556 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



My experiments with rape cover a period of five years only. In the 

 spring of 1898 I sowed about an acre, using five pounds of seed. About 

 half of it was cut in the fall during a period of scant pasturage, and fed 

 to cattle and hogs. Both ate it with avidity and apparently did well on 

 it. That remaining uncut was pastured off with cattle. 



In 1899 I sowed three acres of rape for soiling purposes, sowing it 

 June 16th and using five pounds of seed per acre. On the higher and 

 drier portion of the field it made a growth of about eighteen or twenty 

 inches, while on the low, moist ground it grew to a height of about three 

 feet, and contained such a mass of foliage that it required a man of mus- 

 cle to lay it in a swath with a scythe. This crop was all cut and fed to 

 cattle and hogs during the fall when there was practically no feed in the 

 pasture. It filled a gap that so often occurs on western farms between 

 grass and stalk feed. 



In 1900 I sowed ten acres of corn to rape, sowing it July 3d, just be- 

 fore last cultivating, using two and one hall pounds of seed to the acre. 

 Timely rains gave it a good start, but it made only a moderate growth 

 during the heat of the summer, but later it grew vigorously. When husk- 

 ing time came the entire field contained a dense mass of green foliage 

 from two to two and one half feet in height. Literally a sea of green 

 surmounted by the dead corn. Scarcely a weed was to be seen, the rape 

 having smothered nearly all. So thick was the rape that it was with 

 some difficulty that one could wade through it to husk the corn. Before 

 husking it seemed as if much of this mass of vegetation would have to 

 be destroyed in gathering the com, but there was so much of it that the 

 damage was hardly noticeable when the husking was completed. 



After the corn was out the cattle were turned into the field and en- 

 joyed what few cattle have been able to get in a stalk field, i. e., a bal- 

 anced ration. The freezing and thawing of late fall killed much of the 

 rape before the stock could consume it. 



In 1901 rape was sown in corn as before but did not germinate, owing 

 to the drought of that year. 



In 1902 I sowed rape, clover and timothy seed on tnree acres of old 

 pasture, disking it in. Before I should have done so I turned cattle and 

 hogs into the pasture. Both cattle and hogs seemed to prefer the rape 

 to the timothy and clover and soon not a stem of rape could be found. 

 I sowed rape also in twenty acres of corn on July 17th, using about forty 

 pounds of seed. It came vip well but the cold, wet weather seemed to 

 retard its growth as much as it did the corn, and for weeks it was small, 

 spindling and unpromising. It changed little until the September frosts 

 cut the corn, after which it changed into a darker color and started into 

 vigorous growth, which was not checked until about the 25th of Novem- 

 ber, when it stood from fifteen to thirty inches in height. Ten acres of 

 the corn was cut with a corn binder without much damage to the rape. 

 The field was cleared of corn and fodder on November 25th and cattle 

 turned in. The heavy snow fall of December 2d covered up the rape 

 entirely. During December cattle were yarded and fed. With the warm 

 weather early in January the green rape began to appear above the melt- 



