272 On the Growth of Mangolds, Cahhages, &c. 
more generally adopted by slieep breeders in the southern and 
south-western counties than is commonly supposed. 
Mr. Robert Russell, on the Horton Court Lodge Farm, has 
certainly shown Kent farmers how to make kale perform the 
duty of affording abundant food for flocks during every month 
of the year. I have frequently seen kale being fed on his farm 
as early as June, while throughout July and August it forms 
the staple food for the lambs, being a substitute for rape. 
Cabbages are preferred by Mr. Russell even to kale for autumn 
food, but throughout winter and often far into the spring all the 
sheep in the farm are allowed as much kale as they like to eat ; 
and they not only thrive well on it but are pre-eminently healthy. 
There are seldom any abortions or stillborn lambs, and 300 ewes 
have more than once passed through the critical period of lambing 
down without the loss of a single one of them. 
Dealing strictly with the economical features of kale growing, 
those who form the impression that the crop is a ravenous feeder 
on nitrogen, and ought always to be heavily dosed with rich farm- 
yard manure, will perhaps somewhat modify their opinions when 
informed that Mr. Russell never applies it, his invariable custom 
being to give 3 cwt. of bone-manure per acre, and nothing 
whatever else, for kale. 
In the neighbourhood of Tamworth Mr. Henry A. Howman 
cultivates Thousand-headed kale largely for dairy cows. In a 
paper read by him at the Eastern Counties Dairy Conference 
he stated that he regarded Thousand-headed kale as the most 
valuable of all green crops for dairy cows, as " sown in April and 
well manured it will be fit for cutting at Michaelmas, and if the 
stalks are left to stand they will shoot out again and yield 
another good cutting at Lady Day." 
A singular course in growing successional silage crops one 
year after another, a mixture of spring vetches, oats, and peas 
being employed to carry out the object, is taken by Mr. C. G. 
Johnson, The Croft, Darlington, on 23 acres of land. For three 
years past he has grown the same green fodder of this variety 
for conversion into silage, and will sow his fourth crop for it this 
•spring. Heavy weights of produce are raised, and the continuous 
green cropping keeps the land perfectly clean without there 
•being as yet any sign of the slightest falling off. Mr. Johnson 
■manures the land every year with 10 tons per acre of nightsoil, 
which is carted three-quarters of a mile. 
Great interest appears to have been excited amongst 
occupiers of clay soils in South Durham and North Yorkshire 
in the growth of silage crops as substitutes for turnips and 
swedes. On January 17, at a meeting of the Northallerton 
