Chap. II.] RuTA Baga culture. 81 



ledge of the time of the hard weather setting in, I could 

 obtain no knowledge, on which I could rely, the seve- 

 ral accounts being so different from each other. The 

 general account was, that there would be no very hard 

 weather till after Christmas. I shall know better ano- 

 ther time ! Major Cartwright says, in speaking of 

 the tricks of English Boroughmongers, at the ^^ Glorious 

 Revolution," that they will never be able to play the 

 same tricks again ; for that nations, like rational indi- 

 viduals, are not deceived twice in the same way. 



1 12. Thus have I spoken of the time and manner of 

 harvesting, as they took place with me. And, surely, 

 the expense is a mere trifle. Two oxen and four men 

 would harvest two acres in any clear day in the latter 

 end of November ; and thus is this immense crop har- 

 vested, and covered completely, for about tico dollars 

 and a half an acre. It is astonishing, that this is never 

 done in England ! For, though it is generally said, 

 that the Ruta Baga will stand any weather ; I know, by 

 experience, that it will not stand any weather. The 

 winter of the year 1814, that is to say, the months of 

 January and February, were very cold, and a great 

 deal of snow fell ; and, in a piece of twelve acres, I 

 had, in the month of March, two thirds of the turnips 

 completely rotten ; and these were amongst the finest 

 that I ever grew, many of them weighing twelve pounds 

 each. Besides, when taken up in dry weather, before 

 the freezings and tha^vings begin, the dirt all falls off; 

 and the bulbs are clean and nice to be given to cat- 

 tle or sheep in the stalls or yards. For, though we 

 in general feed off these roots upon the land with sheep, 

 we cannot, in deep land, always do it. The land is 

 too wet; and particularly for ewes and lambs, which 

 are, in such cases, brought into a piece of pasture land, 

 or into a fold-yard, where the turnips are flung down 

 to them in a dirty state, just carted from the field. And, 

 again, the land is very much injured, and the labour 

 augmented, by carting when the ground is a sort of 

 mud-heap, or rather, pool. All these inconveniences 

 and injuries would be avoided by harvesting in a dry 

 day in November, if such a day should, by an acci- 

 dent, be found in England ; but, why not do the work 

 E 5 



