Book VI. PLANTS OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 869 



seed is sold by the last of ten quarters, for the purpose of having oil expressed from it, 

 by mills constructed for that use. The price varies considerably, but has lately seldom 

 been much below 30/. the last. 



5471. The use of the seed for crushing for oil is vpell known; it is also employed as 

 food for tame birds, and sometimes it is sown by gardeners, in the same way as mustard 

 and cress, for early salading. 



5472. The rape-cake and rape-dust, the former adhering masses of seed husks, after the 

 oil has been expressed, and the latter loose dry husks, are used as a top dressing for crops of 

 different kinds. X^iey are reduced into powder by a malt mill, or other grinding machine, 

 aiiiid sometimes sown broad-cast over young clovers, wheats, &c. and at other times drilled 

 along with turnip seed. Four cwt. of powder sown with turnip seedin drills, will go over 

 one acre, but three times the quantity is required for an acre sown broad-cast. Expe- 

 rience has proved, that the success of this manure depends in a great measure on the 

 following season. If rain happens to fall soon after the rape-dust is applied, the crop is 

 generally abundant, but if no rain fall for a considerable period the effects of this manure 

 are little discernible, either on the immediate crop, or on those which succeed it. There 

 are turnip drills contrived so as to deposit the manure along with the seed. (2560.) 



5473. The me of the haulm to cattle in winter is very considerable. Tlie stover (pods and points 

 broken off in threshing) is as acceptable as hay, and the tops are eaten with an avidity nearly equal 

 to cut straw, at least better than wheat straw. When well got, the smaller stalks will be eaten up 

 clean. The offal makes excellent litter for the farm-yard, and is useful for the bottoms of mows, stacks, 

 &c. The haulm of this plant is frequently burned ; and, in some places, the ashes, which are equal to 

 potash, are sold ; by which practice, if no manure be substituted, the soil must be greatly deteriorated. 

 It is a custom in Lincolnshire, sometimes to lay lands down with cole, under which the grass seeds are 

 found to grow well. But this sort of crop, as has been already observed, is most suited to fresh broken-up 

 or burned lands, or as a successor to early pease, or such other green crops as are mowed for soiling 

 cattle. 



5474. The use of the leaves as a green food for sheep, is scarcely surpassed by any other vegetable, 

 in so far as respects its nutritious properties, and that of being agreeable to the taste of the animals ; 

 but in quantity of produce, it is inferior to both turnips and cabbages. In this view the crops are fed 

 off occasionally from the beginning of November to the middle of April: being found of great value, 

 '>n the first period, in fattening dry ewes, and all sorts of old sheep; and, in the latter, for support- 

 ing ewes and lambs. The sheep are folded upon them in the same manner as practised for turnips, in 

 which way they are found to pay from 50s. to 60s. the acre; that quantity being sufficient for the sup- 

 port of ten sheep, for ten or twelve weeks, or longer, according to circumstances. Rape has been found, by 

 experience, to be superior to turnips in fattening sheep, and, in some cases, even to be apt to destroy them 

 toy its fattening quality. In The Corrected Report of Lincolnshire, it is likewise observed, that that which 

 is grown on fresh land has the stem as brittle as glass, and is superior to every other kind of food in 

 fattening sheep ; while in that produced on old tillage land, the stem is tough and wiry, and has com' 

 paratively little nourishment in it. 



5475. Among other plants which viay he cultivated by the British farmer as oil plants, 

 may be mentioned all the species of the Brassica family, the Sinapis or mustard 

 family, and the Raphanis or radish family, with many others of the natural order of cru- 

 tiferas. The seeds of these plants, when they remain too long on the seedsman's hands 

 for growing, are sold either for crushing for oil, or grinding with mustard seed. This 

 includes a good deal of wild charlock and wild mustard seed, which is separated in the 

 jirocess of cleaning grain by farmers, among whose corn these plants abound, and sold to 

 the seed agents, who dispose of it to the oil or mustard millers. Various other cruciferje, 

 as the Myagl'um sativum, Raphanus chinensis, var. oleiferus, both cultivated in Germany, 

 the Erysimum, Sisymbrium officinale, Turrites, &c. might also be cultivated for both 

 purposes. 



5476. The small or field poppy (Papaver Rhoeas ; Oilette, Fr.), and also the Maw seed 

 (P. soniniferum, var. Padot, Fr.), a variety of the garden poppy, are, as we have seen 

 (460.), cultivated on the continent as oil plants. The oil being esteemed in domestic 

 economy next to that of the olive. Other species might be grown for the same purpose, all 

 of them being annual plants require only to be sown on fine rich land in April ; thinned 

 out when they come up, to six or eight inches distance, according to the species ; kept 

 clear of weeds till they begin to run, and as the capsules ripen to be gathered by hand, and 

 dried in the sUn. 



5477. The sunflower (Ilelianthus annuus ; Tumesol, Fr., and Girasole, Ital.) has been 

 cultivated in Germany for its seeds, which are found to yield a good table oil, and 

 its husks are nourishing food for cattle. 



Sect. IV. Plants used in Domestic Economy, 



5478. Among agricultural plants used in domestic economy, we include the Mustard, 

 Canary, Buck'wheat, Cress, Tobacco, Chiccory, and a few others ; with the exception of 

 the two first, they are grown to a very small extent in Britain, and therefore our account 

 of them shall be proportionately concise. 



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