Book VI. 



THE CABBAGE &c. 



869 



who prepare sauerkraut are Tyrolcse, and carry their machine (fig. 767.), which has not been invented 

 more than ten or twelve years, on thdr backs from house to house. This machine contains a cuttine trav 

 («), box into which the cabbages are placed (b), scoop (c), and tub into which the shreds (all U) u;,, r l 

 Mag. vol. in. p. 343.) ; ' lu "" i 



5508. Neivton's machine for chopping cabbage or other vegetables, roots, or meat (fig. 768 1, consists of 



five knives let into an iron plate, and the latter 

 is screwed to the working bar. The knives are 

 fastened, by bolts passing through them, close 

 under and above the iron plate. The sliding 

 plate is for the purpose of preventing the meat 

 from being scattered; and to this plate are added 

 scrapers, which are screwed underneath, for the 

 purpose of cleaning the knives at every stroke. 

 A spring raises the knives, and enables any person 

 to chop at least twenty times as much meat, in 

 the same time, a* can be done by the common 

 mode. The length of the knives being equal to 

 the breadth of the trough, no meat can possibly 

 escape the knives; nor will the meat require so 

 much turning as is usually wanted. When it 

 does require turning, it is easilv done by alter. 

 nately pressing the knives at either end of the 

 trough, sliding them towards the middle. The 

 machine is also applicable for cutting fat, suet, 

 &-c. previously to rendering them into tallow ; 

 likewise to chopping madder and other roots for 

 calico printers, or as used in their recent state 

 for dyers ; and for dividing potatoes, carrots, and 

 other esculent roots, cabbage for sauer kraut, and 



roots used in feeding cattle. (Smith's Mechanic, vol. ii. p. £60.) 



5509. To save cabbage seed, select a few fine specimens, and plant them by themselves 

 where they will be in no clanger of being contaminated by others of the TJrassica tribe 

 when in flower. The seed will keep many years. 



5510. The diseases of cabbages are the same as those of the turnip, with the cxcej)tion 

 of tlie forked excrescence. On the roots of the plants are frequently found knobs, which, 

 in the preparation for transplanting, should, as we have already observed, be carefully 

 removed. 



Sect. VII. Other Plants which might be cultivated in the Fields for their Roots or Leaves, 

 as Food for Man or Cattle, in a recent State- 



5511. Every hardy garden plant may be cultivated in the fields, and with very little 

 manual labour. Accordingly we find onions, spinach, cress, radishes, and even cucum- 

 bers, grown by farmers, or farm gardeners in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and 

 also in other places. None of these plants, however, can be considered as belonging to 

 agriculture; nor should we notice those which follow, but because they have been tried 

 and recommended by zealous cultivators, and are treated of in some works on farming. 

 No plant can be considered as belonging to agriculture that is not in sufficient demand, 

 or of sufficient general use in feeding stock, as to admit of its frequent occurrence in 

 rotations ; and such certainly cannot be said to be the case with the Jerusalem artichoke 

 and lettuce, now about to be noticed. 



5512. The Jerusalem artichoke (7/elianthus tuberbsus L. ; Topinambonr, Fr.) is a tuberous-rooted plant, 

 with leafy stems from four to six feet high. It thrives well on soft moist soils, and even, it is said, on 

 moist peat soils ; and it is alleged that its tops will afford as much fodder per acre as a crop of oats, or 

 more, and its roots half as many tubers as an ordinary crop of potatoes (Agricultural Magazine, IS07-8.) 

 The soil may be cultivated in all respects like the potato, 'i he tubers, being abundant in the market 

 gardens, are to be had at little more than the price of potatoes. The fibres of the stems may be separated 

 by maceration, and manufactured into cordage or cloth ; and this is said to tie done in some parts of I lie 

 north and west of France, as about Hagenau, where this plant, on the poor sandy >oils, is an object of 

 field culture. 



a K :j 



