Chap. II.J RuTA Baga culture. 47 



" its purgative quality, Avill disable them from taking 

 '• the nourishment that is necessary to keep them up. 

 " If they fall away, their wool will be injured, and the 

 " growth of their lambs will be stopped, and even many 

 " of the old sheep will be carried off by the dysentery. 

 " To provide food for this season is very difficult. 

 " Turnips and Cabbages will rot, and bran they will 

 *' not eat, after having been fed on it all the Avinter. 

 " Potatoes, however, and the Swedisk Turnip, called 

 " Ruta Baf/a, may be usefully applied at this time, 

 " and so, 1 think, might Parsnips and Carrots. But, 

 " as few of us are in the habit of cultivating these 

 " plants to the extent which is necessary for the sup- 

 " port of a large flock, we must seek resources more 

 " within our reach." And then the Chancellor proceeds 

 to recommend the leaviiig the second growth of clover 

 uncut, in order to produce early shoots from sheltered 

 buds for the sheep to eat until the coming of the natural 

 grass and the general pasturage. 



26. I was much surprised at reading this passage , 

 having observed, when I lived in Pennsylvania, how 

 prodigiously the root-crops of every kind flourished and 

 succeeded with only common skill and care ; and, in 

 1S15, having by that time had many crops of Ruta 

 Baga exceeding thirttf tons, or, about one thousand five 

 hundred heaped bushels to the acre, at Botley, 1 formed 

 the design of sending out to America a Treatise on the 

 Culture and Uses of that Root, which, I was perfectly 

 well convinced, could be raised with more ease here 

 than in England ; and, that it might be easily preserved 

 during the whole year, if necessary, I had proved in 

 many cases. 



27. If Mr. CnANCELLOR Livingston, whose public- 

 spirit is manifested fully in his excellent little work, 

 which he modestly calls an Essay, could see my ewes 

 and lambs, and hogs and cattle, at this " critical sea- 

 sou" (I write on the 27th of March), with more Ruta 

 Baga at their command than they have mouths to 

 employ on it ; if he could see me, who am on a poor 

 exhausted piece of land, and who found it covered with 

 weeds and brambles in the month of June last, who 

 found uo manure, and who have brought none ; if he 



