CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 14? 



potatoes served for the Ruta Baga also. In 

 surveying my crops and feeling grateful to the 

 kind earth and the glorious sun that produce 

 these, to me, most delightful objects, how often 

 have 1 turned, with an aching heart, towards 

 the ill-treated Englishmen, shut up in dungeons 

 by remorseless tyrants, while not a word had 

 been uttered in their defence by, and while they 

 were receiving not one cheering visit, or com 

 forting word from, SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, who 

 had been the great immediate cause of their 

 incarceration ! 



99. As to the quantity and sort of manure to 

 be used in general, it may be the same as for a 

 sowing of rye, or of wheat. I should prefer 

 ashes ; but, my large crops in England were on 

 yard-dung, first thrown into a heap, and after 

 wards turned once or twice, in the usual manner 

 as practised in England. At Hyde Park I had 

 nothing butrakings up about the yard, barn, &c. 

 as described before. What I should do, and 

 what 1 shall do this year, is, to make ashes out 

 of dirt, or earth, of any sort, not very stony. 

 Nothing is so easy as this, especially in this fine 

 climate. I see people go with their waggons 

 five miles for soaper's ashes ; that is to say, 

 spent ashes, which they purchase at the landing 

 place (for they come to the island in vessels) at 

 the rate of about five dollars for forty bushels. 

 Add the expense of land-carriage, and the forty 



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