RAPE AND CABBAGE. 147 



try to fix any limits to extension in the growth 

 of this plant. 



Rape will grow in one form or another in nearly 

 all parts of this continent. The season for sowing 

 it usually covers a period of about three months. In 

 some climates it covers a period considerably longer. 

 The farmer, therefore, can generally find some spot 

 on which to grow it without diminishing the area of 

 the other crops grown. It can be sown in a score 

 of different ways and under a score of different con- 

 ditions. When once started it will stand much 

 drouth and cold. If desired it may be so grown 

 that the cultivation given to it will be found pecul- 

 iarly helpful in cleaning the land (Fig. 20). It 

 furnishes one of the finest pastures for sheep and 

 swine that can be grown for them, and it makes 

 excellent soiling food for any class of live stock kept 

 upon the farm. It may be grown as a catch crop 

 and also as a green manure. It is indeed a veritable 

 jewel among the forage crops of this country, as in 

 addition to the good qualities just enumerated, its 

 food value, pound for pound, is about tw r ice that of 

 green clover, and it will usually grow about twice as 

 much per acre. 



The rape plant bears a close resemblance to the 

 rutabaga in the early stages of its growth. So close 

 is this resemblance that an expert cannot distinguish 

 between them. The former, however, becomes more 

 upright as it develops and produces much more of 

 top than the latter, but its root is fusiform and there- 

 fore of no value for food purposes. Its many prongs 

 and long rootlets penetrate the soil in all directions, 

 hence it is a gross feeder and draws heavily on the 

 soil. But since it is commonly pastured off by live 



