386 Ou Raifng Cahbages. Oci, 



fyflem, and which has, to a certain extent, diminllhed the 

 number of people employed in agriculture, greatly to the 

 mortification of the gloomy-minded declaimers againft the 

 prefent times, who, in the blinuucfs of their rage, denounce 

 the uniting of fmall farms as the caufe of this miftaken na- 

 tional calamity. But, even were this notion to be well found- 

 ed, (and it .would not be difficult to Ihew that it is not), yet 

 furely it is not folely the numbers of people employed in any 

 profeflion, that ought to render them refpedfable in the State ; 

 regard muft alfo be had to the ingenuity with which they are 

 a^uated, and the industry with which they carry on their o- 

 perations. People, not judicioufly employed, are little better 

 to the State than if they were not employed at all. H. 



to the conductors of the farmer's magazine. 



Gentlemen, 



As a reader of the Farmer's Magazine, and a well-wi(her 

 to that Publication, I fend you the following obfervations and 

 experiment, anent the raifing of cabbages and open kaii. 



Owing to the feverity of laft Winter, and inclement Spring, 

 kail plants of every description were fcarce, and ill to be got 

 in the north of Scotland \ in particular, the different fpecies 

 of cabbage plants ; and what remained, were fo weak and 

 fmall, as fcarcely to be worth planting. Having fome roots 

 of the early kind of lafl: year remaining in the ground, which 

 were beginning to put out young (lioots about the end of A- 

 pril, the idea itruck me of pulling thefe old roots, and, after 

 ftrippiitg them of all the young fhoots, except the ftrongeft 

 r.nd healthieft-like one, to replant them on another piece of 

 ground, in the following manner : I caufed a fmall furrow be 

 made in the ground of the plot I intended for them, and put 

 the old flock on its fide, covered it up with earth, keeping the 

 ilioot above like a young plant. They never went back, grew 

 remarkably faft, and have clofed very well ; and were feveral 

 weeks earlier than thofe planted from young plants before 

 them. 



I tried the fame experiment with open kail, and find they 

 anfwer equally well. — If you think this may be of any ufe to 

 the public, or confidered worthy of a place in your publication, 

 you are welcome to ufe it. I am, a wcliwifiier to agricultu- 

 ral improvements. 



July I ^i 1800. A Perth/Jjire Farmer. 



TO 



