The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-05-07
DIRECTIONS FOR GROWING AND FEED
-.r ING THE RAPE CROP.
How it is Done in wisconsin.


Rape seed closely resembles turnip
seed in appearance. The seed costs
but little and can be obtained from
any scotsman.
Rape may be sown with oats, bar
ley or winter rye.
SEEDING WITH RYE.
If sown with winter rye, harrow
the rye field in early spring, and SOW
about 2 pounds of rape seed per acre,
narrowing lightly again after the
seed has been sown. Such harrow
ing will usually be helpful to therye
crop.
SEEDING WITH OATS OR BARLEY.
Rape seed can be sown along with
oats or barley, but if this is done the
growth of rape is liable to become so
rank, especially if the season is a
wet one, that the plants will grow
as tall as the oats or barley. When
this happens trouble occurs at har-
vest time, owing TO the green rape
plants being cut and bound in the
oat or barley sheaves, causing them
to rot under the bands.
1t is best then to SOW rape seed
later than the grain is sown, so that
the rape will not grow so rapidly.
Eight or nine days after sowing the
oats or barley, or when the young
grain plants are three or four inches
high, run slant tooth harrow over
the field to loosen the soil. Then
seed two or three pounds of rape and
harrow lightly again. By seeding in
this way the grain crop has so much
the start of the rape plant, that the
latter are kept small and spindhng
until after the grain is harvested.
After harvest, the rape plants get
ting the benefits of sun and moisture,
begin to grow, and in a good season,
the field will soon be covered with
green forage, which can be fec off as
usual.
BROADCAST SEEDING.
Rape seed can be sOwn broadcast
any time from April to August. For
broadcast seeding, prepare the land
as for oats, and sow three or four
pounds of seed per acre, and harrow
in ghtly. Land on which rape is
sown broadcast should be compara-
lively free from weed seeds and in
good condition generally.
DRILLING.
The best crop can be secured by
growing the rape in drills, though this
way is somewhat more expensive.
Sow two or three pounds of seed per
acre in drills wide enough to Guilt
vate, planting just as one does for
beets or rutabaga turnips. Rape
plants do not need to be thinned like
ruta bagas or beets, but will grow
thick in the row. About two culGi-
vations are needed, by which time
the rape plants will so shade the
ground that weeds cannot grow.
FEEDING OFF RAPE
The rape plant resembles a ruta-
baga run to top. Rape is ready for
feeding from eight to ten weeks after
seeding, or when the plants are fif-
teen inches high, and remains useful
several weeks. After the leaves are
once eaten off, if the weather is still
warm, the plants will start new
leaves, thus furnishing a second, and
even third crop. The nouri- -hment
of the rape plant is in tho stems and
leaves. Rape is highly relished by
sheep, cattle and swine. Generally
rape taints milk so that it cannot be
used for dairy cows, although some
dairymen have used it successfully.
It cannot be cured into hay, or used
in the silo bat must be fed off in the
field, or cut and carried to stable or
feed let. Rape is ordinarily utilized
by turning steers, young cattle,
sheep or swine into the field where it
grows, and letting them feed on the
crop at pleasure, Stock being fed on
rape should get grain additional If
they are expected TO fatten rapidly.
Cattle or sheep should never be
turned into the rape field for the
first time when hungry, or when the
dew is on the plants. Fill up. the
cattle or. sheep with feed and then
turn into rape field on dry day
after the dew is off Bloating may