82 RuTA Baga culture. [Part I. 



in October, and sow wheat, at once, in the land 1 More 

 on this after-cropping, another time. 



113. In Long Island, and throughout the United 

 States, where the weather is so fine in the fall ; where 

 every day, from the middle of October to the end of 

 November (except a rainy day about once in 16 days), 

 is as fair as the fairest May-day in England, and where 

 such a thing as a water-furrow in a field was never 

 heard of; in such a soil as this, and under such a cli- 

 ma e as this, there never can arise any diflRculty in the 

 way of the harvesting of turnips in proper time. I 

 should certainly do it in November; for, as we have 

 seen, a little frost does not affect the bulbs at all. I 

 would put them in when perfectly dry ; make my heaps 

 of about fifty bushels ; and, when the frosts approached, 

 I mean the hard frosts, 1 would cover with corn-stalks, 

 or straw, or cedar boughs, as many of the heaps as I 

 thought I should want in January and February ; for, 

 these coverings would so break the frost, as to enable 

 me to open the heaps in those severe months. Jt is 

 useless and inconvenient to take into barns, or out- 

 houses, a very large quantity at a time. Besides, if 

 left uncovered, the very hard frosts will do them harm. 

 To be sure, this is easily prevented, in the barn, by 

 throwing a little straw over the heap ; but, being, by 

 the means that f have pointed out, always kept ready 

 in the field, to bring in a larger quantity than is used 

 in arceek, or thereabouts, would be wholly unnecessary, 

 besides being troublesome from the great space, whiai 

 would thus be occupied. 



1 14. It is a great advantage in the cultivation of this 

 crop, that the sowing, or transplanting time, comes 

 after all the spring grain and the Indian Corn are safe 

 in the ground, and before the harvest of grain begins; 

 and then again, in the fall, the taking up of the roots 

 comes after the grain and corn, and buck-wheat har- 

 vests, and even after the sowing of the winter grain. In 

 short, it seems to me, that the cultivation of this crop, 

 in this country, comes, as it were expressly, to fill up 

 the unemployed spaces of the farmer's time ; but, if he 

 prefer standing with arms folded, during these spaces 

 of lime, and hearing his flock bleat themselves half 



