Chap. II.] Rlta Baga cultwre. 95 



course, be done ; but, my calculations are built upon 

 a supposed consumption of the whole upon the farm by 

 animals of one sort or another. 



143. My feedina; would be nearly as follows. I 

 will begin with February, for, until then, the Ruta 

 Baga does not come to its sweetest taste. It is like an 

 apple, that must have time to ripen ; but, then, it re- 

 tains its goodness much longer. I have proved, and 

 especially in the feeding of hogs, that the Ruta Baga 

 is never so good, till it arrives at a mature state. In 

 February, aiul about the first of that month, 1 should 

 begin bringing in my Ruta Baga, in the manner before 

 described. My three oxen, which would have been 

 brought forward by other food, to be spoken of by and 

 by, woidd be tied up in a stall looking into one of those 

 fine conmiodious barn's floors which Ave have upon this 

 island. Their stall should be tvarip, and they should 

 be kept well littered, and cleaned out frequently. The 

 Ruta Baga just chopped into large pieces with a spade 

 or shovel, and tossed into the manger to the oxen at 

 the^rate of about two bushels a day to each ox, would 

 make them completely fat, Avithout the aid of corn, hay, 

 or any other thing. I should, probably, kill one ox at 

 Christmas, and, in that case, he must have had a longer 

 time than the others upon other food. If I killed one 

 of the two remaining oxen in the middle of March, and 

 the other on the first of May, they Avould consume 266 

 bushels of Ruta Baga. 



144. My hundred ewes Avould begin upon Ruta 

 Baga at the same time, and, as my grass ground would 

 be only twelve acres until after luiA-tinie, I shall sup> 

 pose them to be fed on this root till July, and they 

 Avill always eat it and thrive on it. They Avill eat 

 about eight pounds each, a day; so that, for 150 days 

 it would require a hundred and twenty thousand pounds 

 weight, or two thousand four hundred bushels. 



145. Fourteen breeding sows to be kept all the year 

 round, Avould bring a hundred pigs in the spring, and 

 they and their pigs Avould, during the same 150 days, 

 consume much about the same ((uantity ; for, though 

 the pigs Avould be small during these 150 days, yet 

 they eat a great deal more than sheep in proportion to 



