Ch. XIX.] ON RAPE. 249 



varying according to the quantity of food and the demand — from three to 

 five and, in some cases, eight shilHngs per score ; and tlie calculation upon 

 the general run of turnip crops, tipon land of the ordinary quality in the 

 midland districts, is, that an acre will feed from 14 to 16 score Southdown 

 wedders during one week ; or at the rate of ahoul 16 lbs. each day per head. 

 TJie crops in the climate of the north, and upon rich loams, are of course 

 larger; but viewing the ordinary course of farming throughout the greater 

 part of the kingdom, the average value of an acre of turnips can hardly be 

 estimated at more than five pounds. This, when considered singly, cannot 

 be viewed as a source of direct profit to the grower ; for, were rent, ma- 

 nure, and the extraordinarily expensive culture, which is requisite to the 

 production of a good crop, to be all taken into consideration, perhaps 

 double that sum would not more than repay him. But if its beneficial 

 consequences be regarded, as standing in place of a naked fallow; as pro- 

 ducing an abundant supply of succulent food for the winter and spring- 

 support of sheep and cattle ; and as augmenting, by its increase of fer- 

 tility, the means of procuring heavy crops of grain and hay, the turnip 

 culture must be considered the main stay of all good husbandry on those 

 soils to which it is adapted*." 



Chapter XIX. 

 ON RAPE. 



On soils which are too adliesive for the growth of turnips, this plant is very 

 frequently cultivated for the purpose of affording food for sheep, and per- 

 liaps there is no other upon which they fatten with greater rapidity, pro- 

 vided the soil be of sufficient luxuriance to give full vigour to the plant. It 

 may indeed be grown for this purpose with advantage upon every descrip- 

 tion of land as an occasional crop, jiarticularly upon pasture land, when 

 broken-up ; and it is found valuable upon the best turnip soils, as a change, 

 to prevent the too frequent repetition of turnips. Thus we find, in the re- 

 port recently published of ' Farming at Wauldby, upon the Wolds, in the 

 East-Riding of Yorkshire,' " A portion of the fallowed lands have for the 

 last few years been sown with rape, solely for the use of the sheep : it is cul- 

 tivated in drills twelve inches apart, but not thinned in the rows, though 

 well hoed between them. The quantity of seed used is 41b. per acre. To 

 afford a regular succession of food, it is sown at three different periods, 

 between the middle of May and the end of June ; and the sheep are put upon 

 it three months after it has been sown. A considerable quantity of the 

 very best food is thus raised, to come in at a period when it is most wanted, 

 viz., when the freshness of the clover and grass leys is on the decline, 

 and before the turnips are fully grown. It is considered equally valuable 

 for the lambs, when taken from the ewes, and for the shearing wether 

 sheep, eighteen months old, which are at that period nearly fat, and require 

 food of the most nutritious (juality. The land is afterwards sown with wheat, 

 and the crop is usually considerably heavier than it is after turnips, or after 

 any other preparation of AVold land for wheat. f" 



Rape is, however, more })eculiarly partial to alluvial, or rich clay lands ; 

 and it is upon these, especially aff^.r having been long in grass, tliat it grows 

 with the greatest luxuriance. In the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, 



* Survey of Berwickshire, p. 279. 

 f Libr.iry of Useful Knowledge, Select Farms. No. G4. 



