312 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXVI. 



Chapter XXVI. 



ON THE SEED OF COLE— MUSTARD— AND POPPY. 



Although rape and cole are so nearly of the same nature as to usually 

 pass under the same denomination, and when used for the expression of 

 oil, and the formation of cake, they are indifferently employed for that 

 purpose, yet there is a distinction between the plants, which is generally 

 made when they are intended for the food of cattle: in which case rape is 

 the sort most frequently grown, as it does not require land of such good 

 quality as the other, and may be sown later in the season, while it ripens 

 earlier *. The seeds of these plants are chiefly used for the production of 

 oil, which they yield in very large quantities. 



COLE 



Is stronger on the stem, its flowers are of a clearer and lighter yellow 

 than those of rape, and both the pods and seeds which it bears are larger. 

 The cultivation of both species is conducted in the same manner as that of 

 turnips, but they admit of being sown later, and when the plants are 

 intended to be left for the production of seed, the soil should be of a richer 

 kind : cole is consequently much grown in the alluvial districts of Essex, 

 Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Lincolnshires, and on such land produces 

 very heavy crops of seed, when sown in the summer or the early part of 

 autumn, — say from the middle of July until the middle of August, — so as 

 to ensure their ripening in the course of the following season. The crop 

 is also commonly eaten down by sheep at an early period of its growth; 

 but no stock of any description should be left upon it after the month of 

 January. If weeds spring up early in the autumn, before the crop may 

 afford a bite for sheep, it will not be found unadvisable to run the scythe 

 across them; for allhough the tops of the plants may be thus cut, they 

 will nut be injured, and the expense will not be thrown away, for if the pro- 

 duce be rak'.'d up and given while green to cattle, they will eat it with 

 avidity f. The soil should, indeed, be not only naturally fertile, but, if not 

 broken up from a maiden state of fen or pasture, will require a large dress- 

 ing of spit-dung ; for unless the land be in high condition it will be greatly 

 impoverished by the production of the crop, which will also be poor, and 

 tlius a double loss will l)e incurred by the saving of manure. 



In Flanders, where the culture of rape is more largely followed and 

 better understood than in any other part of Europe, the quantity of 

 manure usually employed consists of a large quantity of bruised rape- 

 cakes, and eighteen cart-loads of night-soil ; but the general and approved 

 method is there by transplanting, to which they attach the advantages of 

 the seed-bed occupying but a small space, whilst the land is carrying a 

 crop of corn, and while the plants are growing, of having time to harvest 

 their corn, and to plough and manure the stubble intended for the rape. 

 The process is as follows: — " The seed-bed is sown in August, or even to 

 the middle of September. In October, or sooner, the stubble is ploughed 

 over, manured, and ploughed again. The plants are dibbled in the seams 

 of llie ploughing, — each furrow-slice being twelve inches broad, — and are 



* See chap. xix. 

 t Von Thaer, Prin. Rais. d'Agric, 2nde edit. torn, iv, p. 253. 



