CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 



lory, first of my English transplanting. I saw, 

 at once, that the only way to ensure a crop of 

 turnips was by transplantation. The next year, 

 therefore, I prepared a field of five acres, and 

 another of twelve. I made ridges, in the man 

 ner described, for sowing; and, on the 7th of 

 June in the first field, and on the 20th of July 

 in the second field, I planted my plants. I as 

 certained to an exactness, that there were thirty- 

 three tons to an acre, throughout the whole 

 seventeen acres. After this, I never used any 

 other method. I never saw above half as great 

 a crop in any other person's land ; and, though 

 we read of much greater i.n agricultural prize 

 reports, they must have been of the extent of a 

 single acre, or something in that way. In my 

 usual order, the ridges four feet asunder, and 

 the plants afoot asunder on the ridge, there were 

 ten thousand eight hundred and thirty turnips on 

 the acre of ground ; and, therefore, for an acre 

 to weigh thirty-three tons, each turnip must 

 weigh very nearly seven pounds. After the time 

 here spoken of, I had an acre or two at the end 

 of a large field, transplanted on the 13th of July, 

 which, probably, weighed fifty tons an acre. 

 I delayed to have them weighed till a fire hap 

 pened in some of my farm buildings, which pro 

 duced a further delay, and so the thing was not 

 done at all ; but, 1 weighed one waggon load, 

 the turnips of which averaged eleven pounds 



