53 



Agriculture of Flanders, along with his most vahia- 

 ble communications relative to the manure, of which 

 the rapecake is a powerful ingrethent. Rapeseed, 

 says this gentleman, is an object of such moment in 

 Flanders, and so well suited to the generality of the 

 soil in Ireland (particularly to those parts which are 

 as yet unreclaimed, but which, by means of this va- 

 luable seed, might be converted with profit into a- 

 state of cultivation and fertility), that it was satisfac- 

 tory to learn on the spot, from a very intelligent far- 

 mer, the precise value of the crop, which I found to 

 be upwards of 17 barrels, of 16 stone each to the 

 Irish acre — which at the low rate of 1/. 14*. lOrf. per 

 barrel, would amount to 29/. 12s. per acre. The mode 

 of tillage is as follows: — The seed bed is sown in 

 August ; in October, or sooner, the stubble is 

 ploughed over, manured, and ploughed again ; the 

 plants are either dibbled in the seams of the plough 

 (each furrow slice being twelve inches broad) and set 

 out at twelve inches distance in the rows, or instead 

 of being chbbled in, upon the second j^loughing, are 

 laid at proper distances across the fiirrow, and as the 

 plough goes forward, the roots are covered, and wo- 

 men follow to set them a little up, and to give them 

 a firmness in the ground where necessary. Imme- 

 diately after the frost, and again in the month of 

 April, the intervals are weeded and hand-hoed, and 

 the earth drawn up to the plants — which is the last 

 operation till the harvest. It is pulled rather green 

 but ripens in the stack : it is then threshed, but the 

 application of the haulm or straAv is a matter of new 

 and profitable discovery. It is burned for ashes as 

 manure, which is found to be so highly valuable be- 

 yond all other sorts which have been tried, that it bears 

 a price as three to one above the other kinds ; and it 

 is considered that upon clover, a dressing of one third 

 less is sufficient. It is sometimes sown in Flandei's 

 as with us, in broad cast, biit the general method is 

 by transplanting, which has many advantages — of 



