CHAP. II. 

 RUTA BAGA. 



Culture, mode of preserving, and uses of tke 



RuTA BaGA, sometimes CALLED THE RuSSIA, AND 

 SOMETIMES THE SwEDISH TuRNIP. 



Description of the Plant. 



25. It is my intention, as notified in the public 

 papers, to put into print an account of all the ex- 

 periments which I have made, and shall make, in 

 Farming and in Gardening upon this Island. I, se- 

 veral years ago, long before tyranny showed its 

 present horrid front in England, formed the design 

 of sending out, to be published in this country, a 

 treatise on the cultivation of the root and green 

 crops, as cattle, sheep, and hog food. This design 

 was suggested by the reading of the following pas- 

 sage in Mr. Chancellor Livingston's Essay on 

 Sheep, which I received in 1812. After having 

 stated the most proper means to be employed in 

 order to keep sheep and lambs, during the winter 

 months, he adds : " Having brought our flocks 

 " through the winter, we now come to the most 

 "critical season, that is, the latter end of March 

 " and the month of April. At this time the ground 

 *' being bare, the sheep will refuse to eat their hay, 

 " while the scanty picking of grass, and its purga- 

 " tive quality, will disable them from taking the 

 " nourishment that is necessary to keep them up. 

 " If they fall away their wool will be injured, and 

 *' the growth of their lambs will be stopped, and 

 *' even many of the old sheep will be carried off 

 " by the dysentery. To provide food for this sea- 



