On Green or Fodder Crops. 
119 
accounted so valuable. On sheep farms early turnips can no 
doubt be grown for the flock, but unless these are over-abundant 
it is always an advantage to be able to commence with cabbages 
ere trenching on this reserve ; and for dairy cows and grazing- 
cattle there is nothing else, unless some of the other crops not 
commonly grown are cultivated. Another cause may be found 
in the highly nutritive value of the cabbage, which ranks far 
above that of most other vegetables, thereby rendering much 
less artificial food necessary to keep stock thriving. Added to 
this, when it is borne in mind how partial so many kinds of 
stock are to this produce, and that it does not affect them 
injuriously even while taken in large quantities, as many other 
things do, a case will be made out for cabbage being grown 
on an extensive scale, which seems difficult to resist. 
But the plant may be cultivated at different periods of the 
year, and summer cabbages are frequently found to be even 
more valuable than autumn ones. Young cabbages planted 
out in October and November will yield crops available for 
consumption in June, July, and August. In fact, on the 
Cirencester College Farm, Mr. Russell Swanwick has often 
had them come ready for utilisation early in May, and last 
season he made about 30/. an acre of a portion of his crop for 
marketing. If care be taken not to cut off the whole of the 
greens with the cabbages, the stalks will shoot out smaller 
heads, which are calculated to afford a great deal of valuable 
keep for sheep later in the summer. Those who market their 
early spring cabbages should remember this, very convincing 
testimony to the fact having been given by Mr. Russell Swan- 
wick, Mr. Robert Russell, and others. 
Nor must the fact be ignored that, in the hands of our 
leading seedsmen, certain varieties of the cabbaije have been 
brought to such grand perfection that they come to maturity 
much quicker than the old sorts. Messrs. Webb and Sons, of 
Wordsley, claim for their " New Early Drumhead " that it can 
be brought ready for consumption in September from seed sown 
at the beginning of March and planted out in May. Messrs. 
Sutton and Sons state that their " Early Oxheart," if sown the 
last week in March, might be relied on for coming ready to 
feed the last week in August; and still more wonderful to 
relate, they assert that an entirely new variety which they have 
brought to a high standard of perfection by selection, came last 
summer ready for feeding the second week in Julv, although 
the seed for the crop was not sown until the lUth of March. 
Two mistaken ideas operate in preventing thousands from 
taking up with cabbage growing, the one being that the soil 
must be deep and good for a satisfactory crop to be expected, 
