Book VI. OIL PLANTS. 867 



wormwood have been used for that purpose; and the foreign bitter, quassia, a tree of Guiana, 

 is still used by the porter brewers. Whoever has good malt, therefore, or roots, or sugar, 

 and understands how to make them into beer, need be at no loss for bitters to make it keep. 



5457. Of the carminative seeds there are a very considerable number of native or hardy 

 plants that furnish them of equal strength, with those of the caraway and coriander, and, 

 of flavors to which the drinkers of cordials and liqueurs are also attached. Such, are 

 the fennels {FceniGulum), cultivated in Germany, parsley, myrrh, angelica, celery, carrot, 

 parsnep, cowparsnep, and many other umbelliferous plants, avoiding, however, the hem- 

 lock, fool's parsley, asthusa, and some others which are poisonous. In Dantzic, where per- 

 haps, more seeds are used for flavoring spirits than any where else, several of the above and 

 other plants are employed. Kummel, their favorite flavor, is that of the cumin [Cuminum 

 cyminum)i an annual plant, a native of Egypt, and cultivated in the south of Europe ; 

 but too tender for field culture in this country. But caraway or fennel seeds are 

 very generally mixed with cumin, or even substituted for it in distilling kummel- wasser. 



Sect. III. Of OU Plants. 



5458. In Britain there are few plants grown solely for the 'production of oil ; though oil 

 is expressed from the seeds of several plants, as the flax, hemp, &c. grown for other pur- 

 poses. Our chief oil plant is the rape. 



5459. Rape is the Brassica najms, L. ; Navette, Fr. ; RUbsamen, Ger. ; Naba sil- 

 vestre, Span. ; and Rapa silvatica, Ital. It is a biennial plant of the turnip kind, but with a 

 caulescent or woody fusiform root, scarcely fit to be eaten. Von Thaer considers the 

 French and Flemish colza {Kohlsaat, Ger.) a different plant from our rape; colza is 

 more of the cabbage kind, and distinguished by its cylindrical root, cut leaves, and greater 

 hardiness. Decandolle seems to be of the same opinion. 



5460. According to these writers, Brassica campestris oleifera is the colsat or colza, or 

 rape of the continent, the most valuable plant to cultivate for oil ; its produce being to 

 that of the Brassica napus, or British colsat or rape, as 955 to 700. It is distinguished 

 from the B. napus by the hispidity of its leaves. It would be desirable for agriculture, 

 Decandolle observes, that in all countries, cultivators would examine whether the plant they 

 rear is the B. campestris oleifera or the B. napus oleifera, which can easily be ascertained 

 by observing whether the young plant is rough or smooth ; if hispid, it is the B. cam- 

 pestris ; if glabrous, the B. napus. Experiments made by Gaujuc, shew the produce of 

 the first, compared to that of the second, to be as 955 to 700. {Hort. Trans, v. 23.) 



5461. For its leaves as food for sheep, and its seeds for the oil manifacturer, rape, or 

 coleseed, has been cultivated from time immemorial. It is considered a native, flowers in 

 May, and ripens its seeds in July. It may be grown by sowing broad-cast, or in rows, like 

 the common turnip, or transplanted like the Swedish turnip. The culture of rape for seed 

 has been much objected to by some, on account of the great degree of exhaustion of the 

 land that it is supposed to produce ; but where it is grown on a suitable soil and pre- 

 paration with proper attention in the after-culture, and the straw and offal, instead of 

 being burnt, as is the common practice, converted to the purposes of feeding and littering 

 cattle, it may, in many instances, be the most proper and advantageous crop that can 

 be employed by the farmer. 



5462. The soils best suited for rape are the deep, rich, dry, and kindly sorts ; but, 

 with plenty of manure and deep ploughing, it may be grown in others. Young says, 

 that upon fen and peat soils and bogs, and black peaty low grounds, it thrives greatly, 

 and especially on pared and burnt land, which is the best preparation for it ; but it may 

 be grown with perfect success on the fenny, marshy, and other coarse waste lands, 

 that have been long under grass, after being broken up and reduced into a proper 

 state of preparation. As a first crop on such descriptions of land, it is often the best that 

 can be employed. The author of The Neio Farmer s Calendar thinks, that this plant is 

 not perhaps worth attention on any but rich and deep soils ; for instance, those luxuriant 

 slips that are found by the sea-side, fens, or newly broken grounds, where vast crops of 

 it may be raised. 



5463. The preparation of old grass lands, if not pared and burned, need be nothing 

 more than a deep ploughing and sufficient harrowing to bring the surface to a fine mould 

 and this operation should not be commenced in winter as some recommend, on account 

 of the grub and wire-worm having time to rise to the surface; but in February or 

 March, immediately before sowing, or in July or after the hay crop is removed, if the 

 sowing is deferred till that season. When sown on old tillage lands, the method of pre- 

 paration is pretty much the same as that which is usually given for the common turnip : 

 the land being ploughed over four or five times, according to the condition it may be in, 

 a fine state of pulverisation Or tilth being requisite for the perfect growth of the crop. In 



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