AUG.] TURNIP AND RAPE-SEED. 



of wheat straw ; in others of yarn twine, which 

 will last two years, if the threshers are careful to 

 save them. Beans do well in a stack. 

 TURNIP AND RAPE- SEED. 



Crops of turnip-seed, and rape or cole-seed, are 

 extremely various, uncertain, and subject to many 

 misfortunes ; they must be conducted with great 

 spirit, or the loss will probably not be small. The 

 principal point is to make good use of fine weather; 

 for, as they must be threshed as fast as reaped, or 

 at least without being housed or stacked, like other 

 crops, they require a greater number of hands, in 

 proportion to the land, than any other part of hus- 

 bandry. The reaping is very delicate work ; for, 

 if the men are not careful, they will shed much 

 of the seed. Moving it to the threshing-floor is 

 another work that requires attention : the best way 

 is to make little waggons on four wheels, with 

 poles, and cloths strained over them : the diameter 

 of the wheels about two feet ; the cloth-body five 

 feet witfe, six long, and two deep, and drawn by 

 one horse : the whole expence not more than 30s. 

 or 40s. I have, in large farms, seen several of 

 these at work at a time in one field. The tur- 

 nip or rape is lifted from the ground gently, and 

 dropt at once into these machines, without any 

 loss : they carry it to the threshers, who keep hard 

 at work, being supplied from the waggons, as fast 

 as they come, by one set of men, and their straw 

 moved off the floor by another set ; and, many 

 hands of all sorts being employed, a great breadth 



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