Qb ^ KUTA BAGA CULTURE. Part T 



bulb of the plant. The intervals are full of these 

 roots, the breaking of which and the moving of 

 which, as in the case of Indian Corn, gives new 

 food and new roots, and produces wonderful effects 

 on the plants. Wide as my intervals were, the 

 leaves of some of the plants very nearly touched 

 those of the plants on the adjoining ridge, before 

 the end of their growth ; and I have had them fre- 

 quently meet in this way in England. They would 

 always do it here, if the ground were rich and the 

 tillage proper. How, then, can the intervals be 

 too wide, if the plants occupy the interval ? And 

 how can any ground be lost, if every inch be full 

 of roots and shaded by leaves? 



62. After the last-mentioned operation my plants re- 

 mained till the weeds had agaia made their appear- 

 ance ; or, rather, 'till a new brood had started up, 

 when this was the case, we went with the hoe again 

 and cleaned the tops of the ridges as before. The 

 weeds, under this all-powerful sun, instantly perish. 

 Then we repeated the former operation with the 

 one horse plough. After this nothing was done 

 but to pull up now and then a weed, which had es- 

 caped the hoe ; for, as to the plough share, nothing 

 escapes that. 



63. Now, I think no farmer can discover in this 

 process any thing more difficult, more trouble- 

 some, more expensive, than in the process abso- 

 lutely necessary to the obtaining of a crop of Indian 

 Corn. And yet, I will venture to say, that, in any 

 land, capable of bearing Jifty bushels of Corn upon 

 an acre, more than a thousand bushels of Ruta 

 Baga may, in the above-described manner, be 

 raised. 



64. In the Broad-Cast method the after culture 

 must, of course, be copfmed to hoeing, or, as Tull 

 calls it, scratching. In England, the hoer goes in 

 when the plants are about four inches high, and 

 boes all the ground, setting out th? plants to about 



