288 On the Cultivation of Rut a Baga, 



ning and cleaning the plants, for which, as many hoeings 

 both by the hand and horse are to be given them as neces- 

 sary ; these soon become familiar to persons who are used 

 to the culture of Indian corn, and they are certainly sim- 

 plified by the drill mode of planting, which shews itself 

 here to uncommon advantage, the furrows being easily 

 kept clean by a horse hoe, fluke, or common plough, 

 while the plants standing in one line, and so evenly dis- 

 persed by the drill, are never so crowded as they are apt 

 to be in the broad cast mode, and of course are thinned 

 with a degree of ease and regularity which the latter does 

 not admit of. 



On the 17th of June, my plants being about four inches 

 high, I gave them their first dressing ; this I have usually 

 done with a fluke, the front tooth of which is ten inches 

 broad, and as it casts the furrows both ways, is the most 

 expeditious mode : but my present field being stony, to 

 avoid throwing the stones on the plants, I used a light 

 one horse plough, and ploughed off'the plants, after which 

 I hand dressed them and thinned them to ten inches 

 apart, and on the 8th of July, I ploughed the furrows on 

 the plants, and hand hoed them the second time, which 

 now becomes very essential, and requires great attention, 

 not only to weed and enliven them with fresh earth, 

 but to prevent the earth accumulating on the plant, 

 for if it is sufiered to cover the root, it will never 

 grow large. 



I should have repeated the ploughing and hoeing if 

 necessary, but I did not find this to be the case; the 

 plants acquired such a growth in July, that their leaves 

 extended so as to meet in the rows ; and they pretty ef- 

 fectually mastered the weeds themselves : we all know 

 what an unusual dry summer the last one was, and how 

 long and severe was the drought, to which both weeds 



