62 RuTA Baga culture. [Part 1. 



is .hus prepared lor the newly arrived guests, Mr. Cur- 

 WEx, the Member of Parliament, though a poor thing 

 as to public matters, has published not a bafi book on 

 agricnltiirc. It is not bad, because it contains many 

 authentic accounts of experiments made by himself; 

 though I never can think of his book without thinking, 

 at the same time, of the gross and scandalous plagia- 

 risms, Avhich he has committed upon Till. Without 

 mentioning particulars, the " //oMOMrai/e Member" will, 

 I am sure, know what 1 mean, if this page should ever 

 have the honour to fall under his eye ; and he will, I 

 hope, repent, and give proof of his repentance, by a 

 restoration of the property to the right owner. 



69. However, Mr. Clkvvex, in his book, gives an 

 account of the Avonderi'ul effects of moving the ground 

 between plants in rows ; and he tells us of an experi- 

 ment, which he made, and which proved, that from 

 ground just ploughed, in a very dry time, an exhalation 

 of many tons Aveight, per acre, took place, during the 

 first twenty-four hours after ploughing, and of a less and 

 less number of tons, during the tfiree or four succeeding 

 twenty-four hours ; tha.t, in the course of about a week, 

 the exhalation ceased; and that, during the whole pe- 

 riod, the ground, though in the same Jield, which had 

 not been ploughed when the other ground Avas, exhaled 

 itot an ounce! When I read this in Mr. Curwen's book, 

 which was before I had read Till, I called to mind, 

 that, having once dug the ground between some rows of 

 ■pai-t of a plot of cabbages in my garden, in order to 

 plant some late peas, I perceived (it was in a dry time) 

 the cabbages, the next morning, in the part recently 

 dug, with big drops of dew hanging on the edges of the 

 leaves, and in the other, or undug part of the plot, "o 

 drops at all. I h;\d forgotten the fact till 1 read I\ir. Crn- 

 vvEx, and 1 never liucw the can$e till I read the real 

 Father of English Ilusbandrg . 



70. From tliis digression 1 return to the history, first 

 of my English transplanting, i saw, at once, that the 

 only way to ensure a crop of turnips v.as by transplan- 

 tation. The next year, therefore, I prepared a field oi' 

 Jive acres, and another of twelve. I made ridges, in the 

 maimer described, for sowing; and, on the 7th of June 



