50 RAPE. 7. 



If in the culture of rape the foil be per- 

 mitted to lie undifturbed, either by the plow 

 or the hoe, from feed-time to harvcft, fuf- 

 fering weeds of every fpecies to mature and 

 fcatter their feeds, and to gain ap eftabliih- 

 ment in the foil ,' and if, at harveft, the flraw 

 be burnt in the field, and the alhes be fent 

 to market, rape is in truth an hrpoverifhing 

 crop; 



But were the foil to be plowed in autumn, 

 and to be hoed during the enfuing fummer ; 

 and were the ftraw, &c, inftead of being 

 burnt, to be confumed in the farm-yard as 

 fodder and litter, I am of opinion that rape, 

 in many cafes, would be the molt eligible 

 crop the farmer could make choice of *. 



POTA- 



* Whether oleaginous or farinacebus crops whether 

 five quarters of rape or five quarters of wheat an acre 

 incur the greater impoverifhment of foil, is a fubject 

 which is yet in the hands of theory. While the food 

 of vegetables, and the vegetable economy at large, are 

 fo little underftood as they appear to be at prefent, all 

 argument refpefting the comparative impoverifhment 

 of the foil by different fpecies of vegetables mult b& 

 futile. 



