352 THE RAPE CROP. 



tillage cultivation. Relatively to the conditions required 

 by other crops, perhaps the last mentioned freedom from 

 stagnant water is the most important for this. The 

 plant is of rapid growth and necessarily of a vigorous 

 habit, with great power of root-development, and penetrat- 

 ing deep into the soil, in order to provide for its food- 

 requirements. If the roots get into a stratum charged with 

 water, their functions are impeded, the general system of 

 the plant becomes debilitated, the leaves assume a sickly 

 yellowish tint, and further progress is checked. 



The proper place in the rotation is the same as that 

 allotted to turnips between two straw crops. Owing, 

 however, to the more rapid growth of the rape, it rarely 

 occupies the same position in the farm cropping as the 

 turnip ; as, under a good system of management, the land 

 may generally be profitably occupied during the interval 

 between the harvesting of the grain crop and the time 

 for sowing the rape. This, in suitable districts, is turned 

 to good account by taking an intermediate crop of say 

 Trifolium incarnatum on the chalk and lighter class of 

 soils, of winter vetches on the medium soils, and of Italian 

 ryegrass for soiling on the stronger clay soils or any other 

 crops suited to the soil and the district or markets ; taking 

 care, of course, to avoid those as cabbages, for instance 

 belonging to the same order. 



In preparing the ground for rape, due consideration 

 must be paid to its requirements as a rapidly-growing 

 plant, producing a bulky yield when grown under suit- 

 able conditions. In all cases the land should be in 

 good heart; and where manuring substances are applied 

 for the direct use of the crop, they should always be 

 in a readily assimilable state, or the crop, owing to 

 its speedy growth, may arrive at its maturity with- 

 out having had full access to the supply of food- 

 materials provided for it. If farmyard manure is used, 



