84 ON ROOT CULTURE. 



something worse than the Asiatic Cholera had come among them, 

 and that there was absolute apprehension of their being lost forever. 

 Inquiry was made, whether the Doctors had been consulted as to 

 the nature of the malady prevailing ; and it seemed they had from 

 all directions, without agreeing. On examining their prescriptions, 

 they appeared to be confusion confounded. The only thing they 

 hit upon as having a saving influence was salt, — and this, no two 

 agreed as to the manner of administering. As to the ratio7ials of 

 the disease, no one was prepared to speak with confidence. The 

 Committee were therefore, for a time at least, compelled to go with- 

 out their favorite, the potato. 



They asked for beets, the blood heet, the sugar leet, and the mangel 

 wurtzel, — and they heard of their being still in existence, but few and 

 far between. Why it is, that this luxuriant and nutritious vegetable, 

 that a few years since threatened to supersede all others, is shoved 

 aside, they are not advised ; but certain it is, that the cultivation of 

 the beet is not increasing. We have heard of its being suspected 

 of engrossing all the nutriment within its reach, and of exhausting 

 and unfitting the soil for subsequent crops ; but whether these are 

 jealous aspersions or well founded characteristics, we are not at pres- 

 ent called upon to determine. More than once in our inquiries about 

 the growing of the onion, have we heard it averred that beets and 

 onions have no good fellowship with each other. 



Not finding any beets presented, they next looked about for the 

 turnip, — the far famed Rata Baga, about which so much has been 

 said, and from which, so much has been expected. A few small 

 patches only could they hear of, and no one ready to speak their 

 praise. Their suspicion is, that even the Ruta Baga is viewed 

 with less favor than it heretofore has been. If this be so, they would 

 gladly have been informed of it. For information of crops that do 

 not succeed, maybe equally serviceable as of those that do. Though 

 we must admit, that we have never known a premium awarded, for 

 the failure of a crop. But your committee are sensible of the im- 

 propriety of passing judgment against those, who have had no 

 opportunity of being heard in their defence and therefore, they 

 forbear to express any opinion against the turnij) ; they only regret 

 that they could not have been favored with the taste of them. 



When the committee sat down to their repast, they were not a lit- 

 tle annoyed with the apprehension, that it might be anything but 



