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.