Chap. II. RUTA BAGA CULTURE. 103 



the earth about the seeds and cover them too. — 

 There need be no harrowing after soziving. We 

 never do it in England. The roller does all very 

 completely, and the sowing upon the fresh earth 

 will, under any sun, furnish the moisture sufficient. 

 I once sowed, on ridges, with a Bennet's drill, 

 and neither harrowed nor rolled, nor used any 

 means at all of covering the seed ; and yet I had 

 plenty of plants and a very fine crop of turnips. 

 I sowed a piece of white turnips, broad cast, at 

 Hyde Park, last summer, on the eleventh of Au- 

 gust, which did very well, though neither har- 

 rowed nor rolled after being sown. But, in both 

 these cases, there came rain directly after the 

 Sowing, which battered down the seeds ; and which 

 rain, indeed, it was, which prevented the rolling ; 

 for that cannot take place when the ground is wet; 

 because, then, the earth will adhere to the roller, 

 which will go on growing in size like a rolling 

 snow-ball. To harrow after the sowing is sure 

 to do mischief. We always bury seeds too deep ; 

 and, in the operation of harrowing, more than half 

 the seeds of turnips must be destroyed, or ren- 

 dered useless. If a seed lies beyond the proper 

 depth, it will either remain in a quiescent state^ 

 until some movement of the earth bring it up to 

 the distance from tke surface, which will make it 

 vegetate, or, it will vegetate, and come up later 

 than the rest of the plants. It will be feebler also \ 

 and it will never be equal to a plant, which has 

 come from a seed near the surface. 



96. Before I proceed further, it may not be a- 

 miss to say something more respecting the burying 

 of seed, though it may here be rather out of place. 

 Seeds buried below their proper depth, do not 

 come up ; but, many of them are near enough to 

 the surface, sometimes, to vegetate, without coming 

 up ; and then they die. This is the case, in many 

 instances, with more than one half of the seed that 



