104 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. Paft I. 



is sown. But, if seeds be buried so deep, that 

 they do not even vegetate ; then they do not die ; 

 and this is one cause, though not the only cause, of 

 our wondering to see weeds come up, where we 

 are sure, that no seeds have fallen for many years. 

 At every digging, or every ploughing, more or less 

 of the seeds, that have formerly been buried, come 

 up near the surface ; and then they vegetate. I 

 have seen many instances in proof of this fact ; but, 

 the particular instance, on which I found the posi- 

 tiveness of my assertion was one of Parsnip seed. 

 It is a very lehcate seed. It will, if beat out, keep 

 only 07ie year. 1 had a row of fine seed parsnips 

 in my garden, many of the seeds of which fell in 

 the gathering. The ground was dug in the fall, 

 and, when I saw it full of Parsnips in the spring, I 

 only regarded this as a proof, that Parsnips might 

 be sown in the fall, though 1 have since proved, that 

 that is a very bad practice. The ground was dug 

 again, and again, for several successive years ; and 

 there was always a crop of Parsnips., without a grain 

 of seed ever having been sown on it. But, lest any 

 one should take it into his head, that this is a most 

 delightful way of saving the trouble of sowing, \ 

 ought to state, that the parsnips coming thus at ran- 

 dom, gave me a great deal more labour, than the 

 same crop would have given me in the regular way 

 of sowing. Besides, the fall is not the time to sow, 

 as my big and white Parsnips, now seihng in New- 

 York market, may clearly show ; seeing that they 

 were sown in June ! And yet, people are flocking 

 to the IVestern Countries in search of rich land, 

 while thousands of acres of such land as I occupy 

 are lying waste in Long Island, within three hours' 

 drive of the all-consuming and incessantly increasing 

 city of New-York ! 



97. I have now spoken of the preparation of the 

 land for the reception of seeds. As to the prepara- 

 tion in the case of transplantation, it might be just 



