84 "RUTA feAGA CULTURiJ. Pail I, 



powers of the soil, poor as it evidently was, and 

 scanty as was my supply of manure. 



68. The plants, however, made their appear- 

 ance with great regularity ; no fly came to annoy 

 them. The moment they were fairly up, we went 

 with a very small hoe and took out ail but one in 

 each ten or eleven or twelve inches, and thus left 

 them singly placed. This is a great point ; for 

 they begin to rob one another at a very early age ; 

 and, if left two or three weeks to rob each other 

 before they are set o\jt singly, the crop wilj be di 

 minished one half. To set the plants out in thi 

 way was a very easy and quickly-performed busi 

 ness ; but, it is a business to be left to no one but a 

 careful man. Boj^s can never safely be trusted with 

 the deciding, at discretion, whether you shall have 

 a large crop or a small one. 



59. But, now, something else began to appear as 

 well as turnip-plants ; for, all the long grass and; 

 weeds having dropped their seeds the summer be- 

 fore, and, probably, for many summers, they now 

 came forth to demand their share of that nourish- 

 ment, produced by the fermentation, the dews, and 

 particularly by the Sun, which shines on all alike. 

 1 never saw a tiftieth part of so many weeds in my 

 life upon a like space of ground. Their little seed 

 leaves, of various hues, formed a perfect mat on 

 the ground. And now it was, that my wide ridges, 

 which had appeared to my neighbours to be so very 

 singular and so unnecessary, were absolutely ne- 

 cessary. First we went with a hoe, and hoed the 

 tops of the ridges, about six inches wide. There 

 were all the plants, then, clear and clean at once, 

 with an expense of about half a day's work to an 

 acre. Then we came, in our Botley fashion, with 

 a single horse plough, took a furrow from the side 

 of one ridge going up the field, a furrow from the 

 other ridge coming down, then another furrow 

 from the sapie side of the first ridge going up, and 



