RAPE. 



RAPE. 



quented by that reptile). Many of the plants 

 belonging to this extensive genus are well 

 worth the cultivator's care, and they have long 

 been favourites with the florist. The aquatic 

 kinds require to be grown in water. The 

 grumose-rooted species will thrive in any com- 

 mon soil and situation ; they are increased by 

 offsets from the roots, or by seeds. These 

 plants are acrid, and most of them poisonous. 

 See CROWFOOT and SPKARMTORT. 



RAPE. A plant of the cole kind, greatly 

 cultivated in Flanders for the sake of the seed, 

 l>;ii rxiremely valuable also as green food for 

 cattle and sheep in winter and spring. " The 

 plants." says Mr. Low, "usually cultivated 

 under the name of rape, are the fusiform va- 

 rieties of the following species of brassica. 

 Cole or rape (B. napus), colza (B. campestris), 

 fusiform common turnip (B. rapa), and early 

 cole (B.pracox)." There are different modes 

 of treating this plant, according to the uses for 

 which it is designed. The whole plant is of 

 great service in feeding cattle ; and after the 

 seed is thrashed, the straw and chaff, on being 

 burnt, afford ashes equally valuable as the best 

 potashes. Wheat yields an excellent crop 

 after rape, and the plant is grown with great 

 advantage on bog plant, where paring and 

 burning has been practised. Rape is very 

 hardy, and with fair treatment it never fails on 

 any soil. Cattle are so successfully fattened 

 with it, that many farmers prefer it to turnips. 

 See COLE. 



For garden culture, rape is propagated by 

 seed, and, like mustard, and other small salad- 

 ing, may be sown at any period of the year, 

 when in request; being allowed a separate* bed. 

 For the production of seed, some plants of a 

 sowing which has been made about the middle 

 of July, must be thinned to. about 18 inches 

 apart: they will survive the wintei in England, 

 and flower in May and June of the next year. 

 The seed, which is produced in great abund- 

 ance, ripens in July and August, and must then 

 be cut and laid upon cloths to dry, as it is very 

 apt to shed. 



In England, rape (Brassica napus sylvestris") is 

 frequently called coleseed, and in France navette. 

 In both countries it is highly prized, not only 

 for the value of the oil expressed from the seed, 

 but lor the cake left after pressure, which is 

 extensively used for feeding cattle, its qualities 

 for this purpose resembling those of the oil- 

 cake left after pressure of flaxseed in making 

 Unseed oil. Rape belongs to the cabbage or 

 turnip family, but it never heads, like the 

 former, and its roots are of little value com- 

 pared with the latter. Of the two kinds most 

 commonly cultivated, one is biennial, sown one 

 Mimmer and harvested the next, whilst the 

 oilier is a spring or summer crop. 



Rape, though but little known in the United 

 States, has been tried in various parts, and 

 found to stand the winters even in New York 

 and New England. Whenever, therefore, a 

 demand shall be made for this valuable pro- 

 duction of the soil, or its near kindred of the 

 cabbage family, colza, the United States can 

 yield them abundantly, in almost every part. 



According to London, the place which rape 

 occupies in a rotation, is between two culmi- 

 942 



ferous or grain crops. On rich soils it may b 

 succeeded to the greatest advantage by wheat, 

 as it is found to be an excellent preparation 

 for that sort of grain ; and by its being taken, 

 off early, there is sufficient time allowed for 

 getting the land in order for sowing wheat. 



In Notes cm the Agriculture of Germany, by Mr. 

 Carr, an English gentleman, he says the after 

 course is as follows : 



1 year fallow, well dunged, 



2 rape, 



3 wheat, 



4 barley, 



5 peas, light dunging, 



6 rye, 



7 ' oats, with rye, or timothy grass- 

 seeds, and red clover. 



The clover and peas plastered in May. The 

 clover is mown twice for hay, and left two 

 years for pasture, when it is heavily manured, 

 fallowed, and again sown with rape. " The 

 rape-seed is sown broadcast in the last of July 

 or first of August. This crop is greatly bene- 

 fited the following spring by dusting gypsum 

 over it, about 100 Ibs. to the acre. In July the 

 seed is ripe, and as the weather is generally 

 fine, is trodden out by horses very expeditious- 

 ly on large canvass sheets in the field. The 

 oil of this seed pressed out, when purified, is 

 without smell, gives a brilliant, clear-burning 

 flame, and is universally used all over Ger- 

 many, in the saloon of the rich, and the cottage 

 of the poor. The value of the crop is some- 

 what precarious, because it is subject to so 

 many contingencies ; the turnip-fly and cater- 

 pillar prey upon it when young, and when in 

 flower, a small beetle (Haltica nemorum') often 

 eats away the blossom-bud, or lays its minute 

 larvae in the petals, ultimately furnishing every 

 seed-pod with a maggot which either eats the 

 seeds away, or, forcing the pod open when 

 nearly ripe, causes it to fall out. When spared 

 these calamities, it is, however, a very remu- 

 nerating crop, worth from 10Z. to 20Z. an acre, 

 especially if there is a foreign demand. The 

 straw is generally burned, and the ashes scat- 

 tered over the field ; it 'is sometimes sold to the 

 soap-makers, who prize it highly. Two fur- 

 rows are now given for wheat sown broadcast 

 in September." 



Mr. Blackie, in his Essay on the Improvement 

 of small Farms, says, that the produce of rape, 

 when ivcll manured, is beyond any thing almost 

 that can be imagined, if let stand until it gets 

 into blossom. Manure, he adds, makes the 

 stalk tender and juicy, which would otherwise 

 be hard and dry, so that if cut in to small pieces, 

 for the purpose of feeding green to cattle, not 

 a bit will be lost, and it grows to a height of 6 

 feet. I am, he says, almost afraid to say, that 

 I believe, with the addition of some straw, an 

 acre will keep 30 head of cattle in full milk for 

 a month. 



RAPE, edible-rooted. This name may be ap- 

 plied to a variety of the rape mentioned by Mr. 

 Dickson, one of the vice-presidents of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society. Its root is white, and car- 



| rot-shaped, about the size of the middle finger. 



; It is much more delicate in flavour than the 

 turnip, like which root it is cooked, only that it 



i is not peeled, but scraped, its skin being r&> 



