es 
-middle of August. 
——_$_$<_____ 
pedition. Whensown in drills, from 3 to 4 pounds | 
of seed per acre will be sufficient ; and when 
broadcast, from 8 to 10 will be necessary. The 
time of sowing is from the middle of July till the 
Rape succeeds well by being 
transplanted. By taking advantage of this pro- 
perty two crops may be got off the land in a 
season. For this purpose the seed is sown in 
beds in the garden, or in any other convenient 
spot at the usual time, and planted out as soon 
as possible after the grain harvest is secured ; but 
this plan can only be adopted where the land is 
dry and where a green crop is to succeed. The 
stubble will be sufficiently pulverized under or- 
dinary circumstances by a single ploughing and 
harrowing, and the plants may be drilled in rows 
18 inches apart,—6 inches in the row, or nar- 
rower, according to the lateness of the season of 
planting and the quality of the scil. The method 
of transplanting rape in the Netherlands, where 
it is extensively cultivated, is to lay the plants 
at the regular distances on the newly turned up 
furrows in ploughing, and they are covered by 
the next furrow, ard so on till all is planted. 
This plan has been partially introduced into 
England and Ireland; but planting by the dibble 
is to be preferred, as any advantage gained in 
the saving of time in the Flemish mode is mere 
than counterbalanced by the loose and insecure 
way in which the plants are necessarily deposited. 
It cannot be expected that the crop under these 
circumstances will be as luxuriant as when sewn 
in a proper season and the growth not checked 
by transplanting. This method of growing it is 
valuable only as securing a crop when the land 
would otherwise be unproductive ; and if it be 
consuined on the land, a valuable and permanent 
improvement will be effected. The after culti- 
vation in any case is the same as that of the tur- 
nip, and consists in weeding, heeing, and thin- 
ning. 
The crop may be cut down and given to cattle in 
the stalls, and a second cutting will be produced ; 
but the better method of consumption seems 
to be to eat it down occasionally, with sheep on 
the land. The crop is commonly fed off at inter- 
vals from the beginning of November, until the 
middle of April, being valuable at the former 
period for fattening ewes, and at the latter for 
supporting ewes and lambs. Rape with a thick 
stem and in a luxuriant state is eaten with great 
greed and high relish by all sheep, and very ra- 
pidly fattens them ;. and, on good land, it may, in 
most instances, be readily worked or coaxed into 
this state by the very free use of the horse-hoe. 
Pithy, succulent, strong stems, in fact, are evi- 
dently better liked by sheep than the foliage, 
and may therefore be supposed to contain more 
nourishment, or at any rate to possess high adap- 
tation to healthy and vigorous winter feeding. 
Some farmers even raise rape for the use of stock 
throughout a large portion of autumn, and ob- 
tain a regular succession of it by means of three 
RAPE. 
several sowings between the middle of May and 
the end of June, and usually put their sheep 
upon it about three months after it has been 
sown, and afterwards sow the land with winter 
wheat. A considerable quantity of the very best 
food is thus produced during a period when it is 
greatly wanted, that is, from the time when the 
freshness of the clover and the grass leys is on the 
decline till the time when the turnips become fully 
grown; and this is considered equally valuable for 
the lambs when taken frem the ewes, and for the 
shearing wether sheep 18 months old, which at 
that period are nearly fat and require food of the 
most nutritious kind. 
Any land which has been cropped with winter 
rape, and fed off in winter or in spring with 
sheep, provided due culture has been given and 
no extraordinary wetness of weather. have pre- 
vailed, is in a state of very high amelioration. 
It has lest absolutely nothing by the crop; and 
it has gained a great deal by the fallowing 
agencies of the culture, by the fixation of atmo- 
spheric gases, by the treading of the sheep, and 
by the deposition of their excrements. “ What- 
ever be the succeeding crop,” remarks Mr. Rham, 
“it cannot fail to be productive; and if the land 
is not clean, the farmer must have neglected the 
double opportunity of destroying weeds in the 
preceding summer and in the early part of spring. | 
If the rape, supposing it to have been sown about 
the beginning or middle of August, be fed off in 
time, it may be succeeded by barley or oats with 
clover or grass seeds, or potatoes, if the soil is 
not too wet. Thus, no crop will be lost, and the 
rape will have been a clear addition to the pro- | 
duce of the land.” Even land which has been 
cropped with summer rape, and fed off with 
sheep in autumn, is, in some cases, as much im- 
proved by the process, and in a state of as high | 
preparation for the immediately succeeding crop 
of wheat, as if it had been summer-fallowed ; yet, 
in wet seasons, and under excessive poaching 
‘from the feet of the sheep, especially in cases 
where the soil is decidedly argillaceous, it is al- 
ways more unfit for wheat, and will yield a con- 
siderably smaller or inferier produce of it, than 
if it had been summer-fallowed. The substitu- | 
tion of fed-off rape for summer-fallow, therefore, 
ought to be done with caution, and only in cer- 
tain circumstances; though it has sometimes 
been so successful, as besides affording a clear 
gain of the whole rape crop, and yielding the 
great convenience of a timely and valuable sup- 
ply of sheep-food, to render very inferior clay 
soils productive of excellent crops of wheat. 
A main excellence of rape as a forage crop, 
viewed with comprehension of the several varie- 
ties of the plant and of their wide range of 
adaptation to soil and season, is its capacity to 
supplement or substitute any green or fallow 
part of any ordinary rotation. It may be sown 
in spring, in summer, or in autumn,—in prepa- 
ration for a spring crop or in preparation for a 
(SHU Anat HLA 
