RAPE AND CABBAGE. I63 



between the last rib and the hip. Sheep die so 

 quickly from bloat that medicine given is seldom of 

 much value. But if animals dying or just dead from 

 bloat are at once bled, the meat is not injured as food. 



CABBAGE. 



Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) has been grown to 

 some extent as a soiling food for sheep, both in 

 Europe and America, but so far as known to the 

 author it has not been grown to provide pasture 

 for sheep elsewhere than at the Minnesota Univer- 

 sity experiment farm. The experiments there con- 

 ducted were carried on under the direction of the 

 author, and they have been quite successful, in fact, 

 encouragingly so. No plant grown at the said farm 

 has furnished more valuable food for sheep to the 

 acre. The field thus opened for growing this plant 

 will prove surely a very wide one. 



Although very similar to rape in its food con- 

 stituents, a crop of cabbage, when well matured, will 

 sustain less injury from frost, and consequently will 

 provide pasture later in the season. A second advan- 

 tage that cabbage has over rape as a pasture plant, 

 arises from the fact that there is even less hazard in 

 growing the former. It cannot be said that the cab- 

 bage has more of inherent vigor than rape, but the 

 mode of cultivation which it requires is almost cer- 

 tain to insure a crop even in the driest seasons. 

 There is certainly a wide future before this plant in 

 providing pasture for sheep. 



Distribution. — Cabbage, like rape, can be suc- 

 ce^fi4lly grown in nearly all sections of the United 

 States and Canada. But, like rape and rutabagas, 



