128 RUTA BACA CULTURE. Part f. 



a stall , looking into one of those fine commodious 

 barns'-lloors which we have upon this island. Their 

 stall should be warm, and they should be kept well 

 littered, and cleaned out frequently. The Ruta Ba- 

 ga, just chopped into large pieces with a spade or 

 shovel, and tossed into the manger to the oxen at 

 the rate of about two bushels a day to each ox, 

 would make them completely fat, without the akl of 

 corn, hay, or any other thing. I should, probably, 

 kill one ox at Christmas, and, in that case, he must 

 have had a longer time than the others upon other 

 food. If I killed one of the two remaining oxen in 

 the middle of March and the other on the first of 

 May, they would consume 266 bushels of Ruta 



144. My hundred Ewes would begin upon Ruta 

 Baga at the same time, and, as my grass ground 

 would be only twelve acres until after hay-time, I 

 shall suppose them to be fed on this root till July, 

 and they will always eat it and thrive upon it. 

 They will eat about 8 pounds each, a day ; so that, 

 for 150 days it would require a hundred and twen- 

 ty thousand pounds weight, or two thousand four 

 hundred bushels. 



145. Fourteen breeding sows to be kept all the 

 year round, would bring a hundred pigs in the 

 Spring, and they and their pigs would, during the 

 same 150 days, consume much about the same quan- 

 tity ; for though the pigs would be small during 

 these 150 days, yet they eat a great deal more than 

 a sheep in proportion to their size, or, rather bulk. 

 However, as they would eat very little dtiring 60 

 da3^s of their age, I have rather over-rated their 

 consumption. 



146. Three cows and four working oxen would, 

 during the 150 days consume about one thousand 

 bushels, which, indeed, would be more than suffi- 

 cient, because, during a great part of the time, 

 they would more than half live upon Corn stalks : 



