50 RuTA Baga culture. [Part I. 



kept down the caterpillars, was iicenty-tico and a half 

 pounds of clean seed. 



34. The sun is so ardent and the weather so fair here, 

 compared with the chippy and chilly climate of Ene;- 

 land, while the birds here never touch this sort of seed, 

 that a small plot of ground would, if well managed, pro- 

 duce a great quantity of seed. WTiethev it would de- 

 fjeneratc is a matter that 1 have not ijct ascertained ; 

 but which I am about to ascertain this year. 



3.5. That all tliese precautions of selecting the plants 

 and transplanting tiiem are necessary, 1 know by ex- 

 perience. I, on one occasion, had sown all my own 

 seed, and the plants had been carried off by the Jly, of 

 which I shall have to speak, presently. I sent to a per- 

 son who had raised some seed, which 1 afterwai'ds 

 foimd to ha^ e come from turnips, left promiscuously to 

 go to seed in a part of a field where they had been 

 sown. The consequence was, that a good t/iird part of 

 my crop had no hnlbs; but consisted of a sort of rape, 

 all leaves, and stalks gioM-ing very high. While even 

 the rest of the crop bore no resemblance, either in 

 point of size or of quality, to turnips, in the same field, 

 trom seed saved in a proper manner, though this latter 

 was sown at a later period. 



36. As to the preserving of llie seed, it is an invari- 

 able rule applicable to all seeds, that seed, kept in the 

 pod to the very time of sowing, will vegetate more 

 quickly and more vigorously than seed which has been 

 some time threshed out. Hut, turnip-seed m ill do very well, 

 if threshed out as soon as ripe, and kept in a dry place, 

 and not too nnich exposed to tiie air. A bag, hung up 

 in a dry room, is the depository that I use. But, before 

 being tin'eshcd out, the seed should be quite ripe, and, 

 if cut oir, or pulled n\), which latter is the best way, 

 before the pods are quite dead, the whole should be 

 suffered to he in the sun till the pods are perfectly 

 dead, in order that the seed may imbibe its full nourish- 

 racftt, and come to complete perfection ; otherwise the 

 seed will wither, much of it will not grow at all, and 

 that Avhich does grow Mill produce plants inferior to 

 those proceeding from \^ ell-ripened seed. 



