264 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



* "All these roots may be, preserved in like manner in a 

 cellar ; but in such a place they are subject to vegetate and 

 become stringy earlier in spring. The only advantage of 

 this method is, that in the cellar they may be had when 

 wanted more conveniently during winter than out of the 

 field or garden heaps. 



'■ " Note. All the above roots will preserve better in sand 

 than in common earth ; but when the former cannot be 

 had, the sandiest earth you can procure must be dispensed 

 with.'" 



RUT A BAG A. The following is an account of the 

 method cf cultivating ruta baga, adopted by Rev. Henry 

 Colman, in obtaining a crop for which he received a pre- 

 mium of twenty dollars from the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 society, in the year 1830. From the New^ England Farmer, 

 vol. ix. p. 284. 



Gentlemen — Accompanying this you have the certificates 

 of a crop of ruta baga raised this year on my farm in Lynn. 

 From these it will appear that on an acre, measured by a 

 sworn surveyor, on one side of the field, there were gathered 

 seven hundred and forty-one baskets full ; and that forty 

 baskets of the above-named weighed at the town scales two 

 thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds net weight. This, 

 allowing fifty-six pounds to a bushel, the standard weight 

 assumed by the society, would give a crop of nine hundred 

 and three bushels to the acre. 



The turnips were planted on the 29th of June and 2d of 

 July; about one pound and a half of seed was used for the 

 acre ; and they w^ere gathered and stored in cellars and in 

 the barn, in the last part of November. 



The ground on which they grew is a good soil, neither 

 wet nor dry, and bore the last year an abundant crop of 

 onions, and corn the year preceding the last. It was well 

 manured at both times, and in fine tilth. It was manured 

 with at least six cords to the acre of barn manure the last 

 spring, and sowed again to onions ; but thj seed entirely 

 faiMng, it was ploughed, harrowed, furrows struck out, and 

 about eight cords of barn manure spread in the furrows; 

 ploughed again so as by a back furrow to form a ridge over 

 the manure, and the seed sown with a small drill-harrow oii 

 the ridges, making the rows about twenty inches asunder. 



