Chap. II. RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 71 



" son is very difficult. Turnips and Cabbage will 

 " rot, and bran they will not eat after having been 

 *' fed on it during the winter. Potatoes, however, 

 " and the Swedish Turnip, called Ruta Baga, may 

 " be usefully applied at this time, and so, I think, 

 " might Parsnips and Carrots. But, as few of us 

 " are in the habit of cultivating these plants to the 

 " extent which is necessary for the support of a 

 *' large flock, we must seek resources more within 

 " our reach.'''' And then the Chancellor proceeds 

 to recommend the leaving the second growth of clo- 

 ver uncut, in order to produce early shoots from 

 sheltered buds for the sheep to eat until the coming 

 of the natural grass and the general pasturage. 



26. 1 was much surprised at reading this pas- 

 sage ; having observed, when I lived in Pennsylva- 

 nia, how prodigiously the root-crops of every kind 

 flourished and succeeded with only common skill 

 and care ; and, in 1815, having by that time had 

 many crops of Ruta Baga exceeding thirty tons, or 

 about one thousand Jive hundred heaped bushels to 

 the acre, at Botley, 1 formed the design of sending 

 out to America a treatise on the culture and uses 

 of that root, which, I was perfectly well convinced, 

 could be raised with more ease here than in Eng- 

 land, and, that it might be easil}^ preserved during 

 the whole year, if necessary, I had proved in ma- 

 ny cases. 



27. If Mr. Chancellor Livingston, whose pub- 

 lic-spirit is manifested fully in his excellent little 

 work, which he modestlj^ calls an Ei^say, could see 

 my Ewes and Lambs and Hogs, asid Cattle, at this 

 " critical season'^ (I write on the 27th of March), 

 with more Ruta Baga at their command than they 

 have mouths to employ on it ; if he could see me, 

 who am on a poor and exhausted pit ce of land, and 

 who found it covered with weeds gtnd brambles in 

 the month of June last ; who found no maniuc and 

 who have bought none ; if he could see me over- 



