THE CULTIVATOR. 
201 
The estimated nett profits of these crops are $68.15, 
$87.71, and $134.50—products large enough, cer¬ 
tainly, to satisfy the reasonable desires of any man, 
for the use, one year, of an acre ot land—and proba¬ 
bly exceeding its marketable price, in fee. The only 
fault we find with the accounts current of these 
crops, is the low estimates they make of the value of 
manure ; and one gentleman, Mr. Osborn, has virtu¬ 
ally considered it worth nothing, except the expense 
of hauling it out. These gentlemen must all be good 
farmers, 'and if so, they must know, that every load 
of manure, when judiciously applied to the corn or 
ruta baga crop, is richly worth one dollar—nay, that 
it adds two dollars to the value of the crop. 
Of the corn crops, both are so meritorious to the 
cultivators, that we will not stop to inquire which 
is most so, but cheerfully award to each of the com¬ 
petitors a first premium. 
The ruta baga crop is certainly highly meritorious, 
whether we regard the product or the example it 
holds out to others. We therefore award—• 
To William, Ingalls, of Volney, and to Joseph F. 
Osborn, of Port Byron, each, a ten dollar premium, 
on their corn crops of 116 and 118£ bushels per acre. 
And 
To John C. Mather, of Schaghticoke, a premium 
of ten dollars, on his crop of 1231 bushels of ruta 
baga to the acre. 
The premiums will be paid in plate, on demand, in 
such articles as the claimants may select. And may 
these prizes, though small in amount, stimulate the 
gentlemen to whom they are awarded to persevere in 
the work of improvement and of usefulness, to their 
individual benefit, and to the manifest advantage of 
the public, through their excellent example. 
We award the premium of five dollars, for the best 
plan of a barn and cattle sheds, offered in 1837, to 
C. N. Bement, of Albany. 
On the Culture of Rape. 
Our attention has been drawn to this plant by the 
letter of Mr. Kennedy, inserted under Correspond¬ 
ence ; and from the experiment in its culture which 
he details, there is a strong probability that it may 
be profitably introduced among us as a farm crop. 
Rape belongs to the Brassica, or Cabbage, genus 
of plants, and is cultivated extensively on the conti¬ 
nent, and in some parts of Britain, principally for 
the oil afforded by its seeds. According to De Can¬ 
dolle and Yon Thaer, the species cultivated in Ger¬ 
many, France and the Netherlands, is the Brassica 
campeslris oleifera, while that cultivated in Britain is 
the Brassica napus. The former has hispid, or brist¬ 
ly leaves, is more hardy, and more productive than 
the latter, the product being 955 to 700 of the latter. 
The rape is a biennial plant, and perfectly hardy, we 
now believe, in our climate. 
With a view to encourage experiments in the cul¬ 
ture of this plant, we shall state somewhat in detail, 
the mode of managing the crop, its product, uses, 
&c. 
The soil for rape should in the first place be dry— 
it should be rich, ploughed deep and well pulverized. 
Reclaimed swamps suit it well. Prepare as for tur¬ 
nips, or other fine seed. The seed may be sown at the 
same time as the common turnip, and indeed it is some¬ 
times sown with the turnip, though the practice is a 
bad one—the turnips being gathered in the autumn, 
and the rape in July following, when the seed has 
attained to maturity. It may be sown broadcast or 
in drills. If intended to be fed off by sheep in win¬ 
ter, a practice recommended by Loudon, and follow¬ 
ed in Lincolnshire, one peck of seed may be evenly 
sown broadcast upon an acre; but if the object is 
seed, or the drill culture is to be adopted, two to 
four quarts of seed will suffice for an acre. Resem¬ 
bling the turnip much in the properties of its top, it 
affords, in autumn and winter, a fine “bite” for sheep. 
It is scarcely surpassed, says Loudon, by any other 
vegetable, in so far as respects its nutritious proper¬ 
ties, and that of being agreeable to the taste of the 
animals. The after culture of rape should be like 
that of the turnip, though we are afraid it would be 
apt to be neglected with us—that is, it ought to be 
kept free from weeds by the hoe, and the plants 
ought to be thinned to the distance of six inches.— 
In close crops the seed is only found on the summits 
of the plants; in wide ones it also covers their sides. 
As seed is the principal object, the thinning process 
should be particularly attended to. It comes to ma¬ 
turity in July or August. 
The harvesting process is the most critical. The 
crop must be cut with a sickle or hook, and with care, 
to prevent the lo-s of seed, which wastes under care¬ 
less management; and it should be threshed, in the 
field or barn without delay, and without being put 
into stack or mow. In moving it to the threshing 
floor, either a perfectly tight box to the wagon or 
cart is required, or a large cloth should be spread 
upon the bottom, and extended over the sides, so as 
to catch all the seeds that fall out. The harvesting 
should be made in good weather, and as many hands 
be employed as can work to profit. 
The product, under favorable circumstances, is 
forty or fifty bushels, or more, of seed to the acre.— 
The seed is crushed for oil, in the same way as lint 
or fl ixseed, and never sells for less, in England, than 
£30, the last of ten quarters, which is about $1.66 
to $1.70 the bushel. Marshall says it may be con¬ 
sidered as one of the most profitable crops in hus¬ 
bandry. There have been, says he, instances, on 
cold unproductive old pasture lands, in which the 
produce of the rape crop has been equal to the pur¬ 
chase value of the lands. The oil is burnt in lamps, 
and is used for various other purposes ; but is lia¬ 
ble to become rancid ; but by being purified it is al¬ 
most entirely divested of color, smell and taste, so 
that it will burn clear without any interruption. 
Independent of the value of the seed for oil, and 
of the leaves as winter food for sheep, the rape crop 
affords other sources of profit. Rape cake constitutes 
a valuable material for manure. The English break 
it into powder, and sow it broadcast upon clover, or 
deposite it, at the rate of four cwt. to an acre, in drills 
with turnip seed. The Flemings throw it into their 
urine cisterns, where it dissolves, and adds materially 
to the fertilizing properties of the liquid. In Holland 
it is almost exclusively used for feeding milch cows 
and other farm stock ; and, if we mistake not, quan¬ 
tities are annually exported to England, under the 
name of oil cake, for a like purpose. The haulm is 
burnt by the Flemings, and the ashes, which are 
alledged to be equal to potash, are employed as ma¬ 
nure. The English condemn this practice, and say 
that the haulm or straw is as acceptable to cattle as 
hay; and the Lincolnshire corrected report adds, 
that when grown on fresh land, the stalk is as brit¬ 
tle as glass, and is superior to every other kind of 
food in fattening sheep. 
Rape has been raised, on a limited scale, by some 
foreign emigrants in our neighborhood, to afford au¬ 
tumn feed for sheep, but never, as we can learn, for 
the seed. And indeed seed has been kindly sent to 
us for trial, but the multiplicity of our avocations 
have prevented our giving it a trial. A principal 
obstacle, at present, to its culture among us, would 
be the want of mills to crush the seed. 
We tender our thanks to Mr. Kennedy, for calling 
our attention to the subject; and shall be happy to 
be advised of the further progress of the culture in 
his neighborhood. 
The Calendar of Flora. 
The following memoranda of the time of the flow¬ 
ering of the peach and apple, will show the compa¬ 
rative forwardness of the spring season at the differ¬ 
ent places noted, the latitudes of which are also not¬ 
ed. The data were collected by Prof. Bigelow, of 
Harvard College. The peach blossoms at all places, 
according to Humboldt, in the month when the mean 
heat is about 42° of Fahrenheit. 
Places. N. Lat. Peach. Apple. 
Charleston, S. C. 32°44' March 6 to 12. April 4. 
Richmond,Ya. 37.40 Mar.6toAp.6. April 10- 
Lexington, Ky. 38. 6 April 6 to 15. April 10. 
Baltimore, Md. 31.21 April 9 April 14. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 39.56 April 15 April 20. 
New-York, 40.42 April 21-26 May 4. 
Boston, 42.23 May 9 May 18. 
Albany, 42.39 May 12 May 15. 
Montreal, L. C. 45.35 May 12 May 25. 
Brunswick Me. May 29. 
It appears from calendars of flowering in Europe, 
that in the average, vegetation is about a month 
backwarder in the United States, than in the same 
parallels of latitude in Europe. It appears from the 
above, also, that there is a difference in the forward¬ 
ness of vegetation between Charleston and Albany, 
in a distance of nearly ten degrees of latitude, of 
about two months, or sixty days—averaging about six 
days to every degree. It is to be remarked that all 
the observations were made upon tide-water, except 
the one in Kentucky ; and that every 300 feet of ele¬ 
vation above tide-water, in the same parallel of lati¬ 
tude, is equal to a degree, in the backwardness of 
vegetation. Thus the season at Albany would be 
six days earlier than at 300 feet elevation upon the 
neighboring Hellebergh, and 12 days earlier than at 
600 feet elevation. 
Clover and Clover Seed. 
Clover is becoming of more and more importance, 
and the quantity sown is annually increasing, in pro¬ 
portion as the new system of husbandry progresses 
among us. Its tap roots penetrate and loosen the soil; 
its stems and foliage produce abundance of nuiricious 
food for the neat stock of the farm ; and both roots and 
stems, when turned over by the plough, are highly 
enriching to the soil. It is indispensable in alternate 
husbandry; and we feel justified in saying, that its 
liberal and judicious use, together with gypsum, upon 
many light soils, have added fifty, one hundred, and 
even two hundred per cent, to the profits of their 
culture. Yet there are a great many districts of our 
country in which its value is seemingly but little ap¬ 
preciated, and in which its cultivation has yet hardly 
been begun. There is hardly a plant grown upon 
the farm that returns to the soil more of the elements 
of fertility. There is almost a certainty, that its cul¬ 
ture will continue to increase for some years, in a 
progressive ratio. 
From this view of the subject it is apparent, that 
clover seed will continue to increase in demand, as 
it has continued to increase in price; and that the 
raising of it for market promises to be a lucrative 
business. The dwarf southern clover will afford a 
crop of hay, to be cut the last of June, and a crop 
of seed, to be gathered towards autumn. The price 
of seed is now from twelve to fifteen dollars a bushel; 
and suppose the acre to yield but five bushels, the 
profit will be enormous. Machines for cleaning the 
seed are already abundant, and others have been in¬ 
troduced for gathering the heads in the field. We 
give below the drawing and dimensions of one de¬ 
scribed by Mr. L’Hommedieu, in the transactions of 
the old Agricultural Society. 
[Fig. No. 67.] 
DIMENSIONS. 
1. 2. The shafts, 4 feet 4 inches long, and three 
feet asunder. 
3. 4. The handles, 3 feet long and 20 inches apart. 
5. The fingers or teeth, 13 inches long. 
The wheels are sixteen inches in diameter. 
The machine is drawn by one horse, and guided 
by a man or boy. It simply consists of an open box, 
about 4 feet square at the bottom, and about three 
in height, on three sides. To the fore part, which 
is open, fingers are fixed, similar to those of a cra¬ 
dle, about thirteen inches in length, and so near as to 
break off the heads from the clover stocks between 
them, which are thrown back into the box as the 
horse advances. The box is fixed on an axeltree, 
supported by the wheels. The driver raises or low¬ 
ers the fingers of the machine, so as to take off all 
the heads ot the grass ; and, as often as the box is 
filled with them, they are thrown out, and the horse 
goes on as before. 
Specific Manures. 
We have said, and repeated, that wheat cannot be 
depended on as a profitable crop, on primitive soils, 
withopt the application of animal matters and lime. 
The hopes of making New-England a wheat-growing 
country, always seem to us fallacious, from the ab¬ 
sence, in all primitive formations, of these two essen¬ 
tial elements, lime and animal matter. Lime is now 
generally admitted to be essential to a wheat soil; 
but as lime consists of 20 parts of the metal calcium, 
and about 7.5 of oxygen, it does not seem to furnish 
nitrogen. Upon this subject, we quote from the 
Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, the fol¬ 
lowing, in support of our former opinions. 
“ On analyzing the grain of wheat, and the bulb of 
the turnip, (the parts for which the crops are cultivat¬ 
ed,) it is at once found that both of them contain ele¬ 
mentary principles not entering into the composition of 
“ common vegetable matter,” namely, nitrogen in the grain 
of the wheat, and sulphur in the turnip, beside which 
the saline matter is also found to be peculiar, but this 
last will be considered more fully hereafter. Having 
once, therefore, discovered that these elements are es¬ 
sentially necessary for the growth of the above-mention¬ 
ed plants, we are evidently led to ask ourselves the ques¬ 
tion, Whence are they to be obtained? Dear bought 
experience has long since answered, in animal manures. 
Yes, all substances derived from the animal kingdom 
contain more or less of both nitrogen and sulphurji and 
hence the value, or, in fact, the absolute necessity, of 
such manures for the particular crops now under consi¬ 
deration. It maj r , indeed, be said by some, that 'how¬ 
ever necessary animal manure may be for turnips, still 
there can be no absolute necessity for their application 
to the wheat crop, for, as nitrogen is the substance here 
wanted, surely the atmosphere will present a ready and 
never-failing reservoir of that element.’ But it must 
here be remarked, in answer to such a statement, that 
it is exceedingly probable that the higher order of plants, 
at least, never obtain the nitrogen they possess from the 
air, but always from decomposing animal matter.” 
And what, we may be asked, are animal manures ? 
Not mere vegetables, which have rotted in the yard, 
or passed through the cattle of the farm—not farm¬ 
yard and stable dung, in the ordinary mode of its 
