96 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. Part L 



like good usage after being planted. It is very 

 strange, that it should have been thus ; for, what 

 reason is there for other plants not enjoying a simi- 

 lar benefit ; The reason is, that they will produce 

 something without it ; and the Indian Corn will posi- 

 tively produce nothing ; for which the Indian Corn 

 is very much to be commended. As an instance of 

 this effect of deeply moving the earth between 

 growing crops, I will mention, that, in the month 

 of June, and on the 26th of that month, a very kind 

 neighbour t)f mine, in whose garden I was, showed 

 me a plot of Green Savoy Cabbages, which he had 

 planted in some ground as rich as ground could be. 

 He had planted them about three weeks before ; 

 and they appeared very fine indeed. In the seed 

 bed, from which he had taken his plants, there 

 remained about a hundred ; but, as they had been 

 l^ii as of no use, they had drawn each other up, iaij 

 company with the weeds, 'till they were about '' 

 eighteen inches high, having only a starved leaf, or 

 two, upon the top of each. I asked my neighbour i, 

 to give me these plants, which he readily did ; but J 

 begged me not to plant them, for, he assured me, 

 that they would come to nothing. Indeed, they 

 were a ragged lot ; but, I had no plants of ni}^ own 

 j^ovving more than two inches high. I, therefore, 

 took these plants and dug some ground for them 

 between some rows of scarlet-blossom beans, which 

 mount upon poles. 1 cut a stick on purpose, and 

 put the plants very deep in the ground. My beans 

 came off in August, and then the ground was well 

 xlug between the rows of cabbages. In September, 

 mine had far surpassed the prime plants of my 

 neighbour. And, in the end, 1 believe, that ten of 

 my cabbages would have weighed more than x« 

 hundred of his, leaving out the stems in both cases. 

 But, his had remained uncultivated after 'planting. 

 The ground, battered down by the successive heavy 

 rains, had become hard as brick. All the stores of 



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