

CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 153 



in the fall; but in August or September, when the object is to 

 produce seeds the ensuing year. Its after culture is the same 

 as the turnip, and consists in hoeing, thinning, and keeping the 

 soil mellow. 



It produces in ordinary seasons on rich alluvial, or other deep friable soils, 

 from forty to seventy bushels of seeds, determined in quantity very much by 

 the accuracy of tillage, and the condition and nature of the land. Great care 

 and precision are necessary in harvesting'the seeds in June or July of the year 

 succeeding that in which they are sown. When the pods assume a brownish 

 cast, and some of the seeds become black, the crop is reaped with sickles laid 

 regularly in handsful or grips in rows, where it continues until the straw be- 

 comes somewhat white the seeds of the colour of which we find them in the 

 shops. John Hare PmoeWs Hints to American Husbandmen. 



In harvesting rape great care is requisite not to lose the seed 

 by shaking, chaffing or exposure to high winds or rains. If the 

 pods are too dry the seeds escape at the least motion. It should 

 be reaped in fine weather, and immediately threshed out. The 

 seed, as it is liable to heat at first, should not be suffered to re- 

 main in large heaps on the threshing floor, but divided into 

 small parcels and frequently turned. 



The uses to which the rape is applied, are as follow: The 

 seeds are crushed for an oil well known and extensively used. 

 It is used as food for caged birds. The seed, as before observ- 

 ed, after the oil has been expressed, is used with great ad- 

 vantage; first, as a nourishing and very agreeable food for 

 cattle, on which they thrive and fatten remarkably well; and 

 secondly, as a manure for turnips and other root crops, when 

 sown on the drill system. For this purpose it is reduced to a 

 powder. Its leaves as a green food are scarcely surpassed by 

 any other vegetable sheep and neat cattle are extravagantly 

 fond of them. 



IX. THE BEET. 



The Mangold-WurtzelThe Sugar-Beef. 



THE field-beef, BETA VULGARIS, is of larger size and grows 

 more above ground than the varieties cultivated in the gardens. 

 It is sometimes red externally and yellowish-white internally; 

 but it has different shades of colour. The mangold-wurtzel, 

 or root of scarcity as it was formerly called, is said by Pro- 

 fessor VON THAER, to be a mongrel, between the red and the 

 white beet. The mangold-wurtzel and the sugar-beet, as field 

 crops, are of recent date the latter especially. 



The beet, in a good season, sown on a kind soil, and with 



