CROPS. 537 



2. NAVETTE. A smaller kind of colza, called navette, is cul 

 tivated where the land is too light for the larger kinds. It is 

 cultivated for the same purpose, though the produce is seldom 

 more than two thirds that of the other. Its produce is consid 

 ered more valuable, and sells for a higher price. It is sown 

 broadcast, and requires the land to be well cultivated and 

 manured. The navette, a rape of summer, is sown in the spring, 

 and ripens its seed in September. This kind is much sown in 

 parts of England, as feed for sheep ; but is seldom suffered to go 

 to seed. It produces a healthy feed for sheep, and in good land 

 a most productive vegetation. It sometimes, as I have observed 

 in another place, affects badly the ears of sheep. The navette, 

 a rape that is sown in autumn, has the advantage of bearing the 

 frost well ; and is much benefited by being harrowed in the 

 spring. 



3. POPPY. The poppy is largely cultivated in Flanders ; but 

 I have no recollection of seeing it any where else, though it 

 often appears as a weed in fields of grain, both wheat and oats. 

 It is cultivated for its oil, which, when properly managed, is 

 much esteemed. It is grown in small quantities in gardens for 

 medical purposes as a narcotic : in which case the heads, with a 

 piece of the stalk, are cut off before their maturity, and hung up 

 to dry, and the opium extracted by the druggists. 



The poppy cultivated is of two kinds, the white and purple. 

 The latter kind produces the larger quantity of oil ; the former, 

 the best quality. There is another difference ; the head of one 

 kind being much more open than that of the other : and the 

 former kind is almost exclusively cultivated in Flanders. The 

 soil required for the poppy should be strong and mellow, and, as 

 far as may be, protected from cold. It should be well cleaned 

 from weeds. Though ordinarily sown broadcast, it would be 

 preferable to sow the seed in drills, that it may be easily hoed. 

 The plants should be left about a foot apart. It succeeds well to 

 grain, and especially to hemp ; in which case the manuring is 

 not required to be repeated. It is especially recommended to 

 follow potatoes, where the ground has been well cultivated and 

 kept clean. When it is intended that the poppy should succeed 

 potatoes, the potatoes should be well manured. When it follows 

 any of the grains, several loads of manure should be given to 



