Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/409

Rh SEEDS.] AGRICULTURE 383 cultivation of sugar-beet will be adopted in various parts of our own country. It has already been proved that the beet grown in the south-eastern counties of England is richer in sugar than that produced in the north of France, And it seems well worth while to ascertain, by careful ex periment, whether in certain parts of Scotland, such as the Lothians, Fife, and the carses, sugar-beet could not with advantage be substituted for the precarious and exhausting potato crop. The repeal of the sugar-duty would give a great stimulus to this enterprise, and should be pressed for in the interest of our native agriculture. Section 4. - -Chicory (for its Roots], The very extensive and constantly increasing consump tion of the roots of chicory as a substitute for coffee, renders it now an agricultural crop of some importance. The soils best adapted for its growth are deep friable loams. The process of cultivation is very similar to that required for the carrot, excepting only that it is not sown earlier than the first week of May, lest the plants should run to seed. &quot;When this happens, such plants must be thrown aside when the crop is dug, else the quality of the whole will be injured. About 4 Ib of seed is the quantity to sow- per acre, either broadcast or in rows. The latter is undoubtedly the best mode, as it admits of the land being kept clean, and yields roots of greater weight. The crop is ready for digging up in November. A long stout fork is the best implement for this purpose. In using it, care must be taken to get out the roots entire, not only for the sake of the roots, but to lessen an inconvenience attendant on the culture of this plant, namely, that the fragments left in the soil grow amongst the after crops, and are as trouble some as weeds. The roots, when dry, are carefully washed, cut into thin slices, and kiln-dried, when they are fit for the coffee-grinder. From 1 to 1 tons per acre of the dried root is an average produce. Section 5. Oil-yielding Plants. Various plants are occasionally cultivated in Britain for the sake of the oil which is expressed from their ripened seeds. &quot;We have already noticed the value of flax-seed for this purpose, although the fibre is the product which is chiefly had in view in cultivating it. The plants most commonly sown expressly as oil-yielding crops are rape (Srassica Napus), colza (Brassica campestris oleifera), gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa), and the poppy (Papaver somniferum). Eape is the plant most frequently and ex tensively grown for the production of oil. The colza is said to yield better crops of seed than the other species. This plant is much .cultivated in Flanders for this purpose. In Great Britain it seems rather on the decline. It is chiefly on rich alluvial soils that this crop is grown. For a seed-crop rape is sown in June or July, precisely in the manner already described for turnips. The young plants are thinned out to a width of 6 or 8 inches apart, and afterwards kept clean by hoeing. The foliage may be eaten down by sheep early in autumn, without injuring it for the production of a crop of seed. In spring the horse and hand hoe must be used, and the previous application of 1 or 2 cwt. of guano will add to the productiveness of the crop. It suits well to lay down land to clover or grass after a crop of rape or turnip seed, and for this pur pose the seeds are sown at the time of giving this spring culture. The crop must be reaped as soon as the seeds are observed to acquire a light brown colour. The reaping is managed precisely as we have described in the case of beans. As the crop, after being reaped and deposited in separate handfuls on the ground, very soon gets dry enough for thrashing, and as the seed is very easily shed after this is the case, this process must be performed as rapidly as possible. Sometimes it is conveyed to the thrashing-mill on harvest carts, on which a cloth is stretched to save the seeds knocked out in the loading and unloading, but more usually the flail is used on temporary thrashing-floors pro vided in the field by spreading down large cloths. The crop is gently lifted from the ground and placed, heads innermost, on a blanket which two persons grasp by the corners, and carry to the thrashing-floors. A large niimber of people are required to push this process through rapidly, for unless the crop is quickly handled, a great loss of seed ensues. The seed is immediately spread thinly upon a granary floor, and frequently turned until dry enough to keep in sacks, when it is cleaned and disposed of. On good soil and in favourable seasons the yield sometimes reaches to 40 bushels per acre. The haulm and husks are either used for litter or burned, and the ashes spread upon the land. It makes good fuel for clay-burning. Section 6. Seeds of Agricultural Crops. In the case of seed-corn it is customary for farmers either to select from the best of their own growth, to ex change with or purchase from neighbours, or, if they wish a change from a different locality, to employ a commission- agent to buy for them. In all districts there are careful farmers who, by occupying land that produces grain of good appearance, and being at pains to have good and pure sorts, are stated sellers of seed-corn, and manage in this way to get a few shillings more per quarter for a part of their produce. It is therefore only in the case of new and rare varieties that professional seedsmen ordinarily deal in seed-corn. There are, however, other field crops, such as clovers, grasses, turnip, mangold, carrots, winter vetches, &c., the seeds of which, to a large extent, pass through tho hands of seedsmen, and the growing of which is restricted to particular districts, and is in the hands of a limited number of farmers. These seed crops are sometimes very remunerative to the grower ; but are hazardous ones for farmers to attempt at their own risk. The only safe course is to grow them at a stipulated price, to the order of some thoroughly respectable seedsman, and to hold to the pro duction of the particular kind or kinds which he requires. This applies in a less degree to the clovers, and to the more commonly cultivated grasses, than to the other seeds just referred to. Such an arrangement is beneficial to all concerned. We have already described (chap. xiii. sec. 13) the mode of saving the seeds of Italian or common ryegrass ; and as other grasses are managed in the same way, it is unneces sary to say more regarding them. It is only in the southern parts of England that clover is grown for the sake of its seeds. When it is meant to take a crop of seed, the clover is fed off with sheep, or mown early in the season, and then allowed to produce its flowers and ripen its seeds. This preliminary eating or cutting over causes the plants to throw up a greater number of seed-stems, and to yield a fuller and more equally ripening crop. The crop is mown when the seeds are seen to be matured. In the case of white clover the cutting takes place while the dew is upon the crop, as working amongst it when dry would cause a loss of seed. After mowing and turning the crop, the ground is raked with close-toothed iron rakes, to catch up loose heads. The thrashing is a twofold process first the separation of the heads or cobs from the stem, called &quot; cobbing,&quot; and then of the seeds from the husks, called &quot; drawing.&quot; This was formerly accomplished by a laborious and tedious process of thrashing with flails, but it is now done by machinery. In favourable seasons the yield is about 5 or 6 bushels (of 70 ft&amp;gt; each) per acre. Turnip seed is the next most important crop of this kind,