1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
145 
field, on even ground, on which spread a coarse muslin 
or canvass cloth, twenty to forty feet square, the lar¬ 
ger the better; spread the rows round and thrash 
round; a good thing is to have a boy to spread before 
the thrasher and turn over; or it can be thrashed by a 
thrashing machine, which will do the work quicker. If 
you intend, as many prefer, to thrash on the barn 4oor, 
then remove the plants carefully on a large sheet spread 
on a frame in the wagon, to prevent the loss of seed by 
the jolting or shaking of the wagon. 
When all is thrashed out, the seed can be stored in 
a dry and airy granary, according to its dry state, two 
feet thick, until it is bagged out to be sold, or sent to 
be crushed in the mill. Colza, in good ground well 
worked, does not fail to make strong stems and large 
succulent leaves the first season, so that by the middle 
or latter end of November, or beginning or middle of 
December, it will bear pasturing by small stock, calves 
or sheep—but they must not be suffered to crop the 
stalks, as it would injure the rape for the next season 
This fodder will make one of the best pastures for 
sheep, and will make them fat and in good condition. 
No hogs should be turned among those plants, as they 
would, hog-like, destroy the plants more than they 
would consume the leaves. 
The produce of an acre of Colza or rape, will be ac¬ 
cording to the condition of the land, management, care 
and nicety with which all is conducted, from twenty 
bushels upwards to fifty five or even sixty, which will 
command from two to three dollars and a half per bush¬ 
el. The last I raised I sold at $3.50 per bushel in Phi¬ 
ladelphia. Upwards of 75 bushels have been raised to 
the English acre in Flanders. 
The following method is a very good one to put in 
eight or ten acres, and will save much manure. 
Take about one-quarter to one-half acre of well ma- 
manured land, and sow on it thirty pounds of seed 
broadcast or in drills, six inches apart; let the plants 
grow until the middle of September ; take eight or ten 
aeres of stubble ground soon after harvest, plow in the 
stubble and let it lie a month or six weeks ; then plow 
it again; if the land was manured for the previous 
crop it will be in a good and fit condition; after har¬ 
rowing with the furrows, begin by plowing a furrow, 
and set the plants out of your bed, at the distance of a 
foot, against the turned side of the furrow; set the 
plow and run another furrow at the distance of three 
feet from the first, and in returning cover the first fur¬ 
row planted, and so on until the field is set. 
Should the land not have been manured, and you 
have but little to spare, lay what you have in heaps, 
and throw a good handful at the root of each plant, or 
a good handful of guano mixed with three or four times 
its bulk of earth or mold, or hen dung mixed with 
ashes ; the produce will be large and the seed of good 
quality. 
The above is the management of winter Colza or 
Rape; but there is another variety, the spring or 
March Colza or Rape; it is cultivated and handled in 
every respect like the former, except that it is sown in 
the spring, March or April, and harvested the latter 
end of August or September the same year. It does 
not, however, yield so large a produce as the former by 
ten to fifteen per cent. It requires the same amount of 
seed. 
Colza or Rape is one of the most valuable plants for 
the oil the seed produces by expression, and thus holds 
a distinguished place among the crops raised for profit- 
Rape oil is one of the most valuable oils produced and 
used in the arts and manufactures, for burning, eating, 
cloth fulling, for tanners, soap making and machinery; 
for this latter purpose it is superior to the fish oils, as 
it does not gum or harden. It makes the best oil for 
burning in the light houses, producing a brilliant stea¬ 
dy light. The United States government is at the 
present time much interested in trying to introduce its 
general cultivation in the country for that purpose. 
Fish oil is constantly rising in price, and independ¬ 
ently of whales getting scarcer every year, the price 
of fish oils may in future get materially affected by 
political uncertain events and changes; consequently 
it would be desirable, and it raises the solicitude of 
government to try to establish the cultivation of Colza 
or Rape , and the manufacturing of its seeds into oil, 
permanently in this country. 
We may then, and at not only a fair, but at a very 
liberal profit, establish among us the cultivation of 
this most valuable plant, for which the soil and climate 
of nearly all the States of this very extensive Repub¬ 
lic are eminently favorable. 
Besides the oil, the residue or cake left after ex¬ 
pressing the seed, makes one of the most powerful ma¬ 
nures ; it is as immediate in its effects and superior to 
guano, as it lasts longer in the ground to benefit after 
crops for two or three more years. The same cake for 
feeding all kinds of cattle cannot be surpassed for its 
fattening qualities ; its effects are astonishing; the 
quantities imported into England for this purpose and 
for manure, being annually very large. The produce 
of cake per acre may be set down at one-half t,o three- 
quarters of a ton or a ton, worth at present from $35 
to $40 per ton. 
Lastly, sheep are very fond of the husks and the 
ends of the branches ; the straw is made into manure 
or burnt on the ground. 
Any one desiring to engage in the cultivation of Col¬ 
za, can procure the seed of Mr. H. A. Dreer, seeds¬ 
man, 327 Chestnut st., near Fonrth, Philadelphia. 
Any other information wanted as to the produce in 
oil, crushing, putting up oil mills, &e., I will impart on 
application to me. The seed will produce about 3£ 
gallons of oil per bushel, besides the cake, which will 
be from one-half to three quarters, or a ton per acre. 
F. A. N. New-Jersey. 
- 0 - 0-0 -• 
Gooseberry Culture. 
I have seen inquiries in the Gentleman in regard 
to mildew on gooseberries. I have raised them for six 
years without mildew—that is, as long as I have had 
any in bearing. I would recommend cutting away the 
old wood, so as to have young thrifty bushes, or else 
occasionally transplant. I have done both to some ex¬ 
tent, but certainly keep the bushes thinned so as to 
give a free circulation of air and sunshine, and train 
them free of the ground by trimming or otherwise. I 
have yearly put a dressing of leached ashes or chip 
manure, or both, around my bushes, and think it is 
beneficial to put the ashes, as it prevents weeds grow¬ 
ing around, and thus admits of the circulation of pure 
air more freely. I prefer those whose habit of growth 
is most upright. B. B. N. Franklin Co., Vt. 
Gold is universally worshipped, without a single 
temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite. 
