Cultivation of Arable Land.Rape or Cole. f $9 



inches long, with atranfverfe edge at its end two inches in width, and on the other 

 a fort of cleaver; with this tool, acting as a lever by means of the handle, the roots 

 are readily taken up ; after which any dirt that may adhere to them is fhaken off 

 by a blow or two, and the roots fplit by the cleaver. By this means the meep be 

 gin in the centre of the roots and proceed outwards, eating them with more eafe 

 and much more completely than in any other method. When they are not cut, 

 the hard fubfrance of the rind rendersthem difficult of being eaten by thefe ani 

 mals.* One-year-old meep, or what are frequently denominated tegs, wethers, 

 and all dry meep, may in preference be fed on this root ; but when ewes and lambs 

 are to be kept upon it, the hurdles muft be fo contrived as to admit the lambs to 

 pafs through them to feed at large, as by this means both they and the roots will be 

 much benefited. f 



This root may be found on the whole, from its hardy and other properties, to 

 conltitute an excellent nutritious food for meep at thofe periods in the fpring when 

 few other forts of green food can be procured or depended upon. The culture of 

 it, in proportion to the quantity of meep that may be kept on the farm, mould not 

 therefore be neglected. 



This vegetable has been alferted to be capable of being preferved for fome time 

 out of the ground, without its properties being in the leaft injured ; but as in moil 

 other bulbous roots, the beft and moft economical practice is probably that of 

 employing it in its frefh flatc. When thus made ufe of, there can be little 

 doubt of its proving a valuable afiiftant to the turnip crop as a late fpring feed for 

 meep. 



Rape or Cole. This is a plant of the cabbage kind +, but which differs from it 

 in not forming a clofe head. As being of an hardy nature, and affording a large 

 proportion of green food for the winter fupport of meep and other animals, it has 

 been fome time introduced as an article of field-culture. It has likewife been 

 cultivated for a confiderable length of time for the ufe of the feed, which is ex- 

 preffed in mills conftructed for the purpofe, in order to form the oif known by its 

 name. 



The foils moft adapted to the culture of this plant are thofe of the deep and more 

 fertile kinds : when it is grown on lands that have been long in tillage, the friable 

 loamy kinds are found to anfwer the beft ; but it may be grown with perfect 

 fuccefs on the fenny, marfhy, boggy, and other coarfe wafte lands, that have been 

 long in the ftateofgrafs, after being broken up and reduced into a proper ftate 



&quot; Bath Papers^ vol. IX. p. 271. t Bath Papers, vol. IX. J. Brassic -napus-,. 



