272 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



full grovrn plants last fall; T\iicrc they grew the snow 

 drifted over them, but about the middle of February the 

 snow melted away and the plants came out bright and vig- 

 orous, and so remained for two or three weeks, but the 

 cold freezing weather of March gave them their quietus ; 

 they were killed outright, root and branch, as were also 

 several hundred of the stumps and their green foliage, 

 where the tops were cut last season. 



When the plant is cultivated for its seed, it is sown in 

 August, and stands in the field over winter, and blossoms 

 and perfects its seed the following summer, (like cabbage 

 and turnip.) From my experience, I am led to believe, the 

 seed cannot be grown here at the north as a field crop. — 

 But a few August sown plants might be carried into the 

 cellar and planted out in the spring, so that each farmer 

 might raise his supply of seed for raising plants for his 

 cows. In latitudes where the cabbage and turnip will with- 

 stand the winters, probably the seed might be profitably 

 grown. 



The product of a good crop of seed in England, Mr. Col- 

 man says, is estimated at thirty bushels. The stalks are 

 often converted into manure, and arc frequently used as 

 fuel for cooking food for cattle, and in heating ovens. The 

 idea of growing rape seed in New Hampshire, I think is 

 out of the question ; but from my experience with the plant 

 the two past years, I believe it is one of the most profita- 

 ble plants we can grow for feeding to milch cows, from the 

 first of August till November. It is to be presumed that it 

 is, pound for pound, equal to cabbage for feeding purposes but 

 it comes into use several weeks earlier than the early York 

 or any other cabbage. I have found it profitable growing 

 cabljagcs for milch cows. AVithin the past few months ag- 

 ricultural reports from a great number of towns in this 

 State have ])ccn published in the Granite Farmer and Vis- 

 itor: without exception, I think, every writer has given dis- 

 couraging accounts of the pa.stures in tlicir several towns; 



