On Green or Fodder Crops. 
115 
which then fell on the farming community, who had not directed 
their sole attention to turnip-culture for providing the winter 
feeding of sheep and cattle. Those who had the largest acreages 
of mangold-wurzel, cahbages, gorse, and kohl-rabi suffered least, 
and were enabled to preserve their stock by the smallest expen- 
diture in the purchase of artificial foods. Similar experience 
has been derived during three recent winters in which turnips 
were extensively destroyed by the severity of the weather. In 
seasons of scarcity, at other periods of the year besides winter, 
it is an immense advantage to be able to fall back upon 
thousand-headed kale, purple-sprouting broccoli, green rye, or 
the early cuttings of sainfoin, lucerne, and Italian rye-grass in 
spring ; on cabbages, vetches, prickly comfrey and repeated 
cuttings of lucerne and sainfoin during summer ; and as autumn 
advances, on the breadths of thousand-headed kale, cabbages, 
and kohl-rabi which were spring-sown, together with green 
maize and still further supplies from the plots or fields giving 
lucerne or prickly comfrey. 
Some of the crops just mentioned are commonly grown, 
although on a smaller scale than seems desirable. Others, such 
as lucerne and sainfoin, notwithstanding their being several 
centuries old, and extensively grown on the Continent, do not 
appear to be adopted in this country to a greater extent than they 
were seventv or eighty years since. Then there are the cabbages 
and kohl-rabi, which, according to Arthur Young, had earlier 
introduction to field culture in Great Britain than the swede 
turnip. These have certainly been adopted much more exten- 
sively of late years, but only by the best class of farmers, the 
commonalty having an erroneous impression that they are 
expensive crops to cultivate, only well adapted to good land 
and high farming. The same idea extensively prevails in 
regard to thousand-headed kale and sprouting broccoli, which, 
although old garden plants, are among the newest in their 
application to the requirements of the farm. Even prickly 
comfrey is not new, as it has the reputation of having been 
introduced into England as early as 1790, and grown in Russia 
and Circassia long before ; but, so far as Great Britain is con- 
cerned, its use was very much confined to medicinal purposes 
until within the past twenty years. As to maize, William 
Cobbett probably first propounded the idea that it might be suc- 
cessfully grown in this country, and one of his sons spent many 
years in endeavouring so to acclimatise a variety of this plant 
that the ripening of its corn might be a fait accompli in the 
generality of English autumns. Experience proved his antici- 
pations to be too sanguine, but the plant is likely to become 
worthy of extensive adoption for a far different purpose — to 
I 2 
