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first introduced from Germany into England, about the mid-dle of last century, under the name of turnip-rooted cabbage,and was brought from England to Scotland in 1766; thatabout the same period it was transported from England toSweden ; and that the seeds having been sent back to thiscountry of late years, as of a new and useful plant, it has beensince cultivated under the Swedish name of ruta-baga *.However tlus may have been, ruta-baga, or Swedish tur-nips, is a most useful article of farm culture, and almost ofindispensable use on every farm in which tillage and feedingof live-stock are combined. It is cultivated and applied soexactly in the same manner as turnips, that to detail the va-rious steps or subdivisions in this section, would necessarilybecome a mere repetition, in a great degree, of what has beenalready detailed in that immediately preceding. Only suchcircumstances, therefore, as are different, in the culture andapplication of ruta-baga, from those already mentioued inregard to turnips, shall be here noticed.
The yellow fleshed species, or variety, of ruta-baga, is aloneworth cultivation. At its first appearance, several farmersgot the seed of the white fleshed variety, by which, for a time,the reputation of this plant was considerably injured. Ruta-baga requires to be sown a full fortnight earlier than turnips,to secure a full crop. Its seed time, therefore, ought to bein the second week of May, and not later than the fourthweek if possible. This is a fortunate circumstance, as notinterfering with the seed-time of turnips, and as distributingthe pressure of seed time, in a turnip farm, more equally, andconsequently much more conveniently, for the farmer.
At its first introduction into Scotland , ruta-baga was sownin seed-beds, often in gardens, and transplanted into the field,previously prepared in regular manured drills, exactly as iffor turnips. But the season of transplanting was often thrownexcessively late, for want of rain to enable the young plants