78 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pakt I 



fresh] as, if kept, it would turn sour sooner than bread made of barley, rye, or wheaten 

 flour. Its blossom is considered to afford the best food for bees. If cut green, it yields 

 pood forage, and if ploughed in when in flower, it is thought one of the best vegetable 

 manures in use. It is also said to be used in distillation ; but this is not generally 

 admitted to be the case. 



464. liape [colza, colsat, or cole seed ; not the 7?rassica iVapus of LimiEeus, but the 

 Ji. campestris of Decandolle) is considered an important article of Flemish agriculture. 

 It is sometimes sown broad-cast, but the general and improved method is by transplanting, 

 v hich they allege, and apparently with great justice, to have many advantages : one is, 

 that the seed-bed occupies but a small space, whilst the land which is to carry the general 

 crop is bearing corn. By having the plants growing, they have time to harvest their corn, 

 to plough and manure the stubble intended for the rape, which they put in witli the dibble 

 or the plough, from the latter end of September to the second week of November, without 

 apprehending any miscarriage. 



4tVj. Thi- teed-bedlB sown in August, and 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 the 

 ploughing v each furrow slice being twelve inches broad), and are set out at twelve inches' distance in the 

 rows. Instead of dibbling upon the second ploughing, in many cases they lay the plants at the proper 

 distances across the furrow, and as the plough goes forward, the roots are covered, and a woman follows 

 to set them a little up, and to give them a firmness in the ground where necessary. Immediately after 

 the frost, and again in the month of April, the intervals are weeded and hand-hoed, and the earth drawn 

 up to the plants, which is the last operation till the harvest. It is pulled rather green, but ripens in the 

 stack ; and is threshed without any particular management : but the application of the haulm, or straw, 

 is a matter of new and profitable discovery ; it is burned for ashes, as manure, which are found to be so 

 highly valuable beyond all other sorts which have been tried, that they bear a price as three to one above 

 the other kinds, and it is considered that, upon clover, a dressing of one third less of these is amply 

 sufficient 



466. The seed is sold for crushing ; or, as is frequently the case, it is crushed by the 

 farmer himself; an oil mill being a very common appendage to a farmery. 



467. The oilette, or poppy (Papaver somniferum), is cultivated in some parts, and yields 

 a very fine oil ; in many instances, of so good a quality as to be used for salad oil. The 

 seed requires a rich and well manured soil. The crop is generally taken after rape, for 

 which the ground has been plentifully manured ; and for the oilettes it receives a dressing 

 not less abundant. The seed is sown at the rate of one gallon to the English acre, and 

 is lightly covered by shovelling the furrows. The average produce is about thirty 

 Winchester bushels to the English acre. The seed is not so productive as rape, in point 

 of quantity, but exceeds it in price, both as grain and as oil, by at least one sixth. The 

 measure of oil produced from rape, is as one to four of the seed ; that produced from the 

 seed of the oilettes, is as one to five. 



468. Poppy seed is sown both in spring and autumn, but the latter is considered the best season ; great 

 attention is given to the pulverisation of the soil, by frequently harrowing, and (if the weather and state 

 of the soil permit) sufficient rolling to reduce ill the clods. 



469. The harvesting of the poppy is performed in a particular manner, and requires a great number of 

 hands. The labourers work in a row, and sheets are laid along the line of the standing crop, upon which, 

 bending the plants gently forward, they shake out the seed. When it ceases to fall from the capsules, 

 that row of the plants is pulled up, and placed upright in small sheaves, in the same, or an adjoining 

 field, in order to ripen such as refused to yield their seed at the first operation. 



The sheets are then again drawn forward to the standing crop, and the same pro- 57 

 cess is repeated, till all the plants are shaken, pulled up, and removed. In two or 

 three days, if the weather has been very fine, the sheets are placed before the rows of 

 the sheaves, which are shaken upon them, as the plants were before ; if any seed 

 remains, it is extracted in the barn by the flail : and, if the weather is unpromising, 

 the plants are not left in the field after the first operation, but are placed at once 

 under some cover to ripen ; and yield the remainder of their seed, either by being 

 threshed or shaken. 



470. The red clover is an important and frequent article in the 

 Flemish rotations. The quantity of seed sown does not exceed six 

 pounds and a quarter to the English acre. The soil is ploughed deep 

 and well prepared, and the crop kept very clear of weeds. Their 

 great attention to prevent weeds, is marked by the perseverance prac- 

 tised to get rid of one, which occasionally infests the clover crop, and 

 is indeed most difficult to be exterminated. The Orobanche, or broom 

 rape (Orobanche major) (Jig. 57.), is a parasitical plant which attaches 

 itself to the pea tribe. In land where clover has been too fre- 

 quently sown, it stations itself at its root, and, if suffered to arrive at its 

 wonted vigour, will spread and destroy an entire crop. The fanner 

 considers the mischief half done, if this dangerous plant is permitted 

 to appear above the surface ; and he takes the precaution to inspect his 

 clover in the early spring. The moment the Orobanche establishes 

 itself at the root, the stem and leaf of the clover, deprived of their 

 circulating juices, fade to a sickly hue, which the farmer recognises, 

 and, with true Flemish industry, roots up and destroys the latent 

 enemy. If this is done 'in time, and with great care, the crop is saved ; 

 if not, the infected soil refuses to yield clover again for many years. 



