184 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



fed off in the field, as is customary in Britain, but 

 reserved for winter feeding principally, the first two 

 kinds are little sown, and attention is mostly fixed 

 on the ruta-baga. Of the varieties named, the ruta- 

 baga is decidedly the most valuable, containing the 

 most nutriment in a given quantity of root ; being 

 the hardiest species known, the frost that destroys 

 others has little effect on this ; and it keeps sound 

 and good to a much later period in the season than 

 the other kinds. The true sort has yellow flesh, 

 and is without a stem ; but it is apt to degenerate, 

 either by the flesh becoming white, or by the crown 

 running up into a stem of greater or less length. 



It is evident that the common farmer must depend 

 on purchasing his seed ; and it is to be regretted 

 that there is no certain method kno^yn of determin- 

 ing the pure from the impure. In examining sam- 

 ples, they are found to contain more or less seed, 

 green, yellow, red, and black, which latter colour, 

 when bright and the seed plump, is one of the surest 

 indications of good quality. If the green and yel- 

 low seed are compressed, they will be found to con- 

 tain but a small quantity of oil, and must be consid- 

 ered as unripe. Such seed will vegetate, but, like 

 every other immature thing, it feels the want of suf- 

 ficient body, and comes to little or nothing. The 

 black, full-bodied seed, though this is sometimes 

 adulterated by rape-seed, is the kind we ought to 

 choose. Seed of this kind, where the grower or 

 the seedsman can be depended on, rarely fail ; but, 

 to determine their vegetative powers, it is a good 

 plan to test them by sowing a dozen seed at differ- 

 ent times or in different places ; and, by observing 

 how many of them grow on an average, we can 

 safely apportion our seed to the acre, from a pint 

 to a quart, or even four, according to the propor- 

 tion of vegetating seed. There is, unquestionably, 

 a vast deal of inferior seed sold to the public aa 

 genuine ; and it is always safer to apply to seeds- 



