286 On the Cultivation of Ruta Ba^a. 



vious to sowing it. In one or two instances, I put one 

 hundred bushels of well burnt oyster shells mixed with 

 earth, and the ashes burnt with them, to the acre, but I 

 have not found this attended with any very beneficial 

 effects upon the turnips, though it has admirably assisted 

 the succeeding crops. 



When the ground was prepared, I sought a proper 

 time for sowing, in the choice of which, the success of 

 the crop, and the distinction between the culture here, 

 and in England, chiefly depends. 



My first crop in 1816, was sown in May, and was a 

 very good one : after which I changed the time of sow- 

 ing till the early part, the middle, and latter end of June, 

 or early in July : but I think, in all these instances, I have 

 had to sow it over again once, twice, or three times, and 

 even then it w as attended with some failure. The fact, as 

 I have found it, is, that the plant requires a moist soil to 

 give it a substantial commencement, before it experiences 

 our hot suns, which, if they come early after sowing, de- 

 stroy the seed, and its early germs : but if it acquire a 

 substantial growth, it is afterwards so hardy, as to live 

 through the heats of July and August, till it meets with 

 the cool nights and dews of September, when it be- 

 gins to flourish, and continues to grow till the hardest 

 frost. 



As I found that when sown in June, even in moist 

 weather, it was almost invariably overtaken by a hot 

 spell of weather, before it could attain its proper strength; 

 and I had no fear that the plant would run to seed dur- 

 ing the present year ; I determined to revert to the time 

 of year at which I first began, and accordingly I sowed 

 it again on the 27th of May last. 



My mode of cultivation has been almost invariably the 

 same every year, that is, the ground being well ploughed 

 and harrow^ed, I strike out furrows at the distance of 



