RUT A BAG A CULTURE 



account of the mutton, and lamb, and pork, that my house would 

 demand, neither have I taken any account of a hundred summer 

 pigs, which the fourteen sows would have, and which would 

 hardly fail to bring two hundred dollars. Poultry demand some 

 food : but three parts of their raising consists of care : and, if I 

 had nobody in my house to bestow this care, I should, of course, 

 have the less number of mouths to feed. 



151. But, my horses ! Will not they swallow my hay and my 

 oats ? No : for I want no horses. But, am I never to take a 

 ride then ? Aye, but, if I do, I have no right to lay the expense 

 of it to the account of the farm. I am speaking of how a man 

 may live by and upon a farm. If a merchant spend a thousand a 

 year, and gain a thousand, does he say, that his traffic has gained 

 him nothing ? When men lose money by farming, as they call it, 

 they forget, that it is not the farming, but other expenses that take 

 away their money. It is, in fact, they that rob the farm, and not 

 the farm them. Horses may be kept for the purposes of going 

 to church, or to meeting, or to pay visits. In many cases this 

 may be not only convenient, but necessary, to a family ; but, 

 upon this Island, I am very sure, that it is neither convenient nor 

 necessary to a farm. &quot; What ! &quot; the ladies will say, &quot; would you 

 have us to be shut up at home all our lives ; or be dragged about 

 by oxen ? &quot; By no means ; not I ! I should be very sorry to 

 be thought the author of any such advice. I have no sort of ob 

 jection to the keeping of horses upon a farm ; but, I do insist 

 upon it, that all the food and manual labour required by such 

 horses, ought to bs considered as so much taken from the clear 

 profits of the farm. 



152. I have made sheep, and particularly lambs, a part of my 

 supposed stock ; but, I do not know, that I should keep any 

 beyond what might be useful for my house. Hogs are the most 

 profitable stock, if you have a large quantity of the food that they 

 will thrive on. They are foul feeders ; but, they will eat nothing 

 that is poor in its nature ; that is to say, they will not thrive on it. 

 They are the most able tasters in all the creation ; and, that which 

 they like best, you may be quite sure has the greatest proportion 

 of nutritious matter in it, from a white turnip to a piece of beef, 

 They will prefer meat to corn, and cooked meat to raw ; they 

 will leave parsnips for corn or grain ; they will leave carrots for 

 parsnips ; they will leave Ruta Baga for carrots ; they will leave 

 cabbages for Ruta Baga ; they will leave Mangel Wurzel for 

 cabbages ; they will leave potatoes (both being raw) for Mangel 

 Wurzel. A white turnip they will not touch, unless they be on the 

 point of starving. They are the best of triers. Whatever they 

 prefer is sure to be the richest thing within their reach. The 

 parsnip is, by many degrees, the richest root ; but, the seed lies 

 long in the ground ; the sowing and after-culture are works of 

 great niceness. The crop is large with good cultivation ; but, as 

 .a main crop, I prefer the Ruta Baga, of which the crop is immense, 



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