CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 155 



oxen and four men would harvest two acres in 

 any clear day in the latter end of November ; 

 and thus is this immense crop harvested, and 

 covered completely, for about two dollars and a 

 half an acre. It is astonishing, that this is never 

 done in England ! For, though it is generally 

 said, that the Ruta Baga will stand any weather; 

 I know, by experience, that it will not stand 

 any weather. The winter of the year 1814, 

 that is to say, the months of January and 

 February, were very cold, and a great deal of 

 snow fell ; and, in a piece of twelve acres, I had, 

 in the month of March, two thirds of the tur 

 nips completely rotten ; and these were amongst 

 the finest that I ever grew, many of them weigh 

 ing twelve pounds each. Besides, when taken 

 up in dry weather, before the freezings and 

 tha wings begin, the dirt all falls off; and the 

 bulbs are clean and nice to be given to cattle or 

 sheep in the stalls or yards. For, though we 

 in general feed off these roots upon the land with 

 sheep, we cannot, in deep land, always do it. 

 The land is too wet ; and particularly for ewes 

 and lambs, which are, in such cases, brought 

 into a piece of pasture land, or into a fold-yard, 

 where the turnips are flung down to them in a 

 dirty state, just carted from the field. And, 

 again, the land is very much injured, and the 

 labour augmented, by carting when the ground 

 is a sort of mud-heap, or rather, pool. All these 



