258 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
used in the manufacture of oil. In the outset it 
might he objected that there is no present market 
for this seed, should it be grown. That is partly 
true, but not a valid objection, for our own circum¬ 
stances in this country find a parallel in those of the 
French farmers in 1774, when Rape—or Colza, as 
It is there called—was scarcely known, until a work 
on its culture and the manufacture of oil from its 
seed, was published by M. Rozier, in that year, and 
its publication contributed greatly to the rapid in¬ 
troduction of this crop. Now the traveler through 
France, Germany, and Belgium, may see in the 
months of May and June, the whole country check¬ 
ered over with broad fields or patches of a bright 
yellow, where this crop is blossoming. Such is the 
result which has followed, if it has not wholly re¬ 
started from, the fortuitous suggestion of this wri¬ 
ter. Rape is somewhat extensively grown now, by 
some German farmers in Wisconsin, near Fond du 
Lac, where a market is found for the seed at a mill 
there established. From this commencement the 
business may spread, but it is certain that until the 
seed is produced, no mills will be operated for the 
pressing out of the oil. The first movement must 
he made by the farmers. 
No crop is more easily grown than Rape in our 
Northern or Middle States, and it thrives upon any 
30i! that will produce a crop of cabbages or turnips, 
to which plants it is closely related. The plants of 
the Mustard Family (Cruciferce), like the cabbage, 
the turnip, etc., through long cultivation for difl'er- 
«nt uses, for their seeds, their foliage, or for their 
roots, have varied so much that they present great 
difficulties to the botanists, among whom there is 
little agreement as to which species some of the 
cultivated forms belong. While some place the 
Turnip as Brassica Napus, and the Rape as B. Rapa, 
©thers of equally high authority regard both these 
as forms of B. campestris, which also includes the 
Swedish Turnip as one of its forms. Following 
the best American and English authorities, we may 
regard all the forms of Turnip and Rape as varie¬ 
ties of Brassica campestris , which is found in its 
wild state throughout Europe and Russian Asia, 
and which, as it has been cultivated with a view to 
increase the size of the root, or the abundance of 
its foliage and seed, has given rise to the different 
turnips and rapes. Of the rape sorts, in which the 
root is altogether disregarded, there are three forms 
cultivated. (1) That known in England as Rape or 
Cole-seed, which has abundant smooth leaves, and 
grown largely for fodder. (2) A form cultivated in 
northern Europe for its oil, and called Colza in 
France, and Kohlsaat in Germany; this has very 
rough-hairy leaves, and (3) a summer variety, which 
is sown in the spring, and matures its seed the same 
year, while the other two are biennials, and sown 
in the fall. Figure 1 shows a young plant of the 
oil-bearing Rape, with its long tap roots. It 
thrives well upon moist bottom lands, and also 
aipon dry lands that are deep and rich, but cannot 
l>e profitably grown upon poor soils, without 
ample manuring. The spring variety may be sown 
as soon as the soil is warm, four quarts of seed per 
acre, being sufficient, and the seed is ripe for har¬ 
dest in from three to four months, according to the 
(season. The winter variety is sown in August or 
September, if sown earlier it is apt to blossom the 
same year. The seed is drilled in rows a foot apart, 
at the rate of about 3 quarts per acre. Thin plant¬ 
ing favors the branching of the plants, and the 
production of the largest quantity of seed. The 
plant in flower is shown at figure 2. 
Tire young plants are subject to the attack of the 
cabbage “ flea,” which may be driven olf by scatter 
5ng upon the leaves some lime slaked into powder, 
with water in which some carbolic acid has been 
dissolved, one ounce of the acid being used to a 
pailful of water. The fleas may be caught in large 
numbers by wheeling over the rows a piece of board 
smeared with tar, upon which the insects are caught 
as they jump from the plants. The seed is harvest¬ 
ed when it is partly dry in the pods. A ripened 
plant is shown at figure 3. As the seed is very 
Easily shelled, it should be harvested when moist 
"with dew, either early in the morning or in the 
(Evening, or in the middle of the clay, if there has 
keen a light rain to dampen the pods. A common 
cradle, or a reaper, may be used, leaving the plants 
in rows upon the ground. The greatest care must 
be exercised in gathering and hauling the crop, and 
barn sheets should be placed in the bottom of the 
racks, or tight wagon boxes should be used to car¬ 
ry it to the thrashing machine. It may be thrashed 
by treading with horses upon the barn floor, with 
the flail, or with the ordinary machine having the 
concave raised, as the seed is very easily beaten 
out, and the pods are then not so much broken up, 
and the seed is left clean. It is necessary to store 
the seed carefully, as it will heat very rapidly when 
heaped in large quantities. The safest manner of 
storingtlie seed is upon the floor of an airy granary, 
in a layer not more than a foot in depth. As the 
seed loses weight rapidly, the loss being equal to 
one-tenth in the course of three months, the sooner 
it is disposed of the better. About 25 bushels of 
seed per acre is a fan - average yield upon good soil. 
The seed of the best quality contains by analysis 50 
per cent of oil, but from 35 to 40 per cent is all that 
can he pressed from it at the mills. There is there¬ 
fore a considerable portion of oil remaining in the 
cake or refuse, which gives it a high value as food 
for fattening cattle. When, however, the seed is 
much mixed with mustard, as is sometimes the 
case, the cake is not fit for use, being extremely 
unwholesome and irritating to stock fed with it, 
sometimes causing death. As the mixture with 
mustard also greatly reduces the yield of oil, care 
should be taken to sow pure, clean seed. The seed 
pods and straw from the thrashing machine make 
a useful fodder for sheep and cows, and are worth 
saving for this purpose. They may be preserved 
in stacks, which should be covered with straw, or 
the rain will very easily penetrate them. 
--»- g a w - 
An Octagonal Barn. 
There is considerable inquiry at present, in re¬ 
gard to barns of an octagonal or eight-sided form. 
It is probably not generally know'll that a line of a 
certain length will enclose the largest amount of 
space when it is made in the form of a circle, and 
that therefore a circular building would be more 
spacious and roomy, than a square one having the 
same length of outside wall. The nearer we ap¬ 
proach an oblong form, the less space is enclosed 
within the walls, and for this reason square build¬ 
ings are more roomy and cheaper than long and 
narrow ones, and those approaching to a circular 
form more roomy still. There is anotheradvautage 
in an octagonal or round barn, which is still greater 
than the economy of space, and this is the possi¬ 
bility of building it with a dome-shaped roof, en¬ 
tirely without cross-beams. This very great advan¬ 
tage is to be the more appreciated now that the 
horse-fork is in general use for unloading hay, 
grain, straw', or fodder. There are various plans 
for laying out and building barns of this shape, in 
all of which the principles are the same. There is 
a concrete or stone foundation wall, which may be 
either below ground for a cellar, or partially below 
it for a basement, or wholly above it for a stable, 
an inclined way being built ou two opposite sides, 
to give access to the barn-floor. Upon this founda¬ 
tion the sills are laid, the corners being made at an 
angle of 135 degrees, instead of 90 degrees, as in a 
square building. There are no cross-beams neces¬ 
sary except upon the floor, there being eight bents 
in the building, all on the outside, the plates being ! 
mortised exactly as the sills are, and the posts 
placed with regard to the necessary doors and win- 
dow'S, and the strength 
necessary to support the 
roof and stiffen the build- I 
ing. As many braces as 
may be thought needful 
Fig. 2.— cokner joint. ma y ke used, but the 
braces must all be on the 
lines of the walls, and none of them cross braces. 
The roof is an eight-sided cone, strengthened with 
purlin plates, and may be open at the center for a 
cupola or ventilator. The joints of all the plates 
and the sills will be at an angle of 621 degrees, in¬ 
stead of 45 degrees as in a square building. This 
form of the frame will 
give a roof of the strong¬ 
est kind ; one that can 
not spread, if well put to¬ 
gether, and one that offers 
less resistance to the wind 
than any other form of 
elevated roof. Inside of corner brace. 
the barn there is nothing to interfere with the piling 
of grain or hay to the roof, and a wagon may be 
driven anywhere upon the floor. For convenience 
and cheapness there is nothing more to be desired. 
A barn of this kind was recently built by Mr. E. 
IV. Stewart, a well known farmer in the State of 
New' York, who is one of the lecturers upon agri¬ 
culture at Cornell University, and has recently be¬ 
come one of the editors of the National Live Stock 
Journal. This barn was built in place of four 
others which were burned, and the large amount 
of space in it, made it equally as useful as the four 
which preceded it, for a farm of about 300 acres. 
It was 80 feet in diameter, and required a founda- 
Fig. 4.—SECTION OF BARN. 
tion wall 265i feet long. The wall was of concrete, 
15 inches thick at the bottom, and 13 at the top, 8 
feet high, and cost $350. 65 barrels of water-lime 
were used for the concrete, each barrel, with the 
sand and stone added, making about 40 cubic feet 
of wall. The wall was built in the manner which 
was explained in the American Agriculturist , (in 
Dec., 1874). The plan of the basement is shown 
at figure 1 , a being a passage for the cow's, and a 
drive-way for removing the manure, wide enough 
for a wagon to pass through it; b, b, are the stalls 
for cows, of which there are 52, having the feed 
troughs towards the center, and all reached by an 
inner drive-way. At d are stalls for horses, each 
having the feed troughs opening towards the inner 
drive-way. There are six stalls, and a room at each 
end of the stalls for harness. At e is a place for 
storing plows, carriages, wagons, or machines. A 
drive-way,/,/, passes through the basement from 
east to west. As many windows as needed may be 
built in the wall. The sills of the barn are laid up¬ 
on the wall, as already mentioned ; the posts are 
28 feet high, and the plates upon these support the 
rafters. The plates are fastened together at the 
ends by being halved, and the corners fastened by 
half inch iron bolts, as shown at figure 2. At each 
corner is a brace of 8 x 8 timber, bolted to and 
through the plates by 4-iuch bolts, and strength- 
