V 



68 , RuTA Baga culture. [Parti. 



57. When my ridges were laid up, and my seed was 

 soAvn, my neighbours thought, that there was an end of 

 the process ; for, they all said, that, if the seed ever 

 came up, being upon those high ridges, the plants never 

 could hve under the scorching of the sun. 1 Jinew that 

 this was an erroneous notion ; but I had not much confi- 

 dence in the powers of the soil, it being so endently 

 poor, and my supply of manure so scanty. 



58. The plants, however, made their appearance 

 vith great regularity ; no /?</ came to annoy them. The 

 moment they were fairly up, Ave went with a very small 

 hoe, and took all but one in each ten or eleven or twelve 

 inches, and thus left them singly placed. This is a 

 great point ; for ihey begin to rob one another at a very 

 early age, and, if left two or three weeks to rob each 

 other, before they are set out singly, the crop will be 

 diminished one-half. To set the plants out in this way 

 w-as a very easy and quickly-performed business ; but, 

 it is a business to be left to no one but a careful man. 

 Boys can never safely be trusted with the deciding, at 

 discretion, Avhether you shall have a large crop or a 

 small one. 



59. But now, something else began to appear as well 

 as turnip-plants ; for, all the long grass and weeds 

 having dropped their seeds the summer before, and, 

 probably, for many summers, they now came forth to 

 demand their share of that nourishment, produced by 

 the fermentation, the deMs, and particularly the sun, 

 Avhich shines on all alike. 1 never saw a fiftieth part 

 so many weeds in mj life upon a hke space of ground. 

 Their little seed leaves, of various hues, formed a 

 perfect mat on the ground. And now it was, that my 

 wide ridges, which had appeared to my neighbours to 

 be so very singular and so unnecessary, were absolutely 

 necessary. First we went Mith a hoe, and hoed the 

 tops of the ridges, about si.\ inches wide. There were 

 all the plants, then, clear and clean at once, with an 

 expense of about half a day's work to an acre. Then 

 we came, in our Botley fashion, with a single horse- 

 plough, took a furrow from the side of one ridge going up 

 the field, a furrow from the other ridge coming down, 

 then another furrow from the same side of the first 



