104 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. [PART I. 



caterpillars, was twenty-two and a half pounds 

 of clean seed. 



34. The sun is so ardent and the weather so 

 fair here, compared with the drippy and chilly 

 climate of England, while the birds here never 

 touch this sort of seed, that a small plot of 

 ground would, if well managed, produce a great 

 quantity of seed. Whether it would degenerate 



'is a matter that I have not yet ascertained ; but 

 which I am about to ascertain this year. 



35. That all these precautions of selecting 

 the plants and transplanting them are neces 

 sary, I know by experience. I, on one occa 

 sion, had sown all my own seed, and the plants 

 had been carried off by t\\efly, of which I shall 

 have to speak presently. 1 sent to a person 

 who had raised some seed, which 1 afterwards 

 found to have come from turnips, left promiscu 

 ous to go to seed in a part of a field where they 

 had been sown. The consequence was, that a 

 good third part of mj' crop had no bulbs; but 

 consisted of a sort of rape, all leaves, and stalks 

 growing very high. While even the rest of the 

 crop bore no resemblance, either in point of 

 size or of quality, to turnips, in the same field, 

 from seed saved in a proper manner, though 

 this latter was sown at a later period. 



36. As to the preserving of the seed, it is an 

 invariable rule applicable to all seeds, that seed. 



