RAPE AND KALE 421 



with their proper curing. Sowing the rape a couple of weeks 

 later than the grain usually avoids this trouble, while the 

 rape succeeds quite as well. 



549. Uses. It is customary to pasture rape, when it is 

 sown either alone or with a grain crop. Occasionally, it is 

 cut for soiling, but it is never cured into dry fodder. It is 

 most largely used as pasture for hogs and sheep. Better 

 results are obtained if stock are pastured on only a small area 

 at a time, using movable fences or hurdles and changing the 

 animals to different areas as necessary. Otherwise, much of 

 the feed is wasted by the animals tramping it into the soil. 

 Rape is a succulent, palatable feed, very similar in composi- 

 tion to the best perennial pasture crops, and as it produces a 

 large quantity of forage in a short time, it should be more 

 extensively used. Care should be taken to prevent bloating 

 when cattle or sheep are first turned on it. When sown with 

 grain crops and pastured after the grain is harvested, sheep 

 will put on flesh rapidly, as they get the benefit of the glean- 

 ings as well as the rape. 



Kale is used quite extensively as a fall and winter soiling 

 crop for dairy cows and other stock in Oregon and Washing- 

 ton west of the Cascade Range. As the winters are mild, 

 it may be cut at any time from October to April. 



SUPPLEMENTARY READING 



Allen's Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Allied Vegetables. 



Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. II. 



Burkett's Farm Crops. 



Hunt's Forage and Fiber Crops in America. 



Shaw's Forage Crops. 



Shaw's Soiling Crops and the Silo. 



Voorhees' Forage Crops. 



Farmers' Bulletins: 



164, Rape as a Forage Crop. 



309, pp. 7-15, Root Crops. 



