CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 113 



recommend the use of such means to -others. 

 On the contrary, I should have preferred good 

 and clean land, and plenty of manure ; but of 

 this I shall speak again, when I have given an 

 account of the manner of sowing and trans 

 planting. 



Manner of Sowing. 



50. Thus fitted out with land and manure, I 

 set to the work of sowing, which was performed, 

 with the help of two ploughs and two pair of 

 oxen, on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of June. The 

 ploughmen put the ground up into little ridges, 

 having two furrows on each side of the ridge : so 

 that every ridge consisted of four furrows, or 

 turnings over of the plough ; and the tops of 

 the ridges were about four feet from each other ; 

 and, as the ploughing was performed to a great 

 depth, there was, of course, a very deep gutter 

 between every two ridges. 



51. I took care to have the manure placed 

 so as to be under the middle of each ridge; 

 that is to say, just beneath where my seed was 

 to come. 1 had but a very small quantity of 

 seed as we}l as of manure. This seed I had, 

 however, brought from home, where it was 

 raised by a neighbour, on whom 1 could rely, 

 and 1 had no faith in any other. So that I 

 was compelled to bestow it on the ridges with 

 a very parsimonious hand ; not having, I be- 



PART I. I 



