarts of water. No wonder they showed signs of distress, being seized with vertigo, quivering and gasping, and then dying. Previously they had been fed on good beets, but, those roots being done, the owner gave them these huge mangolds, and with fatal results. The crop mentioned by “Agricolum” must have been an excellent one, and if the area sown was extensive, a notion may be formed of the amount of feeding material there would be in such a crop. ; I suppose the variety in cultivation was the White Belgian, which, as a rule, gives better returns than the Long Eed or the red field carrot, yielding from six to eight tons more to the acre. The quality is as good, they will keep as well, and are capital food for all kinds of stock ; in fact, for milking cows white carrots are much superior to turnips, producing a large quantity of milk without imparting to it any disagreeable flavour. Where settlers have suitable land for the production of carrots it is somewhat surprising that more attention is not given to this desirable crop. Some years ago an English farmer wrote as follows in praise 1 of carrots: —‘I have had frequent opportunitie of ascertaining practially the many excellent qualities of this truly invaluable root, and so confirmed am I of its superior properties as a general article of food for the several descriptions of animals usually kept on a farm, without reference to many local opportunities of market for the sale of its produce, but confined to the usual and more beneficial practice of consuming the crop on the farm, that [unhesitatingly pronounce it the most valuable esculent at this time known in the entire range of our present improved practical husbandry. The only reasonable objection urged against the general introduction of carrots into our regular system of cropping is the expensive and tedious early culture, which objections have considerable weight. Nevertheless, when capital and industry can be combined, carrots offer a fairer opportunity of a remunerative return than any other comparative crop, and, where introduced, will be found a valuable article of food for horses, pigs, and poultry of all descriptions. Butter of the most agreeable appearance and flavor may be obtained by feeding milch cows on carrots, and if stored for them during any severe weather in winter there will be no diminution in quantity or deterioration .in the quality of the produce.”