Chap. 11] RuTA Baga culture. 71 



ting a little old. They do not like to be taught any 

 thing. They sa> , and they think, that what their latliers 

 did was best. To tell ihem, that it was your affair, and 

 not theirs, is nothing. To tell them, that the loss, if 

 any, Avill fall npon you, and not upon them, has verv 

 little weight. The\' argue, that, they being the real 

 doers, ought to be the best judges of the mode of doing. 

 And, indeed, in most cases, they are, and go about this 

 work witli wonderful skill and judgment. But, then, it 

 is so difficult to induce them cordially to do any thing 

 new, or any old tiling in a new way ; and the abler they 

 are as workmen, the more uutractable they are, and the 

 more difficult to be persuaded that any one knows any 

 thing, relating to farming affairs, better than they do. 

 It was this difficulty that made me resort to the emplo}- 

 ment of young women in the most important part of my 

 farming, the providing of immense quantities of cattle- 

 food. But I do not find this difficulty here, where no 

 workmen are obstinate, and where, too, all one's neigh- 

 bours rejoice at one's success, which is by no means the 

 case amongst the farmers in England. 



87. Having now gi\en instructions relative to the 

 business oi transplanting of the Rata Baga, let us see, 

 whether it be not preferable to either the ridgc-sowing 



, method, or the broad-cast method. 



88. In the first place, M'hen the seed is sown on the 

 ground where the plants are to come to perfection, the 

 ground, as we have seen in paragraph 40 and para- 

 grapli 47, must be prepared early in June, at the 

 latest; but, in the transplanungmeliiod,this work may 

 be put off, if need be, till early in August, as we have 

 seen in ])aragraphs 74 and 75. However, the best time 

 for transplanting is about the 2Gth of July, and this 

 gives a month for preparation of land, more than is 

 allowed in the sowing methods. This, of itself, is a 

 great matter ; but, there are others of far greater im- 

 portance. 



89. This transplanted crop may follow another crop 

 oA the same land. Early cabbages will loave and be 

 away ; early peas will be ripe and off; nay, even wheat, 

 and all grain, except buck-Avheat, may be succeeded 

 by Kuta Baga transplanted. 1 had crops to succeed 



