CROPS. 263 



the crop has increased since he began the practice, having been 

 at the outset, for five years before the combination of the crops, 

 about thirty-five bushels to the acre, and, for five years after uni 

 ting the crops, at the rate of forty-one bushels per acre. 



Our winters in the North United States would present insuper 

 able obstacles to the preservation of cabbages, to any great ex 

 tent, as winter food for stock ; but the same objections would 

 not hold at the south and in the Middle States. The cultivation, 

 however, cannot be said to extend itself in England, the Swedish 

 turnip being generally preferred. 



Some years since, an English farmer, by the name of George 

 Adams, published what he terms &quot; A New System of Agricul 

 ture and Feeding Stock,&quot; for which he obtained the king s let 

 ters patent. The pamphlet, though containing only about thirty 

 pages octavo, was sold at a guinea a copy. I caused it to be 

 republished, some years since, in the United States, not from any 

 confidence in his plan as being feasible, but as suggesting some 

 hints as to the amount of produce possible to be obtained from 

 an acre, which might induce inquiry and experiment, and, in 

 that way, contribute to agricultural improvement. As the work 

 now is scarcely known on either side of the water, I will tran 

 scribe a few passages, which I think will interest my readers. 



&quot; By pursuing,&quot; he says, &quot; the following directions, a single 

 acre of land will produce a crop sufficient to feed, in one year, 

 twenty-four beasts, or two hundred and forty sheep.&quot; 



11 In September, or sooner, let your land be well manured and 

 properly ploughed, so as to raise a good deal of fine mould ; 

 then plant one third of an acre of the land with the large sort 

 of early cabbage plant, viz., the late York or sugar-loaf; one 

 third more, in February or March, with the same sort of cabbage 

 plant ; arid the remaining third of the acre, in February or 

 March, with the ox or drum-headed cabbage plant. If the land 

 be good, I would recommend that the plants should be set in 

 rows three feet wide, and two feet between each plant, that is, 

 three plants in every square yard. Upon this plan, an acre of 

 ground will require fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty 

 plants, reckoning five score to the hundred; but if the land be 

 poor, it will be advisable to set the plants thicker proportion- 

 ably, according to the grower s judgment of the quality of his 

 land. By the beginning of June, the first crop of cabbages will 



