ON THE COMPOSITION OF TWO VARIETIES OF 

 KOHL-RABI AND OF CATTLE-CABBAGE. 



THERE are two crops which deserve to be more extensively culti- 

 vated than they are at present : the one is Kohl-rabi, the other 

 Cattle-cabbage. Both crops have this in common, that they are 

 not injured by frost, provided that the young plants are not planted 

 out too early in the spring, in which case they get over-ripe 

 before the winter sets in, and in a rainy and warm autumn or 

 mild winter are certain to be spoiled. If Kohl-rabi or cabbages, 

 therefore, are intended as winter food for cows or sheep, they 

 should not be planted out too soon, nor should the whole crop be 

 put out at one time. When the seed has been sown and the 

 young plants set out at proper intervals of time, a regular succes- 

 sion of cabbages or Kohl-rabi may be kept up as easily in the 

 field as it is in a vegetable garden, and a supply of very nutritious 

 and wholesome food be secured at periods of the year when other 

 food is scarce. 



Kohl-rabi especially stands the frost remarkably well. In 

 Germany, where a small variety is grown in gardens for the table, 

 it is not considered good until it has stood at least a week's hard 

 frost. As food for lambs it far surpasses white turnips, and is 

 equal to any kind of green food with which I am acquainted. 

 With proper management it may be grown so as to come in at 

 the lambing season ; and even should the bulbs sprout abundantly 

 and become themselves deteriorated or unfit for food, still I 

 believe that sheep-breeders will not regret having reserved a 

 Kohl-rabi field for the lambing season, instead of one of white 

 turnips, because the tops and sprouts of Kohl-rabi, unlike those 

 of the white turnip, are very nutritious. The Kohl-rabi is a 

 plant which belongs, as most readers of this Journal are aware, 

 to the cabbage tribe. Its leaves consequently resemble in taste, 

 composition, and nutritive properties, those of the cabbage much 

 more than those of the turnip, which latter are more watery and 

 far less nutritious. 



I much regret that I had no opportunity last season of ob- 

 taining the leaves of Kohl-rabi plants for analysis ; but as it is 

 my intention to examine this season a large number of bulbs 

 of Kohl-rabi, I shall at the same time direct my attention to the 

 composition of the leaves. 



In the mean time the subjoined analysis of two varieties of 



A 2 



