932 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



6082. In a rotation of crops, the place which rape occupies is commonly between two 

 of the culmiferous kind. On rich soils it may be succeeded to the greatest advantage by 

 wheat, as it is found to be an excellent preparation for that sort of grain ; and by its 

 being taken off early, there is sufficient time allowed for getting the land in order for 

 sowing wheat. 



6083. The season for smving rape is the same as that for the common turnip, and the 

 manner, whether in broad-cast or rows, the same. 



6084, The row method on the flat surface seems the best for newly broken up lands; and the rows on 

 ridglets, with or without manure, the best for lands that have been under the plough. Where the object 

 is the keep of sheep in autumn or winter by eating it down, the broad-cast method and thick sowing are 

 evidently the best, and are generally resorted to in Lincolnshire and the fenny districts. The quantity 

 of seed when sown thick may be a peck an acre ; but when drilled or sown thin, two or three pounds will 

 suffice. The seed should be fresh, black, and plump. Vacancies may always be filled up by transplanting. 



6085. The season of transplanting begins as soon after the corn harvest as possible, 

 being generally performed on the stubble of some description of corn crop. 



6086. One deep ploughing, and a degree of harrowing sufficient to pulverise the surface, are given ; and 

 the plants may be dibbled in in rows a foot apart, and six inches in the row or narrower, according to the 

 lateness of the season of planting, and the quality of the soil ; for it must be considered that plants trans- 

 planted so late as September or October will be far from being fo strong in the succeeding spring, as those 

 sown in June and left where they are to run. The seed-bed from which the plants are obtained should 

 have been sown in the June or July preceding the transplanting season, and may be merely a ridge or two 

 in the same or in an adjoining field. We have already noticed (464.) the Flemish mode of transplanting, 

 by laying the plants in the furrow in the course of ploughing ; but as the plants cannot be properly firmed 

 at the lower part of the root, we cannot recommend it 



6087. The after-culture of rape is the same as that of the turnip, and consists in hoeing 

 and thinning. 



6088. The plants on the poorer soils may be left at six or eight inches apart or narrower, but on the rich 

 they may be thinned to twelve or fifteen inches with advantage to the seed. Few are likely to grow the 

 plant on ridglets with manure ; but, if this were done, the same distance as for turnips will ensure a 

 better crop of seed than if the plants were closer together. In close crops the seed is only found on the 

 summits of the plants ; in wide ones on rich soils, it also covers their sides. When rape seed is grown 

 purposely for sheep keep, no hoeing, thinning, or weeding, are necessary. Rape grown for seed will not 



be much injured by a very slight cropping from sheep early in the autumn, but considerably so by being 

 eaten down in winter, or in the succeeding spring. Tht 

 must then be protected as much as possible from birds. 



eaten down in winter, or in the succeeding spring. The seed begins to ripen in the last week in June, and 



6089. In harvesting rape great care is requisite not to lose the seed by shaking, chaff- 

 ing, or exposure to high winds or rains. 



6090. It is reaped with the hook, and the principal point is to make good use of fine weather ; for, as it 

 must be threshed as fast as reaped, or at least without being housed or stacked like other crops, it requires 

 a. greater number of hands in proportion to the land, than any other plant. The reaping is very delicate 

 work ; for if the men are not careful, they will shed much of the seed. Moving it to the threshing-floor is 

 another work requiring attention. One way is to make little waggons on four wheels with poles, and cloths 

 strained over them ; the diameter of the wheels being about two feet, and the cloth body five feet wide, 

 six long, and two deep; these are drawn by one horse, and the whole expense is not more than 305. or 40s. 

 In large farms, several of these may be seen at work at a time in one field. The rape is lifted from the 

 ground gently, dropped at once into these machines without any loss, and carried to the thresliers, who keep 

 hard at work, being supplied from the waggons as fast as they come, by one set of men, and their straw 

 moved off the floor by another set. Many hands of all sorts being employed, a great breadth of land is 

 finished in a day. Some use sledges prepared in the same way. All is liable to be stopped by rain, and the 

 crop much damaged ; it is, therefore, of very great consequence to employ as many people as possibly 

 men, women, and boys, to make the greatest use of fine weather. The seed is likewise sometimes cleaned 

 in the field, and put into sacks for the market. But when large quantities of seed are brought quickly 

 together, as they are liable to heat and become mouldy, it may be a better method to spread them out thinly 

 over a barn, granary, or other floor, and turn them as often as may be necessary. 



6091 . The produce where the plant succeeds well, and the season is favourable for secur- 

 ing the seed, amounts to forty or fifty bushels or more on the acre. Marshal thinks, indeed, 

 that on the whole it may be considered as one of the most profitable crops in husbandry. 

 There have been, says he, instances, on cold, unproductive, old pasture-lands, in which 

 the produce of the rape crop has been equal to the purchase value of the land. The 

 seed is sold by the last of ten quarters, for the purpose of having oil expressed from it in 

 mills constructed for that purpose. The price, like that of all crops of uncertain and 

 irregular demand, is continually varying. 



6092. The uses to which the rape is applied are the following : 



6093. The use qf the seed for crushing for oil is well known ; it is also employed as food for tame birds, 

 and sometimes it is sown by gardeners, in the same way as mustard and cress, for early salading. 



6094. The rape-cake and rape-dust, the former adhering masses of seed husks, after the oil has been 

 expressed, and the latter loose dry husks, are used as a top-dressing for crops of different kinds. They 

 are reduced to powder by a malt mill or other grinding machine, and sometimes sown broad-cast over 

 young clovers, wheats, &c., and at other times drilled along with turnip seed. Four hundred weight of 

 powder sown with turnip seed will go over one acre in drills, but three times the quantity is require(i for 

 an acre sown broad-cast. Experience has proved, that the success of this manure depends in a great 

 measure on the following season. If rain happens to fall soon after the rape-dust is applied, the crop is 

 generally abundant ; but if no rain falls for a considerable period the effects of this manure are little dis- 

 cernible, either on the immediate crt>p or on those which succeed it. There are turnip tirills contrived so 

 as to deposit the manure along with the seed. 



6095. The use of the haulm to cattle-in winter is very considerable. The stover (pods and points broken 

 ofiF in threshing) is as acceptable as hay, and the tops are eaten nearly as greedily as cut straw, and are at 

 least better than wheat straw. When well got, the smaller stalks will be eaten up clean. The offal makes 

 excellent litter for the farm- yard, and is useful for the bottoms of mows, stacks, &c. The haulm of this 

 plant is frequently burned ; and, in some places, the ashes, which are equal to potash, are sold ; by which 

 practice, if no manure is substituted, the soil must be greatly deteriorated. It is a custom in Lincolnshire, 



