be sown in September or early in October. Under favorable conditions 

 2 to 3 pounds of seed per acre will be sufficient and it will never be 

 necessary to vise more than 5 pounds per acre. The seed should be 

 planted in drills far enough apart to allow cultivation. In practice 

 the distance varies, but it is seldom less than :10 inches nor more than 

 32 ; 2-1: to 28 being perhaps the most satisfactory, all things consid- 

 ered. For planting small fields an 3^ of the common garden drills 

 will be found quite satisfactory, but for large fields a grain drill with 

 some of the feed hoppers closed may be used. When the ground is 

 clean and in proper condition otherwise, good results maj' be obtained 

 by using the grain drill with all feed hoppers open, and giving no 

 after cultivation. As a rule, however, it will be best to plant in 

 wide drills and give sufficient shallow cultivation to keep the soil in 

 good physical condition and destroy weeds. With favorable soil and 

 climatic conditions, good crops of rape may be obtained from broad- 

 cast seeding, but whenever there is any danger of the surface soil 

 becoming very dry during the time the seed is germinating or when 

 land is at all foul, drilling will give much better results. 



AS A CATCH CROP. 



When rape is grown as a secondary or catch crop it will not often 

 be possible to pay so much attention to the preparation of the soil 

 and the time and method of seeding, and quantity of seed used may 

 be varied to suit the circumstances. Often fine rape may be grown 

 on land that has already produced a crop of some of the early ma- 

 turing cereals, such as rye, oats, or barley. As soon as the crop of 

 grain is removed, the land is plowed or "disked" and at once seeded 

 to rape. Field peas and other early maturing forage crops, or rye or 

 winter oats that have been pastured off in spring may also be fol- 

 lowed by rape with profitable results. 



Another practice which is coming into favor in some sections of 

 the country is to sow rape in the spring with some grain crop, such 

 as wheat, allowing the former to take possession of the field when 

 the latter has been removed. This method is especially satisfactory 

 when succulent forage is desired for fall feeding. Rape may also be 

 sown in the cornfield just before the last plowing, as is often done 

 with rye and winter wheat. 



AS A WEED DESTROYER. 



Aside from its value as a forage, rape is an excellent crop to grow 

 on fields that are foul with weeds. The late date at which the seed 

 may be sown allows the weeds to get well started before the final 

 preparation of the soil begins, they are further kept in check by the 

 cultivation required for the crop during its early growth and later 



