Rape-Cake  as  Food  for  Stock. 
617 
serving  of  a passing  notice,  we  would  direct  attention  to  the 
mode  of  weaning,  the  cutting  of  the  turnips  from  the  commence- 
ment, and  the  cleanliness  and  strict  punctuality  to  be  observed  in 
giving  the  cake.  The  ordinary  plan  of  weaning  is  to  remove  the 
lambs  from  the  ewes,  and  put  them  into  the  best  seed  or  clover 
fog  which  the  farm  affords,  and  which  seldom  fails  to  prove  fatal 
to  many  of  them.  The  other  two  practices  are  so  obviously 
requisite  to  success,  that  we  need  not  tax  the  patience  of  the 
reader  by  dwelling  further  on  them. 
I have  only  in  conclusion  to  add,  in  order  to  show  the  liking 
which  both  sheep  and  other  animals  will  acquire  for  rape-cake, 
that  since  the  discussion  at  Thirsk  I have  seen  400  lambs,  on 
luxuriant  red-clover  fog,  daily  eating  with  avidity  their  i lb. 
per  head  of  cake,  in  equal  proportions  of  rape  and  linseed ; and 
that  when  last  winter  Mr.  Charnock  gave  rape-cake  to  his  young 
heifers  in  the  straw-fold,  two  young  colts  soon  became  so  fond  of 
it  that  they  drove  the  beasts  away  from  the  hecks,  and  were  con- 
sequently obliged  to  be  removed  from  the  yard. 
Wakefield , September,  1850. 
XXXII. — Climate  of  the  British  Islands  in  its  Effect  on 
Cultivation.  By  B.  Simpson. 
The  effect  of  climate  on  cultivation  has  not  generally  received 
that  consideration  amongst  practical  men  which  its  great  import- 
ance has  long  appeared  to  me  to  deserve.  One  reason  of  this,  per- 
haps, is  the  slight  knowledge  of  geography  frequently  possessed 
bv  farmers  ; and  hence  the  comparative  small  knowledge  of  its 
effects  on  a large  scale.  To  arrive  at  a knowledge  of  the  effects 
of  climate  we  need  only  look  to  the  two  extremes  thereof,  as 
witnessed  at  the  equator  and  the  poles.  If  we  look  from  our 
temperate  zones  to  the  equator,  we  behold  vegetation  not  only 
unchecked  by  the  torpor  of  winter,  but  also  aided  by  a large 
amount  both  of  heat  and  moisture,  spring  up  and  progress  with 
a rapidity  and  force  unknown  to  us.  There  our  plants  rise  to 
shrubs,  and  our  shrubs  become  majestic  and  towering  trees. 
Again,  if  we  turn  to  the  poles,  we  find  our  trees  become  shrubs, 
so  small  that  several  of  them  may  be  folded  in  the  leaves  of  a 
book ; and  our  plants  entirely  disappear. 
By  geographers  this  term  is  used  as  a subdivision  of  the  zones, 
and  the  space  from  the  equator  to  the  poles  is  divided  into 
twenty-four  climates,  having  each  a difference  of  half  an  hour  in 
the  length  of  their  day,  through  the  torrid  and  temperate  zones, 
and  of  a month  in  the  frigid.  But  climate  is  found  to  depend  on 
