RAVE. This plant, which Is of the cabbage tribe, is cultivated like tole, or colza, for the sake of its seeds, from which oil is extracted by grinding and pressure. It Is also extensively cultivated in England for the succulent food nldch Its thick and fleshy stem and loaves supply to sheep when other fodder is scarce.
The mode of cultivation of the col= and rape for seed is nearly the same. Tho colza takes a longer time to come to maturity, and produces more seed. The rape grows on leas fertile soils, and may be sown lu spring as well as in autumn. Both are hardy, and resist the winter's frost..
The colza (Brassies oleraces, or eampestris) is a plant which grows with a strong branching stem, 3 or 4 feet high, and requires room to sprawl; and as cultivated in Belgium the plants are raised in a seed bed, and transplanted when they have acquired a certain size. When rape (Bressico napes) is cultivated for the seed, it is treated in the same manner ; one description will therefore serve for both.
The seed-bed, whore the cultivation is on a small scale; is usually prepared by digging or trenching with the spade, in a good loamy soil, neither too sandy nor too wet. A largo proportion of rotten dung is spread evenly over ht, and dug in six inches deep, and the surface is raked fine. The seed is sown broad-cast or in drill; the latter is the best method : it is thou slightly covered with the rake ; and If the ground.will allow of it, without risk of its being bound too hard in case of dry weather, it is well rolled or trod with the feet. The seed must not be sown too thick ; and the plants, as soon as they have six loaves, must be thinned to a distance of four or_five inches in the rows, which will make them stronger and better furnished with roots. One acre of seed-bed will furnish plants for ten acres or more. The seed is sown in July or August, that the plants may not run to seed the same year, which they are apt to do if sown early ; and they arc transplanted in September or October, on laud which has already borne a profitable crop. As this crop is a substitute for a fallow on rich heavy land, too much pains cannot be taken to keep it free from weeds. Winter barley, and rye, which are reaped early in July, are very proper crops to be succeeded by rape or colza. The stubble
should be ploughed two or three times, to pulverise and cleau it. A good coat of rotten dung should be put on, and the laud ploughed in ridges, as for turnips : the plants should be put in on the ridges ten inches apart. It requires great care in taking them up not to break the fibres of the roots : they should be raised with a fork, and placed gently, with the fine earth adhering to them, in flat baskets, and in a slanting position, so that the tops may be upwards. In planting, the holes should be made with a largo thick dibble, that the plants may be introduced without doubling up the principal roots or breaking the fibres. The earth should be pressed to the root by a short dibble, inserted to the right or left of the hole made by the first dibble ; or, which is better in stiff soils, a hole should be made with a narrow hoe of sufficient depth to allow the plant to be placed In it, and another hoe should follow to draw the earth to the plant. Thus two men with hoes, and ono woman, will plant a row more rapidly than could be done any other way ; the man who fills up the holes places his foot by the aide of each plant as he goes on, to press the earth to the roots. • An expeditious mode of planting rape is used in Flanders. A spade ten inches wide is pushed vertically into the ground, and, by drawing the handle towarde his body, the labourer makes a wedge-like opening ; a woman inserts a plant In each side In this opening, and when the man removes the spade, tho earth falls back against the plants. The her foot the two plants, and they are then fixed in their places. In this operation the man moves backwards; and the woman, who puts In the plants, forward. Instead of the spade, an instrument is also used called a planloir. It consists of two sharp pointed stakes a foot or more apart, connected by a cross-handle at top, and a bar at about eight or ten Inches from the points. The instru ment is pressed into the ground by the handles, assisted by the foot placed on the lower bar, and makes two holes, a foot apart, into which the plants are placed, and earthed round as before. This is douo when the land has not been laid up into high ridges.