476 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



removed. This is recommended for Nebraska by Professor Burnett, who 

 sows broadcast on winter wheat at the rate of about two pounds per acre 

 when the wheat is two or three inches high in the spring, or sows it upon 

 oats when they are about the same height, following with a smoothing 

 harrow. He states that in Minnesota and the Dakotas, with a good stand 

 of rape in the stubble, sheep can be turned in about three weeks after cut- 

 ting. Such a field will support ten or fifteen sheep per acre and keep them 

 growing for six weeks. They feed on the weeds and scattered grain as welL 

 which cleans the field and gives additional gain to the sheep. 



"Sowing rape with oats was tried at the Iowa station, where the best 

 results were obtained by using six pecks of oats and one pound of rape per 

 acre, seeding the latter ten days after the oats. The soil was good, and a 

 yield of sixty bushels of oats and eighteen tons of green rape per acre was 

 obtained. The rape interfered somewhat with harvesting the oats, and it 

 was thought that the rape might have been sown three weeks after the oats 

 to better advantage. On poorer land the rape should be sown with or soon 

 after the oats. 



' 'Rape may also be sown in the cornfield, just before the last plowing, 

 as is often done with rye and winter wheat. Experiments at the Wisconsin 

 station show, however, that for conditions there this practice was not satis- 

 factory, as the corn took the moisture that should have gone to the rape. 

 Neither does this station recommend sowing rape with oats, as the young 

 plants are likely to be so dried out when the crop is removed that the yield 

 of rape is reduced. " 



Were we to oflfer any comment upon the above recommendation it would 

 probablv be relative to the matter of sowing with other crops. For instance, 

 on ordinarily good soil we would not recommend that sowing be done with 

 oats, for the simple reason that the rape plant is such a vigorous grower 

 that once it got started and doing better than the oat plants, the future of 

 the latter would be very limited indeed. But if delayed until the oats have 

 come up and have thus got a good start over the rape, we do not anticipate 

 that there would be any difficulty with the one crowding out the other. In 

 fact, the probabilities are that the oats would keep the rape plants down 

 until they had reached their maturity and had been harvested. Then the 

 rape would come on quickly and soon be ready for pasture. So much 

 good can be secured from a crop of rape that -we have repeatedly urged it 

 before the attention of our readers. 



Nor is the rape only suitable for the field as a pasture or green feed crop. 

 Attention has been called to its availability as an exterminator of weeds. 

 One authority speaks of this quality as follows: 



"Aside from its value as 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 the rape plants shade the ground so 

 completely as to keep the weeds down. An excellent treatment for a foul 

 field is to plow thoroughly in late summer or autumn and seed to rye or 

 some other forage crop to be pastured off during the fall, winter or early 

 spring. When the crop has been pastured sufliciently and before the weeds 



