RUT A BAG A CULTURE 



well fixed ; but, if the pull brought up the plant out of the ground ; 

 then I was sure, that the planting was not well done. After the 

 first field or two, I had no trouble. My work was as well done, 

 as if the whole had been done by myself. My planting was done 

 chiefly by young women, each of whom would plant half an acre 

 a day, and their pay was ten pence sterling a day. What a shame, 

 then, for any man to shrink at the trouble and labour of such a 

 matter. Nor, let it be imagined, that these young women were 

 poor, miserable, ragged, squalid creatures. They were just the 

 contrary. On a Sunday they appeared in their white dresses, and 

 with silk umbrellas over their heads. Their constant labour 

 afforded the means of dressing well, their early rising and exercise 

 gave them health, their habitual cleanliness and neatness, for which 

 the women of the South of England are so justly famed, served 

 to aid in the completing of their appearance, which was that of 

 fine rosy-cheeked country-girls, fit to be the helpmates, and net 

 the burdens, of their future husbands. 



86. But, at any rate, what can be said for a man that thinks too 

 much of such a piece of labour ? The earth is always grateful ; 

 but it must and will have something to be grateful for. As far 

 as my little experience has enabled me to speak, I find no want 

 of willingness to learn in any of the American workmen. Ours, 

 in England, are apt to be very obstinate, especially if getting a little 

 old. They do not like to be taught any thing. They say, and 

 they think, that what their fathers did was best. To tell them, 

 that it was your affair, and not theirs, is nothing. To tell them, 

 that the loss, if any, will fall upon you, and not upon them, has 

 very little weight. They argue, that, they being the real doers, 

 ought to be the best judges of the mode of doing. And, indeed, 

 in most cases, they are, and go about this work with wonderful 

 skill and judgment. But, then, it is so difficult to induce them 

 cordially to do any thing new, or any old thing in a new way : and 

 the abler they are as workmen, the more untractable they are, 

 and the more difficult to be persuaded that any one knows any 

 thing, relating to farming affairs, better than they do. It was this 

 difficulty that made me resort to the employment of young women 

 in the most important part of my farming, the providing of im 

 mense quantities of cattle-food. But, I do not find this difficulty 

 here, where no workmen are obstinate, and where, too, all one s 

 neighbours rejoice at one s success, which is by no means the case 

 amongst the farmers in England. 



87. Having now given instructions relative to the business of 

 transplanting of the Ruta Baga, let us see, whether it be not pre 

 ferable to either the ridge - sowing method, or the broadcast 

 method. 



88. In the first place, when the seed is sown on the ground 

 where the plants are to come to perfection, the ground, as we have 

 seen in paragraph 40 and paragraph 47, must be prepared early 

 in June, at the latest ; but, in the transplanting method, this work 



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