On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 



351 



is the best for early sowing; — that Skirving's yields the heaviest 

 crop per acre, but that its somewhat coarse head renders it more 

 liable to run to seed if early sown ; and that perhaps the Fetter- 

 cairn, a Scottish swede, is among the best as regards the quality 

 of its flesh. I have nothing to add on varieties of the vetch, of 

 grass, or clover. On mangold wurzel I recommend the globe 

 variety as retaining its juices till a later period in the spring than 

 the long red variety, and as being, on that account, preferred by 

 the cattle. A trial of their relative productiveness too was fa- 

 vourable to the former. I have also little to say on the relative 

 nutritiveness of the different cattle crops. There is this difficulty 

 connected with experiments on this subject — that contempora- 

 neous trials of the different kinds can, alone, on the ground of 

 circumstances being then common to all, be admitted as of au- 

 thority ; and yet contemporaneous trials cannot be admitted at all, 

 because at no one time are any two kinds of crop equally ripe> so 

 to speak, for use. The common turnip should be used in early 

 winter — the Swedish in early spring — and the mangold wurzel 

 should not be consumed till March and April. If the two last 

 kinds be tried together in December, it would not be fair to the 

 latter, which would be still too juicy; if, in March, it would not 

 be fair to the former, which would by that time have lost its 

 juices. Lord Spencer found that the mangold wurzel was more 

 productive of beef than the Swedish turnip, per ton ; but his expe- 

 rience, we imagine, has not been generally realised : most farmers 

 I think agree, that there is no better food for cattle than a good 

 swede, and that it is better per ton than mangold wurzel : though 

 as not being so productive in South England, it certainly is not 

 so good per acre. Rape, again, is another crop of most variable 

 value. In the fen district it is considered the most valuable of all 

 the green crops, and certainly nothing can exceed the rich crisp 

 and juicy substance of the stem of that plant grown there ; but on 

 sandy soils of less luxuriant fertility it is far from being equal to 

 the swede. Among other crops that deserve more extensive cul- 

 tivation, kohl rabi, and some of the varieties of field cabbage 

 which yield enormous bulks of food in rich soils, may be named. 

 The Jerusalem artichoke, too, has been recommended for trial : 

 and it is especially proper for cultivation in the case of corners 

 and out of the way places inconvenient for ordinary plough 

 culture.* 



I fear that no sufficient trials of the relative nutritiveness of 



* It can also be grown with little or no manure, and may be allowed to remain in 

 the ground, without danger to the crop, during the greater part of winter. In the 

 feeding of cows, the bulb not only increases the quantity of milk as much as turnips, 

 but. has the advantage of improving the quality, instead of giving it the unpleasant 

 flavour imparted by that root. It is planted in the same manner as potatoes. — 

 F. Burke. 



