996 FORAGH OROPS 
rape as a pasture for sheep is in Farmers’ Bulletin 
No. 11, of the United States Department of 
Agriculture: 
“Rape is unrivaled as a pasture for sheep in 
autumn in those parts of this continent where it 
can be successfully grown. As a fattening food in 
the field it is without a rival in point of cheapness 
or effectiveness. The sheep that pasture upon it 
do the harvesting in a most effective manner, and 
with but little cost to the owner; and the manure 
made from it is distributed over the field which 
produced the crop, and in a form which is readily 
available for the plants of the succeeding crops. 
While rape thus grown and fed does not add fer- 
tility to the soil, unless in the plant-food it brings 
up from the subsoil, it does not detract from the 
fertility when the sheep which eat it off are in- 
closed upon it. When rape can be successfully 
grown as a pasture, the necessity for sending 
sheep and lambs to the market in a lean condition 
will be removed, and the numbers that may yet be 
fattened upon it in this country will only be limited 
probably by the inclination of the farmers and the 
demands of the market. Four to five millions of 
acres of arable land would suffice to grow rape 
enough to fatten all the sheep at present in the 
United States. 
“The manner of feeding off the rape when pas- 
tured by sheep and lambs is in outline as follows: 
