60 RuTA Baoa culture. [Part I. 



before the end of their growth , and I have had them 

 frequently meet in this way in England. They would 

 always do it here, if the ground were rich and the tillage 

 proper. How then, can the intenals be too wide, if 

 the plants occupy the interval I And how can any 

 ground be lost if every inch be full of roots and shaded 

 b}' leaves '. 



62. After the last-mentioned operation my plants re- 

 mained till the weeds had again made their appearance; 

 or, rather, till a new biood had started up. When this 

 was the case, we went with the hoe again, and cleaned 

 the tops of the ridges as before. The weeds under this 

 all-powerful sun, instantly perish. Then we repeated 

 the former operation with the one-horse plough. After 

 this nothing was done but to pull up now and then a 

 weed, which had escaped the hoe ; for, as to the plough- 

 share, nothing escapes that. 



63. Now, i think, no farmer can discover in this pro- 

 cess any thing more difficult, more troublesome, more 

 expensive, than in the process absolutely necessary to 

 the obtaining of a crop of Indian Corn. And yet, 1 will 

 venture to say, that in any land, capable of bearing 



yifty bushels of corn upon an acre, more than a thousand 

 busbels of Ruta Baga may, in the above described 

 manner, be raised. 



64. In the broad-cast method the after-culture must, 

 of course, be confined to hoei/ig, or, as Tull calls it, 

 seratching. In England, the hoer goes in when the 

 plants are about four inches high, and hoes all the 

 ground, setting out the y^lants to about eighteen inches 

 apart ; and, it' tlie ground be at all foul, he is obliged lo 

 go in about a month afterwards, to hoe the ground again. 

 This is all that is done ; and a very poor all it is, as the 

 crops^ on the very best ground, compared with the ridged 

 crops, invariably show. 



Transplanting. 



65. This is a third mode of cultivating the Ruta 

 Baga ; and, in certain cases, far preferable to either of 

 the other two. My large crops at Botley were from 

 roots transplanted. I resorted to this mode in order to 

 insure acrop in spite of the fy; but, I am of opinion, 



