CHAP. II.] RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 



tivated in the fields ; and the Ruta Baga, all 

 taken together, is, perhaps, the very best. It 

 loses none of its good qualities by being long 

 kept, though dry all the while. A neighbour 

 of mine in Hampshire, having saved a large 

 piece of Ruta, Baga for seed, and having, after 

 harvesting the seed, accidentally thrown some 

 of the roots into his yard, saw his hogs eat 

 these old roots, which had borne the seed. He 

 gave them some more, and saw that they ate 

 them greedily. He, therefore, went and bought 

 a whole drove, in number about forty, of lean 

 pigs, of a good large size, brought them into 

 his yard, carted in the roots of his seed Ruta 

 Baga, and, without having given the pigs a 

 handful of any other sort of food, sold out his 

 pigs as fat porkers. And, indeed, it is a fact 

 well known, that sheep and cattle, as well as 

 hogs, will thrive upon this root after it has 

 borne seed, which is what, I believe, can be 

 said of no other root or plant. 



135. When we feed off our Ruta Baga in the 

 fields, in England, by sheep, there are small 

 parts left by the sheep : the shells which they 

 have left after scooping out the pulp of the bulb; 

 the tap-root ; and other little bits. These are 

 picked out of the ground ; and when washed 

 by the rain, other sheep follow and live upon 

 them. Or, in default of other sheep, hogs or 

 cattle are turned in in dry weather, and they 

 leave not a morsel. 



