RUTA BAG A CULTURE 



in the barn, by throwing a little straw over the heap ; but, being, 

 by the means that I have pointed out, always kept ready in the 

 field, to bring in a larger quantity than is used in a week, or there 

 abouts, would be wholly unnecessary, besides being troublesome 

 from the great space, which would thus be occupied. 



114. It is a great advantage in the cultivation of this crop, that 

 the sowing, or transplanting time, comes after all the spring grain 

 and the Indian Corn are safe in the ground, and before the harvest 

 of grain begins ; and then again, in the fall, the taking up of the 

 roots conies after the grain and corn, and buck-wheat harvests, 

 and even after the sowing of the winter grain. In short, it seems 

 to me, that the cultivation of this crop, in this country, comes, 

 as it were expressly, to fill up the unemployed spaces of the 

 farmer s time ; but, if he prefer standing with arms folded, during 

 these spaces of time, and hearing his flock bleat themselves half 

 to death in March and April, or have no flock, and scarcely any 

 cattle or hogs, raise a few loads of yard-dung, and travel five miles 

 for ashes, and buy them dear at the end of the five miles ; if he 

 prefer these, then, certainly, I shall have written on this subject 



Quantity of the Crop. 



115. It is impossible for me to say, at present, what quantity 

 of Ruta Baga may be grown on an acre of land in this Island. 

 My three acres of ridged turnips, sown on the a6th of June, were 

 very unequal, but, upon one of the acres, there were six hundred 

 and forty bushels : I mean heaped bushels : that is to say, an 

 English statute bushel heaped as long as the commodity will lie 

 on. The transplanted turnips yielded about four hundred bushels 

 to the acre ; but then, observe, they were put in a full month too 

 late. This year, I shall make a fair trial. 



1 1 6. I have given an account of my raising, upon five acres in 

 one field, and twelve acres in another field, one thousand three 

 hundred and twenty bushels to an acre, throughout the seventeen 

 acres. I have no dcubt of equalling that quantity on this Island, 

 and that, too, upon some of its poorest and most exhausted land. 

 They tell me, indeed, that the last summer was a remarkably 

 fine summer ; so they said at Botley, when I had my first pro 

 digious crop of Ruta Baga. This is the case in all the pursuits 

 of life. The moment a man excels those, who ought to be able 

 and willing to do as well as he ; that moment, others set to work 

 to discover causes for his success, other than those proceeding 

 from himself. But, as I used to tell my neighbours at Botley, they 

 have had the same seasons that I have had. Nothing is so im 

 partial as weather. As long as this sort of observation, or inquiry, 

 proceeds from a spirit of emulation, it may be treated with great 



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