366 THE RAPE CROP. 



sometimes the general colour of the cake is brownish, and 

 very uniform, and a good deal appears to depend on the 

 way in which the seed has been pressed ; but when made 

 into a paste with water, its appearance is very character- 

 istic, and cannot well be confounded with that of other 

 common cakes. 



Rape-cake or more commonly an inferior article, termed 

 rape-dust, purporting to be the cakes reduced to a coarse 

 powder is used extensively abroad, in Belgium especially, 

 and also in some districts at home, as a manure. On the 

 Continent it is generally mixed with the liquid drainings 

 of the house and cattle sheds, locally known as "purin," 

 and applied in that condition; with us, however, it is 

 simply broadcasted, either before or after the land is 

 ploughed for the crop. On the lighter class of soils gene- 

 rally, especially if subject to the "wire worm," and on the 

 soils of the magnesian limestone formation, skirting the 

 coal districts of Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, 

 it is highly thought of, and largely used as a manurial 

 application. 



