RUT A BAG A CULTURE 



teristics the most decidedly distinctive are these : that the outside 

 of the bulb of the Ruta Baga is of a greenish hue, mixed, towards 

 the top, with a colour bordering on a red ; and, that the inside 

 of the bulb, if the sort be true and pure, is of a deep yellow, nearly 

 as deep as that of gold. 



Mode of saving and of preserving the Seed. 



31. This is rather a nice business, and should be, by no means, 

 executed in a negligent manner. For, on the well attending to 

 this, much of the seed depends : and, it is quite surprizing how 

 great losses are, in the end, frequently sustained by the saving 

 in this part of the business, of an hour s labour or attention. I 

 one year, lost more than half of what would have been an immense 

 crop, by a mere piece of negligence in my bailiff as to the seed ; 

 and I caused a similar loss to a gentleman in Berkshire, who had 

 his seed out of the same parcel that mine was taken from, and who 

 had sent many miles for it, in order to have the best in the world. 



32. The Ruta Baga is apt to degenerate, if the seed be not saved 

 with care. We, in England, select the plants to be saved for seed. 

 We examine w r ell to find out those that run least into neck and 

 green. We reject all such as approach at all towards a whitish 

 colour, or which are even of a greenish colour towards the neck, 

 where there ought to be a little reddish cast. 



33. Having selected the plants with great care, we take them up 

 out of the place where they have grown, and plant them in a plot 

 distant from every thing of the turnip or cabbage kind which is to 

 bear seed. In this Island, I am now, at this time, planting mine 

 for seed (ayth March), taking all our English precautions. It is 

 probable, that they would do very well, if taken out of a heap to be 

 transplanted, if well selected ; but, lest this should not do well, I 

 have kept my selected plants all the winter in the ground in my 

 garden, well covered with corn-stalks and leaves from the trees ; 

 and, indeed, this is so very little a matter to do, that it would be 

 monstrous to suppose, that any farmer would neglect it on account 

 of the labour and trouble ; especially when we consider, that the 

 seed of two or three turnips is more than sufficient to sow an acre of 

 land. I, on one occasion, planted twenty turnips for seed, and 

 the produce, besides what the little birds took as their share for 

 having kept down the Caterpillars, was twenty-two and a half 

 pounds of clean seed. 



34. The sun is so ardent and the weather so fair here, compared 

 with the drippy and chilly climate of England, while the birds here 

 never touch this sort of seed, that a small plot of ground would, if 

 well managed, produce a great quantity of seed. Whether it 

 would degenerate is a matter that I have not yet ascertained ; but 

 which I am about to ascertain this year. 



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