Chap. il. RUTA BAGA CULTURE. Ill 



wecather 'till after Christmas. I shall know better 

 another time ! Major Caktwright says, in speak- 

 ing of the tricks of the English Boroughmonger!?, 

 at the '■^glorious Revolution," that they will never 

 be able to play the saine tricks again ; for, that 

 nations, like rational individuals, are not deceived 

 ti:soice in the same way. 



112. Thus have I spoken of the time and manner 

 of harvesting as the}'^ took place with me. And, 

 surely, the expense is a mere trifle. Two oxen 

 and four men would harvest two acres in any clear 

 day in the latter end of November ; and thus is thi>s 

 immense crop harvested and covered completely foe 

 about tzvo dollars and a half an acre. It is astonish 

 ing, that this is never done in England ! For, though 

 it is generally said, that the Ruta Baga will stand any 

 weather ; I know by experience, that it v/ill not 

 stand any weather. The winter of the year, 1814 ; 

 that is to say, the months of January and February, 

 were very cold, and a great deal of snow fell ; and, 

 in a piece of twelve acres, I had, in the month of 

 March, two thirds of the turnips completely rotten ; 

 and these were amongst the finest that 1 ever grew, 

 many of them weighing twelve pounds each. Be- 

 sides, when taken up in dry weather, before the 

 freezings and thawings begin, the dirt all falls off; 

 and the bulbs are clean and nice to be given to 

 cattle or sheep in the stalls or yards. For, though 

 we, in general feed off these roots upon the land 

 with sheep, we cannot, in deep land, always do it. 

 The land is too wet; and particularly for Ewes and 

 tambs, which are, in such cases, brought into a 

 piece of pasture land, or into a fold-yard, where the 

 turnips are flung down to them in a dirty state, 

 just carted from the field. And, again, the land is 

 very much injured, and the labour augmented, by 

 carting when the ground is a sort of mud-heap, or 

 rather, pool. All these inconveniences and inju- 

 ries would bo avoided by harvesting in a dry day 



