CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA .CULTURE. 



will do them harm. To be sure, this is easily 

 prevented, in the barn, by throwing a little 

 straw over the heap ; but, being, by the means 

 that I have pointed out, always kept ready in 

 the field, to bring in a larger quantity than is 

 used in a week, or thereabouts, would be wholly 

 unnecessary, besides being troublesome from the 

 great space, which would thus be occupied. 



H 4. It is a great advantage in the cultivation 

 of this crop, that the sowing, or transplanting 

 time, comes after all the spring grain and the 

 Indian Corn are safe in the ground, and before 

 the harvest of grain begins ; and then again, in 

 the fall, the taking up of the roots corner after 

 the grain and corn, and buck-wheat harvests, 

 and even after the sowing of the winter grain* 

 In short, it seems to me, that the cultivation of 

 this crop, in this country, comes, as it were ex 

 pressly, to fill up the unemployed spaces of the 

 farmer's time; but, if he prefer standing with 

 arms folded, during these spaces of time, and 

 hearing his flock bleat themselves half to death 

 in March and April, or have no flock, and 

 scarcely any cattle or hogs, raise a few loads of 

 yard-dung, and travel five miles for ashes, and 

 buy them dear at the end of the five miles ; if 

 he prefer these, then, certainly, J shall have 

 written on this subject in vain. 



