RAP 



RAS 



ward, it may be slightly fed off; but, 

 in gtMieral, it is best lu let it reumin 

 unumclied till spring. In the end of 

 March and the beginning of April it 

 Will be a great help to llie ewes and 

 lambs. It will produce excellent food 

 till It begins to be in flower, when it 

 should immediately be ploughed up. 

 The ground will be found greatly re- 

 cruited by this crop, which has taken 

 nothing from it, and has added much 

 by the dung and urine ol the sheep. 

 Whatever be the succeeding crop, it 

 cannot lail to be proJuclive ; and if 

 the land is not clean, the iarmerniust 

 have neglected tlie double opportuni- 

 ty of destroying weeds in the prece- 

 ding summer and in the early part of 

 spring. If the rape is fed oil' in time, 

 it may be succeeded by barley or 

 oats, with clover or grass seeds, or 

 potatoes, if the soil is not too wet. 

 'I'hus no crop will be lost, and the 

 rape will have been a clear addition 

 to the produce of the land. Any crop 

 which IS taken otf the land in a green 

 state, especially if it be led off with 

 sheep, may be repeated, without risk 

 of failure, provided the land be prop- 

 erly tilled ; but where cole or rape 

 have produced seed, they cannot be 

 prohtably sown in less than live or 

 SIX years alter on the same land. 



" When the oil has been pressed 

 out from the seed, the residue and 

 the husk of the seed form a hard cake 

 known by the name of rape-cake. 

 This is used on the Continent to feed 

 cows and pigs with, as we use the 

 linseed cakes ; but it is also used as 

 a rich manure. When rape-cake is 

 ground to a powder and drilled with 

 the seed »)n poor, light lands, it sup- 

 plies nourishment to the young plants, 

 and greatly accelerates their growth ; 

 but il It be added in a large propor- 

 tion in immediate contact with the 

 seed, on heavy, impervious soils, it 

 often undergoes the putrid fermenta- 

 tion, which It communicates to the 

 seed sown, and, instead of nourish- 

 ing, destroys it. In this case, it is 

 useful to mix it with some dry, po- 

 rous earth, or with ashes, which will 

 prevent the too rapid decomposition : 

 sixteen bushels are used to the acre. 

 I I I 2 



Dissolved in water, and mixed witn 

 urine, it forms one ol the most clli- 

 cacious of artificial lujuid manures 



1 Hence it is probable tlial the most 

 advantageous mode of using it on the 

 land, after it has been dissolved in 



I the urine tank, is to apply it by means 

 of a water cart to the rows w here the 

 seed has been already drilled, or some 

 time bel'ore it is put in. Where Uax 

 is to be sown, this mixture, applied a 

 few days before the seed is sown, so 

 as to allow it to sink into the soil, is 

 considered, in I'ianders, as next in 

 value to the emptyings of privies, 



j which with them hold the first rank for 



1 producing fine crops of tlax. When a 

 crop appears sickly, and not growing 



|-as It should do, owing to poverty in 



I the soil, a top dressing of rape-cake 

 dissolved in water, it no urine is at 

 hand, will generally e.xcite the pow- 

 ers of vegetation ; and it is highly 

 probable that it may greatly assist 

 the etfects of saltpetre or of nitrate 

 of soda, where these salts are applied. 

 The cultivation of rape or cole for 

 spring food cannot be too strongly 



i recommended to the farmers of heavy 

 clay soils.'' — ( W. L- Kkam.) 



IIAPE-SEED CAKE. See Rape. 

 RAPHE. A suture. Parts which 

 appear as though they had been uni- 

 ted. In botany, the thread passing 

 I'rom the ovule to the placenta. 



KAPHIDES. Crystals of oxalate 

 of potash and other salts found in the 

 juice of rhubarbs, docks, and other 

 plants. 



RAPTORES, ACCIPITRES. 

 Birds of prey, as the hawk, owl, eagle. 

 RAREFACTION. The act of di- 

 minishing the density of air or other 

 bodies : it IS done by the air-pump in 

 the case of air. 



RASORES. Scratchers ; gallina- 

 ceous birds, such as the fowl, turkey, 

 pheasant, &c. 



R A S P B E R R Y. Ruhus idaus. 

 This shrub, in its wild state, is found 

 growing in our mountainous woods 

 and thickets : it flowers in .May and 

 June. The root is creeping. The 

 stems are biennial, erect, three or 

 (bur feet high, branched, round, pale, 

 or purplish, more or less besprinkled 



653 



