BAG A CULTURE 



only stalks, and those not more than two feet high. The ground 

 has, every year since, borne a crop of weeds, rough grass, and 

 briars, or brambles. The piece is about ten acres. I intend to 

 have Indian corn on it ; and, my manure shall be made on the spot, 

 and consist of nothing but burnt earth. If I have a decent crop 

 of Indian corn on this land so manured, it will, I think, puzzle 

 my good neighbours to give a good reason for their going five 

 miles for spent ashes. 



101. Whether I succeed, or not, I will give an account of my 

 experiment. This I know, that I, in the year 1815, burnt ashes, 

 in one heap, to the amount of about tzvo hundred English cart 

 loads, each load holding about forty bushels. I should not sup 

 pose, that the burning cost me more than five dollars : and there 

 they were upon the spot, in the very field, where they were used. 

 As to their effect, I used them for the transplanted Ruta Baga and 

 Mangel Wurzel, and they produced full as great an effect as the 

 yard-dung used on the same land. This process of burning- 

 earth into ashes, without suffering the smoke to escape, during any 

 part of the process, is a discovery of Irish origin. It was pointed 

 out to me by Mr. WILLIAM GAUNTLETT of Winchester, late a 

 Commissary with the army in Spain. To this gentleman I also 

 owe, England owes, and I hope America will owe, the best sort 

 of hogs, that are, I believe, in the world. I was wholly unac 

 quainted with Mr. GAUNTLETT, till the summer of 1815, when, 

 happening to pass by my farm, he saw my hogs, cows, &c., and, 

 when he came to my house he called, and told me, that he had 

 observed, that I wanted only a good sort of hogs, to make my stock 

 complete. I thought, that I already had the finest in England ; 

 and I certainly had a very fine breed, the father of which, with 

 legs not more than about six inches long, weighed, when he was 

 killed, twenty-seven score, according to our Hampshire mode of 

 stating hog-meat weight ; or, five hundred and forty pounds. This 

 breed has been fashioned by Mr. WOODS of Woodmancut in 

 Sussex, who has been, I believe, more than twenty years about it. 

 I thought it perfection itself ; but, I was obliged to confess, that 

 Mr. GAUNTLETT S surpassed it. 



102. Of the earth burning I will give an account in my next 

 PART of this work. Nothing is easier of performance ; and the 

 materials are every where to be found. 



103. I think that I have now pretty clearly given an account 

 of the modes of sowing, and planting, and cultivating the Ruta 

 Baga, and of the preparation of the land. It remains for me to 

 speak of the time and manner of harvesting, the quantity of the crop 

 and of the uses of, and the mode of applying the crop. 



