CARROT, or Daucus, L. a genus of plants comprising ten species, of which the Carota, or common carrot, only is cultivated in Britain, where it was introduced from Flanders, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Carrots are propagated from seeds, which maybe sown at different times, during the whole season; in order to procure a succession of young roots for the table. They require an open situation, at a little distance from a wall; the seeds should be previously rubbed between the hands, to take off their beards, as they will otherwise adhere to each other, and come up in patches; but if sown close under the wall, they will too quickly run up to seed, and produce indifferent roots.—These plants delight in a warm, light, sandy loam, which should be dug to a considerable depth, to facilitate the roots striking downwards, as they are apt to become forked, and to shoot out lateral branches. They grow most luxuriantly after turnips, which render the land more clear of weeds than it is found after any other crop. As a culinary article, the carrot is well known; it also furnishes a wholesome and nutritious fodder for cows: if given to them in the winter, and early in the spring, it greatly increases their milk, and imparts to it an agreeable flavour. Hogs thrive well on carrots, which they fondly eat, when boiled in their wash. A sparing allowance of these roots, besides the usual food, is said to produce an invigorating effect on hunters: plough, and cart-horses also eat them with avidity; and, while thus fed, require no corn, and very little hay. Oxen and sheep fatten very speedily on carrots; and, if the latter animals are "half fat," when put up, they will be completely so, in about three months. This vegetable has also been cultivated for feeding deer, in parks; a practice which, in severe winters, when every other kind of food is scarce, has been attended with advantage. As a fodder for cows, sheep, and swine, the tops of carrots are equally valuable with the roots. Nay, sometimes even hay has been made by mowing these tops, towards the latter end of June; yet they should not be cut so closely as to injure the crown of the root.
Although carrots, when left in the ground, will not endure the severity of winter, like cabbages and other vegetables, yet, by proper care, they may be preserved, so as to afford a wholesome and strengthening fodder for cattle. The method alluded to, is amply described in the eleventh volume of the "Annals of Agriculture," from which we extract the following account: Soon after Michaelmas, when the weather is dry, the carrots are dug out, and piled up on a bank of earth, raised about six inches above the level of the soil, and proportioned to the quantity of carrots intended to be preserved. On this bank is spread a thin layer of straw, on which the carrots are placed, with their tops turned outwards, and the ends folding one over another. The small roots are topt, and laid in the middle, to prevent the two sides from separating, by the greater pressure of weight on the centre. Every second or third row is covered with a little dry straw, and the stacking thus continued, till it reaches to the height of about four feet, when an additional quantity of dry straw is carefully spread over the tops, and the whole is thatched with sedge. Another line is then commenced in the same manner as the preceding, and sufficient room left for one person to pass between them. The intermediate space is next filled up with dry straw, and the outside defended with bundles of the same material, staked down, or fastened with hurdles. Thus secured, carrots will protect themselves from frost, by their own tops, and ensure a constant supply of fodder, at a period when almost every other vegetable is destroyed.
Various, but unsuccessful, experiments have been made to prepare sugar from carrots; as they yielded only a thick syrup, similar to treacle. Nevertheless, these roots have lately been more advantageously employed in distillation. After mashing, and properly fermenting them, M. Brieger, a foreign distiller, obtained from ten pounds of the roots, one quart of what is called "first runnings," and half a pint of a very strong ardent spirit.—As a German acre of land produces, upon an average, 10,000 pounds weight of carrots, he is of opinion, that a loose soil might be more advantageously employed in the culture of those roots, than in that of any seed-corn.—See also p. 326, Brandy.
In medicine, a marmalade of carrots, on account of their strong antiseptic qualities, has been successfully used for preventing, and curing the sea-scurvy. An infusion of them has also been found to afford considerable relief to persons afflicted with the stone, and worms, but especially the tape-worm.—A poultice, made of the roots, has often been attended with similar success, in mitigating the pain, and abating the smell, of foul and cancerous ulcers.