270 N. H. STATE AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



tries named is much used for green food for milk cows, 

 &c. But it is more generally cultivated for the oil -which 

 is expressed from the seed, -which is of a very pure quality 

 for lamps and other illuminating purposes. The rape cake, 

 (the refuse after the oil has been expressed,) is used like 

 oil cake, for fattening cattle, shgep, <fcc., and is also used 

 as manure. 



Several years since, a quantity of rape seed was import- 

 ed by the Light House Board, and, in small packages, wide- 

 ly distributed over the country, with the view of testing 

 the practicability of cultivating the plant in this country, 

 for the purpose of manufacturing oil for our light-houses. 

 Large quantities of this seed are annually imported into 

 the United States, at an expense of three or four dollars 

 per bushel, for feeding to cage birds. 



Li the spring of 1854, 1 received a package of rape seed 

 from the patent office; the seed was sown about the mid- 

 dle of June. The land, the previous year, (1853,) had been 

 well manured and planted with field carrots and parsnips. 

 The manure used for the rape, (and turnips by the side of 

 them,) was guano, at the rate of 300 lbs. per acre. Both 

 kinds came up well and grew finely, but the rape took the 

 lead, altogether. As I hoed them, I thinned the plants to 

 the distance of eight or eleven inches. The drills were 27 

 inches apart. Sometime in August, I found the plants too 

 thick in the drills, and tlien commenced culling out every 

 other plant and feeding them to my cows, but in the course 

 of two Aveeks, the plants had become so infested with lice, 

 that I abandoned them to their fate. The extreme drouth 

 of that season, and the lice, killed nearly every plant before 

 the frost came. My Swedish turnips and cabbages fared 

 but little better. 



Early in June, 1855, I carted on to a smooth plat of 

 grass land, warm, fresh manure, at the rate of 25 or 30 

 cartloads per acre, which was evenly spread, and turned 

 under by the plow from six to eight iuclics deep; the in- 



