A year's residence in the United States of America / [William Cobbett].

  • William Cobbett
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A year's residence in the United States of America / [William Cobbett]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to death in March and April, or have no flock, and scarcely any cattle or hogs, raise a few loads of yard- dung, and travel five miles for ashes, and buy them dear at the end of the five miles ; if he prefer these, then, certainly, I shall have written on this subject in vain, Quantity of the Crop. - 115. It.is impossible for me to say, at present, what quantity of Ruta Baga may be grown on an acre of land in this Island. My three acres of ridged turnips, sown on the 26th of June, were very unequal, but, upon one of the acres, there were six hundred and forty bush- els ; I mean heaped bushels; that is to say, an English statute bushel heaped as long as the commodity will lie on. The transplanted turnips yielded about four hun- dred bushels to the acre; but then, observe, they were put in a full month too late. This year, I shall make a fair trial. _ 116. T have given an account of my raismg, upon five acres in one field, and twelve acres in another field, one thousand three hundred and twenty bushels to an acre, throughout the seventeen acres. I have no doubt of equalling that quantity on this Island, and that, too, upon some of its poorest and most exhausted land. They tell me, indeed, that the last summer was a remarkably fine summer; so they said at Botley, when I had my first prodigious crop of Ruta Baga. This is the case in all the pursuits of life. The mo- ment a man excels those, who ought to be able and willing to do as well as he ; that moment, others set to work to discover causes for his success, other than those proceeding from himself. But, as I used to tell my neighbours at Botley, they have had the same seasons that I have had. Nothing is so impartial as weather. ‘As long as this sort of observation, or inquiry, proceeds from a. spirit of emulation, it may be treatec with great indulgence ; but, when it discovers a spirit of enwy, it becomes detestable, and especially in affairs of agri- culture, where the appeal is made to our common Pa- rent, and where no man’s success can be injurious to his neighbour, while it must be a benefit to his country,
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