346 Postscript. [Part 111. 



DFAK si!{ New York, Dec. 30, 1818. 



G52. I TAKE the liberty of sending to you the follow- 

 ing experiments upon the culture oT _NOur Ruta Baga, 

 made by my uncie, Isaac Townsend, Esq. of Orange 

 County, in ihis Slate. The seeds were procured from 

 your slock, and the experiments, 1 think, will tend to 

 corroborate the sentiments which you have so laudably 

 and so successfully inculcated on the subject of this 

 interesting article of agriculture. 



653. A piece of strong dry loam ten feet square on 

 the N.E. side of a mountain in Moreau township, 

 Orange County, was thoroughly cleared of stones, and 

 dug up twelve inches deep, oij the 10th of June last; it 

 was then covered b^' a mixture of ten bushels of char- 

 coal dust and twenty bushels of black swamp mould, 

 which was well harrowed in. About the 9lh of July it 

 was sown with your Ruta Baga in drills of twenty inches 

 apart, the turnips being ten inches distant from each 

 other. They came up badly and were weeded out on 

 the 10th of August. On the 15th of August a table- 

 spoonful of ashes was put round every turnip, Avhich 

 operation was repeated on the 20th of September. The 

 ground was kept perfectly clean through the whole sea- 

 son. Six seeds of the common turnip were by accident 

 dropped into the patch, and received the same atten- 

 tion as the rest. These common turnips weighed two 

 pounds a piece. The whole yield of the Ruta Baga 

 was three bushels, each turnip weighing from four 

 to eight pounds. The roots penetrated about twelve 

 inches into the ground, although the season was remark- 

 ably dry. 



654. A piece of rich, moist, loamy land, containing 

 four square rods, was ploughed twice in June, and the 

 seeds of your Ruta Baga sown on the 4th of July in 

 broad cast, and kept clean through the season. This 

 patch produced twenty-Jive bvsheh of turnips, each 

 turnip weighing from lour to nine pounds. This, you 

 perceive, is at the enormous rate of 1000 bushels an 

 acre ! 



