Chap. II.] RcTA Baca cultlre. 61 



that it is, in all cases, the best mode, provided hands can 

 be obtained in sufficient number, just for a few days, or 

 weeks, as the quantity may be, when the land and the 

 plants are read)-. 



66. Much light is thrown on matters of this sort by 

 describing what one has done oyte's sc/f relating to them. 

 This is practice at once ; or, at least, it comes much 

 nearer to it than any instructions possibh' can. 



67. It was an accident that led me to the practice. 

 In the summer of 1812, 1 had a piece oi Ruta Baga in 

 the middle of a field, or, rather, the piece occupied a 

 part of the field, having a crop of carrots on one side, 

 and a crop of Mangel Wurzel on the other side. On 

 the 20th of July the turnips, or rather, those of thera 

 which had escaped tlie fly, began to grow pretty well. 

 They had been sown in drills ; and 1 was anxious to 

 fill up the spaces, which had been occasioned by the 

 ravages of the fiy. I, therefore, took the supernume- 

 rary plants, which I found in the un-attacked places, 

 and filled up the rows by transplantation, which I did 

 also in two other fields. 



68. The turnips thus transplanted, grew, and, in fact, 

 were pretty good ; but, they were very far inferior to 

 those which had retained their original places. But, it 

 happened, that on one side of the above-mentioned piece 

 of turnips, there was a vacant space of about a yard in 

 breadth. When the ploughman had finished ploughing 

 between the rows of turnips, I made hiai plough up that 

 spare ground very deep, and upon it I made my gar- 

 dener go and plant two rows of turnips. These became 

 the largest and finest of the whole piece, though trans- 

 planted two days later than those wliich had been trans- 

 planted in the rows throughout the piece. The cause 

 of this remarkable difference, 1 at once saw, was, that 

 these had been put into ncidg-ploughcd ground ; for, 

 thougli I had not read much of Till at the time here 

 referred to, I knew, from the experience of my whole 

 life, that plants as well as seeds ought always to go 

 into ground as recently moved as possible ; because at 

 every moving of the earth, and particular]> at every 

 turning of it, a new process of fermentation takes place, 

 fresh exhalations arise, and a supply oi'ihefood of plants 



