^ RUTA BAGA CULTURE. Parti. 



turnpike road. But, on the 2d of September, as I 

 have it in my memorandum book, the plants began 

 to show life ; and, before the rain came, on the 

 12th, the piece began to have an air of verdure, 

 and, indeed, to grow and to promise a good crop. 



75. I will speak of the hulk of this crop by and 

 by ; but, 1 must here mention another transplanta- 

 tion that I made in the latter end oi July. A plot 

 of ground, occupied by one of my earliest sowings, 

 had the turnips standing on it in rows at eighteen 

 inches asunder, and at a foot asunder in the rows. 

 Towards the middle of July I tbund, that one half 

 of the rows must be taken away, or that the whole 

 would be of little value. Having pulled up the 

 plants, I intended to transplant them (as they say of 

 bishops) from the garden to the field ; but, I had no 

 ground ready. However, I did not like to throw 

 away these plants, which had already bulbs as large 

 as hen's eggs. They were carried into the cellar, 

 where they lay in a heap, till (which would soon ■ 

 happen in such hot weather) they began io ferment.- 

 This made the most of their leaves turn white. 

 Unwilling, still, to throw them away, I next laid 

 them on the grass in front of the house, where they 

 got the dews in the night, and they were covered 

 with a mat during the day, except two days, when 

 they were overlooked, or, rather, neglected. The 

 heat was very great, and, at last, supposing these 

 plants dead, I did not cover them any more. There 

 they lay abandoned till the 24th of July, on which day 

 I began planting cabbages in my field. I then thought, 

 that I would try the hardiness of a Ruta Baga Plant. 

 I took these same abandoned plants, without a mor- 

 sel of green left about them ; planted them in part 

 of a row of the piece of cabbages ; and they, a hun- 

 dred and six in number, weighed when they were 

 taken up in December, nine hundred and one pounds. 

 One of these turnips weighed t-jnehe pounds and a 

 half. 



