GRBEN CROPS FOR SHEEP. 433 



yond grave doubts in the minds of judicious farmers. The 

 rigor of our northern winter climate is not favorable to 

 out-door feeding of roots ; but the modern improvement 

 of warm, well-ventilated stables has done much to obviate 

 this objection, so far as temperature of stable-feeding is 

 concerned. But we cannot adopt the English practice of 

 feeding off turnips and beets on the land; yet many of 

 the most intelligent English farmers think it much better 

 for the sheep to receive their roots in sheds, and that their 

 better thrift will pay for lifting and carting the roots. We 

 think, for sheep feeding in our northern climate, the most 

 profitable use to make of roots is to feed them off on the 

 land during October and November, before the weather 

 becomes too cold. The turnip and beet may be so matured 

 as to be quite ready for feeding in October ; and sheep may 

 then be folded upon them, with a little late-growth clover, 

 and thus continue succulent food of the best quality to the 

 beginning of winter. The comparatively high price of 

 labor has usually been regarded as fatal to the profitable 

 production of roots here; but Hon. Harris Lewis, and 

 many others, have declared that beets or turnips can be 

 raised, lifted, and stored for six cents per bushel ; and at 

 this cost of labor they must be profitable food for sheep, 

 especially as a small ration of green food in winter. But 

 there is a plant, belonging to the same class as turnips and 

 cabbages, which is extensively raised in Germany and 

 France as a food for stock and as an oil plant. It is a bien- 

 nial, and has a spindle-shaped, stringy root, running deep, 

 instead of being bulbous, like the turnips, and the value 

 of the crop is in its succulent stalks, leaves, and seed. 

 This is 



RAPE (Brassica napus), 



and is grown upon the same sort of land as turnips, beets, 

 etc. Rape has both a winter and spring variety. If the 

 winter variety can be cultivated here, it will furnish excel- 

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