144 Additional Crops for Coios and Sheep. 



tliat stock-keepers are not doing what they might by way of 

 insurance against loss by drought. These crops are especially 

 valuable as cow or sheep food : moreover there is not one 

 objection which can be lodged against them as foods, whilst 

 their cropping powers are good and their cultivation simple. 

 Any one looking for additional crops for cows or sheep should 

 certainly give attention to these. Cabbages meet the summer 

 and autumn drouglits, and kohl rabi does not mildew nor does 

 it so readily take tinger-and-toe and other diseases so frequent 

 with turnips and swedes. Kale sown earlj^ gives enormous 

 bulk in the following year, just before grass is available. 



It is very satisfactory to see that although swedes and 

 turnips have lessened their area by about half a million acres, 

 yet mangolds have increased by 1()0,(KH) acres since 1878. After 

 the success of mangolds this year they are likely to continue 

 to increase, and it is well that they should do so. They are 

 essentially the " between swedes and grass " root, and are the 

 best insurance against loss through shortness of food at that 

 critical period. Of all the features shown by the Returns, the 

 increase in the area of mangolds is the most satisfactory. The 

 head of stock in the country warrants a decidedly greater 

 increase. The most unsatisfactory feature is the trifling area 

 given to cabbages and kohl rabi. 



In 1878 there was no separate division for rape in the 

 Returns, so it cannot be said what changes there have been. 

 The crop is grown to the extent of 78,000 acres, and on chalk 

 soils where there is a rapid succession of crops without any very 

 strict regard to their rotation, it is relied upon hy flock-masters 

 to find food at certain periods of the year. Like the swede or 

 turnip, the greater portion of the crop is sown in hot weather, 

 and it has similar trouble in becoming established and out of 

 danger of the "fly"; but its woody root holds the ground 

 better than fleshy-rooted plants during drought. Its habit 

 enabling it to be fed off more than once adds to its value and 

 popularity. Sown at Easter time in favourable seasons this 

 crop may l)e fit to feed ofi: in August, possibly again later, and 

 again in the spring ; but on the whole it is not one of the best 

 stop gaps during the ordinary drought periods, although some- 

 times it is most effective in this respect when food runs short 

 in early autumn. It is met with incidentally on all soils over 

 ■ a large portion of the country as a catch crop sown after a 

 bastard fallow, but on the easily worked chalk soils in far 

 greater quantity than elsewhere. On stronger soils other crops 

 as a rule repay the cost of growing better where the}' take a full 

 place in rotation, and but a small area of rape is grown on siich 

 land. Cole seed or giant rape is met with on rich soils such as 

 the Fens and on good loams, where it grows enormous crops 



