. CLASS OF SOILS SUITABLE. 351 



carry on the development of its above-ground stem and 

 leaves, better than it could do of any portion which, like 

 the bulb of the turnip, is limited to the soil. The rapidity 

 of growth, too, is not one of the least advantages, the plant 

 (for we may now, for the purposes of cultivation, speak of 

 them both under the general name of "rape ") offers to cul- 

 tivation, as in about twelve to fourteen weeks after sowing 

 it is, under ordinary circumstances, ready for stocking; 

 On strong soils especially, this is a matter of some im- 

 portance, as if well managed, the crop may be fed off 

 and the field cleared before the wet weather sets in, thus 

 saving the loss that is always sustained by delay in feed- 

 ing, by injury to the remaining crop, and by poaching 

 the soil, and also by the general disturbance of farm opera- 

 tions which occur so frequently in districts where turnips 

 are cultivated on strong clay soils. 



Rape, however, is not limited to the two classes of soils 

 referred to, but will grow on any of our ordinary culti- 

 vated soils ; on none, probably, in greater luxuriance than 

 on the class of deep loams suited to the growth of beans 

 or wheat. Here it would find all the conditions suitable 

 to its requirements, and would no doubt produce a greater 

 amount of nutritive matter real food than when grown 

 on rich humous soils, where its produce in weight per 

 acre might in some cases be greater. In the sheep-farming 

 counties of Sussex, Hants, Wilts, Berkshire, it is cultivated 

 to a considerable extent, as also on the wolds of Lincolnshire 

 and Yorkshire, where the same class of soils are met with, 

 belonging chiefly to the cretaceous series, and which seem 

 to be fully as well suited to its growth as to that of the 

 turnip. The same conditions in the soil are necessary for 

 rape as for the other crops already described depth, 

 fineness of division (tilth), and freedom from stagnant 

 water ; and these conditions it is always within our power 

 to secure on all land which is worth being taken into 



