152 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. [PART I. 



day that I can find no Gospel precept for de 

 voting to the throwing away of the fruit of one's 

 labours, and a day which I never will so devote 

 again. However, I ought to have been earlier. 

 On the Monday it rained. On the Monday 

 night came a sharp North- Wester with its usual 

 companion, at this season ; that is to say, a 

 sharp frost. Resolved to finish this piece on 

 that day, J borrowed hands from my neigh 

 bours, who are always ready to assist one an 

 other. We had about two acres and a half to 

 do ; and it was necessary to employ about one 

 half of the hands to go before the pullers and 

 loosen the turnips with a spade in the frosty 

 ground. About ten o'clock, I saw, that we 

 should not finish, and there was every appear 

 ance of a hard frost at night. In order, there 

 fore, to expedite the work, I called in the aid 

 of those efficient fellow-labourers, a pair of 

 oxen, which, with a good strong plough, going 

 up one side of each row of turnips, took away 

 the earth close to the bulbs, left them bare on 

 one side, and thus made it extremely easy to pull 

 them up. We wanted spades no longer; all 

 our hands were employed taking up the turnips; 

 and our job, instead of being half done that 

 day, was completed by about two o clock. Well 

 and justly did MOSES order, that the ox should 

 not be muzzled while he was treading out the 

 corn; for, surely, no animals are so useful, 



