— 
“rs 
YD 
under different management ; 
_ though I have feen a fair crop of both, 
2% 
1799-] 
and are fuccefsfully given to fheep, and 
even horfes. The experiments with us, 
of both coleworts and rape as a food for 
cattle, have been very various, and even 
contradiétory, upon different foils, and 
and al- 
and even a large crop of the latter, with- 
out the help of manure,. it has been upon 
rich land; and I muft be bold enough, 
notwithftanding fome confident aflertions 
on the favourable fide,’ to doubt the ra- 
tional probability of any fuch good for- 
tune upon poor, or even iniddling foils. 
Of rape and coleworts, rape is much 
fuperior, in both quantity and fattening 
quality ;. it alfo may be fed off by theep 
turned in at Michaelmas, which being 
withdrawn about Old Candlemas, and the 
ftalks of the plants mowed even, the addi- 
tional advantage of a crop of feed may be 
expected. In truth, the moft advantage- 
ous culture of rape,.is for the feed entirely. 
The proper application of both plants 
is, as feed for fheep and lambs, milch- 
cows, and ftore cattle. Pigs will eat them 
as rough victuals. I have never obferved 
it, but have heard of cows being hoven 
from eating colefeed, in the fame manner 
-as from green clover: nor do I altogether 
agree as to the alledged excellence of the 
butter from cows fed with this article: 
perhaps my palate may be too.nice. In 
feeding off thefe crops, particularly on 
poachy foils, it is infinitely better to cut 
and carry them to the homeftead, or to a 
dry pafture, than to turn in the cattle. 
The fingle obje& of advantage in thefe 
articles, and their fuperiority, lie in the 
certainty of food in March and April, 
when even the beft and hardieft cabbages 
may have been totally rotted and dettroyed 
by the feverity of the froft; elfe a crop of 
winter cabbages, producing more: than 
double or treble the weight, and requir- 
ing neither more manure nor more expen- 
five culture, muft be vaftly preferable. 
To obviate all rifk, 2 few years back, 
being heavy laden with flock, I divided 
my land proportionally between cabbages 
(feed from New-crofs-turnpike, near Lon- 
don) and colefeed ; the froft was ot very 
fevere; the cabbages were all eaten, and 
part of the colefeed ; the remainder pro- 
ducing avery good crop of feed at Mi- 
chaelmas. Your correfpondent being of 
Bedfordthire, I fhould have fuppofed his 
land would produce caxrots; our beft 
winter refource, and a favourite article 
with that illuftrious and able cultivator, 
his Grace of Bedford. . 
Seed can beft be procured of the Lon- 
don feedimen; and, in cafe of {carce arti- 
Culture of Colewart and Colefeed. 7 7 
cles, there is no doubt but an enquirer 
would receive polite attention at the office 
of the Board, of Agriculture. 
For the Anjou CaARBAGE or CoLE- 
WORT, I fowed both in Auguft and March, 
upon the proper tilth fcr cabbages in ge- 
neral, and with moderate drefling; I put 
in BORECOLE, or SCOTCH Kai, at the 
fame periods; the feed was fowed in a 
warm feed-bed, and the heads, or bet of 
the plants, as foon as fuficiently large, 
traniplanted tor good into the field, where 
hey were ceonftantly hend-hoed, and 
earthed up, as often as neceflary: diflance 
two feet,and a half afunder. The cattle 
began upon them in Oftober, and fome 
of them were in ufe in the fprmg; but 
the quantity very light. 4 did not per- 
ceive any very material difference between 
the autumnal and fpring fowine ; but the 
French. cultivators afiert, that in order to 
get a large and valuable crop of colewerts, 
it is neceflary to fow as early as June ina 
rich feed-bed; imwhich cafe, they will be 
in perfection the following fummér, and 
continue of the utmoft ufe all the enfuins 
winter and fpring,' even to-May. After 
li, as aritk crop, Lwegla advule the trial 
of them at only one foot afunder, in which 
method they would perhaps ‘produce the 
largeft quantity of edtable ful. 
-COLESEED will grow upon almo% any 
foil, tolerably manured ; but fucceeds beit 
upon the ftrong, clayey and deep, with 
deep ploughing. The fallow ought to 
be ftirred early m the fpring; again, early 
in April, then, harrowed down and ma- 
nured ; crofs-ploughed in’ May, and 
brought into a fine tilth by the beginning 
of July. With the firft fhower, fow half 
a peck an acre; the feed is {cattered with 
the three fingers, broad-calt, and the land 
lightly harrowed and roiled. | In Septem- 
ber, the crop is treated precifely in the 
ftile of the turnep-culture, the plants 
being fet out at a foot diftance, which 
cofts three fhillings per acre: im fom 
parts the plants may be left thicker, as a 
referve for others where they fail, which 
fhould be filled up in O&tober, or the be- 
ginning of November. The beit remedy 
againft the depredations of the flugs, 
which are particularly fend of this plant, 
is-a mixture of flacked lime and wood 
afhes; of which, ten of the former, and 
fifteen of the latter, fulice an acre. When 
this crop is fed, theland may be ploughed 
early in the fpring, with a proefpect for a 
good crop of barley. Rape; is, however, 
not deemed an ameliorating crop, but 
fucceeds beft as a follower of fuch. 
When intended for feed only, the plants - 
are cut in September, and threfhed on a 
floor 
bab) 
