BAPR, 



U incomplete, the prisoner may be oonvioUd of a luisdo- 



UAl'K. Tliw plant, which U of the cabbage tribe, u cultivated 

 like cole, or oolxa, for the take of iU MM!*, from which oil in extracted 

 by grinding and pressure. It u alo extensively cultivated in England 

 for the sueoulrut food which iU thick and fleshy item and leave* 

 supply to iheep when other fodder u scare*. 



The mode of cultivation of the ooba and rape for send u nearly the 

 aune. The coUa take* a longer time to come to maturity, and 

 produce! more seed. The rape growl on Ian fertile aoiU, and may be 

 own in spring a well ai in autumn. Buth are hardy, and raaiat the 

 winter's frost 



The coUa ( 



eampatrii) U a plant which grows 

 4 feet high, and require* room to 



with a strong branching stem, 3 or 4 feet 



spread ; and aa cultivated in Uelgium the plant* are raised in a seed 

 bed, and tnnaplanted when they nave acquired a certain sice. When 

 rape (/trataca *apiu) is cultivated for the seed, it u treated in the 

 same manner ; one description will therefore serve for both. 



The seed-bed, where the cultivation is on a small scale; > usually 

 prepared by digging or trenching with the spade, in a good loamy soil, 

 neither too sandy nor too wet A huge proportion of rotten dung is 

 spread evenly over it, and dug in six inches deep, and the surface is 

 raked fine. The seed it sown broad-cast or in drill ; the latter is the 

 best method : it ia then slightly covered with the rake ; and if the 

 ground. will allow of it, without risk of its being bound too hard in 

 case of dry weather, it ia well rolled or trod with the feet. The seed 

 must not be sown too thick ; and the plants, as soon as they have sic 

 leave*, must be thinned to a distance of four or. five inches in the 

 rows, which will make them stronger and better furnished with root*. 

 One acre of seed-bed will furnish plants for ten acres or more. The 

 seed is sown in July or August, that the plants may not run to seed 

 the same year, which they ore apt to do if sown early ; ami they are 

 transplanted in September or October, on land which has already 

 borne a profitable crop. As this crop is a substitute for a fallow on 

 rich heavy land, too much pain* cannot be taken to keep it free from 

 weeds. Winter barley, and rye, which are reaped early in July, are 

 very proper crops to be succeeded by rape or colza. The stubble 

 should be ploughed two or three times, to pulverise and clean it. A 

 good coat of rotten dung should be put on, and the land ploughed 

 in ridges, as for turnips : the plant* should be put in on the ridges ten 

 inches apart It requires great care in taking them up not to break 

 the fibres of the roots : they should be raised with a fork, and placed 

 gently, with the fine earth adhering to them, in Bat baskets, and in a 

 slanting position, so that the tops may be upwards. In planting, the 

 hole* should be made with a large thick dibble, that the plants may be 

 introduced without doubling up the principal roots or breaking the 

 fibre*. The earth should be pressed to the root by a short dibble, 

 inserted to the right or left of the hole mode by the first dibble ; or, 

 which is better in stiff soils, a hole should be made with a narrow hoe 

 of sufficient depth to allow the plant to be placed in it, and another 

 hoe should follow to draw the earth to the plant. Thus two men with 

 hoes, and one woman, will plant a row more rapidly than could be 

 done any other way ; the man who fills up the holes places his 

 foot by the side of each plant as he goes on, to press the earth to the 

 i . 



An expeditious mode of planting rape is used in Flanders. A spade 

 ten inches wide is pushed vertically into the ground, and, by drawing 

 the handle towards hi* body, the labourer mokes a wedge-like opening ; 

 a woman inserts a plant in each side in this opening, and when the 

 man remove* the spade, the earth foils back against the plants. The 

 woman put* her foot between the two plants, and they are then fixed 

 in their places. In this operation the man moves backwards ; and the 

 woman, who put* in the plants, forward. Instead of the spade, an 

 instrument is also used called a fliiMluir. It consists of two sharp- 

 pointed stakes a foot or more apart, connected by a cross-handle at top, 

 and a bar at alnmt eight or ten inches from the point*. The instru- 

 ment is pressed into the ground by the handles, assisted by the foot 

 placed on the lower bar, and make* two holes, a foot apart, into whieh 

 the plants are placed, and earthed round as before. This U done when 

 the land ha* not been hud up into high ridge*. 



When a large field is to be planted, a more expedition* mode is 

 adopted ; and tbi* is the most usual practice in Holland and Germany. 

 The land having been prepared, and the manure well incorporated, a 

 deep furrow is drawn with the plough ; women follow with basket* of 

 plant*, which they set, a foot opart, slanting against the furrow slice. 

 When the plough returns, the earth is thrown against these plant* ; 

 and a man or woman follows, who, with the foot, presses the earth 

 down upon the root*. Sometimes plant* ore put into each furrow, 

 which i* then ten inches or more wide ; but the best cultivators put 

 them only in every alternate furrow. In this case also there are no 

 ridge*. The season of the ynar affords sufficient moisture in the north 

 of Europe to ensure the growth of the plants ; mid if they have escaped 

 the fly in the seed-bed, they are now tolerably safe. No further atten- 

 tion is requisite till spring. The weeds are then carefully extirpated 

 by hand and hoe ; and where the distance of the plant* admit* of it, 

 the light plough itin the ground between the rows, throwing the earth 

 toward* the items, yet so as to leave each plant in a little basin to 

 catch the water and conduct it to the rooU. When the plant* are 



invigorated with rich liquid manure, such as night soil mixed with 

 water, or tin- draining* from dunghills, they Iwcoine extremely luxu- 

 riant; and every trouble or expense bestowed u|>n them is amply 

 repaid. The dillerenoe between a crop partially neglected and m 

 carefully cultivated often exceeds fifty per cent. 



There U not much difference between the vul . and rape- 



seed (called nn ntt, in Krench) ; but the Litter produces less, \\ii.n 

 the ra|*> U transplanted before win 



than when sown in Hpring. In the Utter cone it produces seed the 

 same year. It u sown in drills, and thinned out by the hoe, and in 

 favourable season* a tolerable crop U obtained. It is generally sown 

 cm land which could not be brought into a proper tilth after harvest, and 

 which would require the i n;cr to mellow it. 



Groat crops of cole-seed and rape have been produced in the fen* of 

 Lincolnshire and the alluvial soils in Essex, by merely paring and 

 burning the surface and ploughing in the ashes; and these crops, 

 alternating with oats, have in many instances so exhausted the soil as 

 to cause a great prejudice against them in the minds of the landlords. 

 Many leases have a clause prohibiting their cultivation, rxeept to be 

 oaten green by sheep. The principal cause, however, of the diminution 

 of this crop in England is the inferior price obtained for the seed when 

 compared with wheat, which can be raised on the same land, and is a 

 more certain crop. 



The rape and colza ripen their seed very unequally. The lower pod* 

 are ready to burst before those at top arc full. If the t. 

 at harvest, much of the seed is lost; and, without great attention, 

 some loss is sustained in the most favourable seasons. It should )>e 

 cut when the dew is on it, and moved aa little as possible. If the 

 weather permits, it is threshed out on a cloth in the field, and as 

 many threshers are employed as can be conveniently collected, that 

 no time may be lost, when the weather U fair. The seed is spread 

 out on the floor of a granary that it may not heat, and is : 

 over frequently. It is then sold to the crushers, who express the oil. 

 The pods and small branches broken off in threshing ore much relished 

 by cattle. This crop returns little to the land, and is of itself very 

 exhausting. Not so, however, i* the rape, when sown as food for 

 sheep. It is, on the contrary, a valuable substitute for turnips, upon 

 land which is too wet and heavy for this root. The Jlroaicu tJiracea 

 is more succulent than the Itra&ttca naput. Its stem is not so hard, 

 and the soft pith which it contains ig much relished by every kind 

 of live-stock. To have it in perfection, the laud should bo prepared 

 and manured as for turnips. The rape should bo sown in drills ten 

 inches apart, in June, July, or August. It will be fit for eonsiimption 

 before winter, during winter, or after winter, according to the period of 

 its seedtime. In the lost case, in the end of March and beginning of 

 April it will be a great help to the ewes and lambs. It will produce 

 excellent food till it begins to be in flower, when it should imme- 

 diately be ploughed up. The ground will be found greatly recruited 

 by this crop, which has taken nothing from it and has added much 

 by the dung and urine of the sheep. Whatever lie the succeeding 

 crop.it cannot foil to be productive ; and if the Ian ;iii, the 



farmer must not have neglected the double opportunity of dt>tioyin 

 weed* in the preceding summer and in the early jvirt of spring. If 

 the rope is fed off in time, it may bo succeeded by liarley or oats with 

 clover or grass seeds, or potatoes, if the soil is not too wet. Thus, no 

 crop will be lost, and the rape will have been a clear addition to the 

 produce of the land. Any crop which is taken off the land in a green 

 state, especially if it be fed oft' with sheep, may be repeated, without 

 risk of failure, provided the laud be properly tilled ; but where cole or 

 rape have produced seed, they cannot be profitably sown in less than 

 five or six years after on the same land. 



When the oil lias been pressed out from the seed, the residue (which 

 contains a portion of starch and mucilage not changed into oil) and 

 the husk of the seed form a hard cake known by the name of rape-cake. 

 This has been long used on the Continent, and has lately in thin 

 country been used, to feud cows and pigs with, as we use the linseed- 

 cakes : but it is also much used as a rich manure, and for this purpose 

 it is imported in large quantities. When rape-cake is ground to a 

 powder and drilled with the seed on poor light hinds, it supplies 

 nourishment to the young plant*, and greatly accelerates their growth ; 

 but if it be added in a large proportion in immediate contact with the 

 seed, on heavy ini]>erviou* soil*, it often undergoes the putrid fur- 

 mentation, which it communicates to the seed sown, and, instead of 

 nourishing, destroys it. In this case it is useful to mix it with some 

 dry porous earth or with ashes, which will prevent the too rapid 

 decomposition. Dissolved in water and mixed with urine, it forms 

 one of the most efficacious of artificial liquid manures. Hence it is 

 probable that the most advantageous mode of using it on the land, 

 after it has been dissolved in the urine-tank, is to apply it by means of 

 a water-cart to' the rows where the seed has been already drilled, or 

 some time before it is put in. Where flax is to bo sown, this mixture 

 applied a few days before the seed is sown, so as to allow it to sink 

 into the soil, IB considered in Flanders as next in value to the empty- 

 ings of privies, which with them hold the first rank, for producing 

 line crop* of flax. When a crop appears sickly, and not growing as 

 it should do, owing to poverty in the soil, a top-dressing of rape-cake 

 dissolved in water, if no urine is at hand, will in - :te the 



powers of vegetation ; and it is highly probable that it may greatly 



