198 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of a connoisseur an article of butter made in this way, compar- 

 ing it with another made from well kept cows, but without the 

 cabbage, and he was unable to detect any difference between the 

 two. If any one has acquired a prejudice of this kind, it has 

 probably arisen from the fact that the stumps and decayed 

 leaves have been carelessly fed out with the other parts. If 

 this had been the case, it is no wonder that the milk produced 

 should have an unpleasant taste. The cow, when at liberty, 

 selects her food with sufficient care, but, if confined, in her 

 eagerness for anything green, she is not so particular, and needs 

 to have her food prepared for her clean and sweet. 



The relative value of cabbages, compared with other vege- 

 table food, is shown by Professor Johnston, in his Agricultural 

 Chemistry, page 359, where he says : " In the case of the ox, 

 the daily waste or loss of muscle and tissue requires that he 

 should consume 20 to 24 ounces of gluten or albumen, which 

 will be supplied by any of the following weights of vegetable 

 food : — 



Meadow hay, . 

 Clover hay, . 

 Oat straw, 

 Pea straw. 

 Potatoes, 

 Carrots, . 



From this table it appears that cabbage is worth as much, 

 pound for pound, as carrots, and nearly twice as much as 

 turnips. This is probably much more than the popular 

 estimates, but is, no doubt, as correct. Among market gar- 

 deners the value of the cabbage, and its proper cultivation, are 

 much better understood than with the mass of farmers through 

 the State. The great object with the latter has been to get their 

 necessary supply for the table ; and with their method, or 

 rather want of method, they have hardly succeeded in this. In 

 our boyish days, the first sign of gardening operations to be 

 seen in the spring, was a row of cabbage stumps, whose heads 

 had been consumed the preceding winter, looking more hope- 

 lessly forlorn and crestfallen, as they literally were, than any 

 line of school-boys enduring the wrath of the master for idle- 



