296 FORAGE CROPS 



rape as a pasture for sheep is iu Farmers' Bulletin 

 No. 11, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture : 



"Rape is unrivaled as a pasture for sheep in 

 autumn in those parts of this continent where it 

 can be successfully grown. As a fattening food in 

 the field it is without a rival in point of cheapness 

 or effectiveness. The sheep that pasture upon it 

 do the harvesting in a most effective manner, and 

 with but little cost to the owner; and the manure 

 made from it is distributed over the field which 

 produced the crop, and in a form which is readily 

 available for the plants of the succeeding crops. 

 While rape thus grown and fed does not add fer- 

 tility to the soil, unless in the plant -food it brings 

 up from the subsoil, it does not detract from the 

 fertility when the sheep which eat it off are in- 

 closed upon it. When rape can be successfully 

 grown as a pasture, the necessity for sending 

 sheep and lambs to the market in a lean condition 

 will be removed, and the numbers that may yet be 

 fattened upon it in this country will only be limited 

 probably by the inclination of the farmers and the 

 demands of the market. Four to five millions of 

 acres of arable land would suffice to grow rape 

 enough to fatten all the sheep at present in the 

 United States. 



" The manner of feeding off the rape when pas- 

 tured by sheep and lambs is in outline as follows: 



