Chap II.] RiTTA Baga culture. 6ft 



to death ill March and April, or have no flock, and 

 scarcely any cattle ov hogs, raise a few loads of yard- 

 dung, and travel five miles for ashes, and buy them dear 

 at the end of the five miles ; if he prefer these, then, 

 certainly, I shall ha\'e 'wi'itten on this subject in vain. 



Quantity of the Crop. 



115. It is impossible for me to say, at present, what 

 quantity of Ruta Baga may be grown on an acre of 

 land in this Island. My three acres o{ ridged turnips, 

 sown on the 26th of June, were very unequal, but, upon 

 one of the acres, there were six hundred and forty bush- 

 els ; I mean heaped bushels ; that is to sav, an English 

 statute bushel heaped as long as the commoditv will lie 

 on. The transplanted turnips yiekled about four hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre ; but then, observe, they were 

 put in a full month too late. This year, I shall make 

 a fair trial. 



116. I have given an account of my raising, upoiv 

 five acres in one field, and twelve acres in another 

 field, one thousand tliree hundred and twenty bushels 

 to an acre, throughout the seventeen acres. I have no 

 doubt of equalling tiiat quantity on this Island, and 

 that, too, upon some of its poorest and most exhausted 

 land. They tell me, indeed, that the la.st summer was 

 a remarkably fine summer ; so they said at Botley, 

 M'hen I had my first prodigious crop of Ruta Baga. 

 This is the case in all the pursuits of life. The mo- 

 ment a man excels those, who ought to be able and 

 willing to do as well as he ; that moment, others set to 

 work to discover causes for his success, other than those 

 proceeding from himself. But, as I used to tell my 

 neighbours at Botley, they have had the same seasons 

 that I have had. Nothing is so impartial as weather. 

 As long as this sort of observation, or inquiry, proceeds 

 from a spirit r>^ emulation, it may be treated with great 

 indulgence ; l)ut, when it discovers a spirit of envy, it 

 becomes detestable, and especially in affairs of agri- 

 culture, where the appeal is made to our common Pa- 

 rent, and where no man's success can be injurious to 

 his neighbour, while it must be a benefit to his countrv , 



