344 THE KOHL-RABI CROP. 



when we recollect the character given to kohl-rabi by a 

 well-known writer in the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal, 1 who says, "As to 'mildew' or disease, I 

 never saw or heard of either, and I can distinctly add, 

 that I observed the plants to thrive better in the dry sum- 

 mers of 1847 and 1849, than during the intermediate wet 

 one of 1848," we should neglect our own interests were 

 we not, at all events, to give it the fair trial which, con- 

 sidering the great advantages it possesses, it certainly 

 claims at our hands. 



The plant comes to maturity in about twenty-five to 

 thirty weeks, and may be pulled, trimmed, and stored 

 away in the same manner as our root crops ; 2 or the later 

 planted portions may be left standing in the field during 

 the winter, to be fed off in the usual manner. Owing 

 to the constitution of the bulb, which it must be recol- 

 lected is not a root, but merely an abnormal increase of a 

 portion of the above-ground stem, it is not liable to be so 

 injured by frost or wet as the ordinary turnips or other 

 root crops ; while the nature of the plant, and its habit of 

 growth, render it especially suited for sheep-feeding, as, 

 growing out of the soil, and being firmly attached to it by 

 its roots, every portion of it can be eaten and cleared off 

 without the labour and loss of food always experienced in 

 feeding off a crop of turnips. 



Mr. Hewitt Davis says: "I have given the bulbs 

 without the leaves freely to milch cows all the winter, 

 and I find they prefer them to mangold- wurzel, and thrive 

 better on them : their milk is richer, and I have experi- 

 enced no ill flavour in the butter. I fancy, too, the sheep 



1 Vol. xi. p. 497. 



2 Owing to the extreme toughness of the stems, and their firm hold in the 

 ground, it is, perhaps, easier to cut them with a stout knife or hook as they 

 stand in the ground, and then to collect the roots after the land is ploughed 

 up. In some cases the plants are turned out with the plough, and then 

 trimmed in the usual way. 



