CHAP. If.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 11? 



seed was sown, my neighbours thought, that 

 there was an end of the process ; for, they all 

 said, that, if the seed ever came up, being upon 

 those high ridges, the plants never could live 

 under the scorching of the sun. I knew that 

 this was an erroneous notion ; but I had not 

 much confidence in the powers of the soil, it 

 being so evidently poor, and my supply of ma 

 nure so scanty. 



58. The plants, however, made their appear, 

 ance with great regularity ; no fly came to 

 annoy them. The moment they were fairly up, 

 we went with a very small hoe, and took all 

 but one in each ten or eleven or twelve inches, 

 and thus left them singly placed. This is a 

 great point ; for they begin to rob one another 

 at a very early age; and, if left two or three 

 weeks to rob each other, before they are set 

 out singly, the crop will be diminished one- 

 half. To set the plants out in this way was a 

 very easy and quickly-performed business; but, 

 it is a business to be left to no one but a careful 

 man. Boys can never safely be trusted with 

 the deciding, at discretion, whether you shall 

 have a large crop or a small one. 



59. But, now, something else began to appear 

 as well as turnip-plants ; for, all the long grass 

 and weeds having dropped their seeds the sum 

 mer before, and, probably, for many summers, 

 they now came forth to demand their share of 



