Book VI. OIL PLANTS. 931 



enclosed in a thin linen bag, and suspended in the beer cask, by the brewers of Germany, 

 to prevent, it is said, the beer from turning sour, and to give it the odour of cloves. 

 {Gard. Mag. vol. vi. p. 148.) In Sweden, Norway, and the north of Scotland, the heath 

 (J?rica L.) and common broom were, and still are, occasionally used as substitutes for 

 the hop. In some parts of France and Germany nothing else is used but broom tops. 

 In Guernsey the Teucrmm (Scorodonia is used, and found to answer perfectly. In 

 England, the different species of mugwort and wormwood have been used for that 

 purpose ; and the foreign bitter, quassia, a tree of Guiana, is still used by the porter 

 brewers. Whoever has good malt, therefore, or roots, or sugar, and understands how to 

 make them into beer, need be at no loss for bitters to make it keep. 



6073. Carminative seeds, equal in strength to those of the caraway and coriander, are 

 furnished by a very considerable number of native or hardy plants, and of flavours to 

 which the drinkers of cordials and liqueurs are attached. Such are the fennels 

 (i^ceniculum) cultivated in Germany, parsley, myrrh, angelica, celery, carrot, parsnep, 

 co%v parsnep, and many other umbelliferous plants ; avoiding, however, the hemlock, 

 fool's parsley, aethusa, and some others which are poisonous. In Dantzic, where 

 perhaps more seeds are used for flavouring spirits than any where else, several of the 

 above and other plants are employed. Kiimmel, their favourite flavour, is that of the 

 cumin (Cuminum Cyminum), an annual plant, a native of Egypt, and cultivated in the 

 south of Europe ; but too tender for field culture in this country. But caraway or fen- 

 nel seeds are very generally mixed with cumin, or even substituted for it in distilling 

 kiimmel- wasser. 



Sect. III. Oil Plants. 



6074. In Britain there arejvw plants grotmi solely for the production of oil ; though oil 

 is expressed from the seeds of several plants, grown for other purposes, as the flax, 

 hemp, &c. Our chief oil plant is the rape. 



6075. Rape is the Brdssica 'Ndpus L. ; Navette, Fr. ; RUbsamen, Ger. ; Rapa sil- 

 vatica, Ital. ; and Naba silvestre, Span. It is a biennial plant of the turnip kind, but 

 with a caulescent or woody fusiform root scarcely fit to be eaten. Von Thaer considers 

 the French and Flemish colza {Kohlsaat, Ger.) a different plant from our rape : colza is 

 more of the cabbage kind, and distinguished by its cylindrical root, cut leaves, and greater 

 hardiness. DecandoUe seems to be of the same opinion. 



6076. Brussica campestris oleifera, according to these writers, is the colsat or colza, or rape of the Con- 

 tinent, the most valuable plant to cultivate for oil; its produce being to that of the ^rassica iVapus, or 

 British colsat or rape, as 955 to 700. It is distinguished from the B. A'kpus by the hispidity of its leaves. 

 It would be desirable for agriculture, DecandoUe observes, that, in all countries, cultivators would examme 

 whether the plant they rear is the B. cam})estris olei'fera or the B. A'Jlpus oleifera, which can easily be 

 ascertained by observing whether the young plant is rough or smooth ; if hispid, it is the B. campestris ; 

 if glabrous, the B. A'^apus. Experiments made by Gaujuc show the produce of the first, compared with 

 that of the second, to be as 955 to 700. {Hort. Trans, v. 23.) 



6077. For its leaves as food for sheep, and its seed for the oil-manvfactvrer, rape, or 

 coleseed, ha? been cultivated from time immemorial. It is considered a native, flowers 

 in May, and ripens its seeds in July. It may be sown broad- cast, or in rows, like the 

 common turnip, or it may be transplanted like the Swedish turnip. The culture of rape 

 for seed has been much objected to by some, on account of its supposed great exhaustion 

 of the land ; but where the soil and preparation are suitable, the after-culture properly 

 attended to, and the straw and offal, instead of being burnt, as is the common practice, 

 converted to the purposes of feeding and littering cattle, it rnay, in many instances, be 

 the most proper and advantageous crop, that can be employed by the farmer. 



6078. The Culleys in 'Northumberland used to cultivate rape on thin clays, as a preparation for wheat, 

 of which they had valuable crops afterwards. The land, in the early part of the season, was prepared as 

 for fallow, and the rape sown in June or July, and eaten off by sheep in September or October ; after 

 which the soil was once ploughed for wheat The rape may also be sown among a crop of drilled winter 

 beans in May, 



6079. The soils best suited for rape are the deep, rich, dry, and kindly sorts ; but, with 

 plenty of manure and deep ploughing, it may be grown in others. 



6080. Young says, that upon fen and peat soils and bogs, and black peaty low grounds, it thrives greatly, 

 and especially on pared and burnt land, which is best suited to it ; but it may be grown with perfect suc- 

 cess on fenny, marshy, and other coarse waste lands, that have been long under grass, when broken up 

 and properly prepared. As a first crop on such descriptions of land, it is often the best that can be em- 

 ployed. The author of The New Farmer's Calendar thinks that this plant is not perhaps worth attention 

 on any but rich and deep soils ; for instance, those luxuriant slips that are found by the sea-side, fens, or 

 newly broken up grounds, where vast crops of it may be raised. 



6081. The preparation of old grass lands, if not pared and burned, need be nothing more than a deep 

 ploughing and sufficient harrowing to bring the surface to a fine mould ; and this operation should not be 

 commenced in winter, because the grub and wire-worm would have time to rise to the surface ; but in 

 February or March, immediately before sowing, or in July, or after the hay crop is removed, if the sowing 

 is deferred till that season. When sown on old tillage lands, the preparation is pretty much the same as 

 that usually given for the common turnip : the land being ploughed over four or five times, according to 

 its condition, as a fine state of pulverisation or tilth is requisite for the perfect growth of the crop. In 

 this view, the first ploughing is mostly given in the autumn, that the soil maybe exposed to the influence 

 of the atmosphere till the early part of the spring, when it should be again turnetl over twice, at proper 

 intervals of time ; and towards the beginning and m.iddle of June one or two additional ploughings 

 should be perfomaed upon it, in order that it may be in a fine mellow condition for the reception of the seed 



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