120 
On Green or Fodder Crops. 
and the other, that the expenditure required is beyond the limit 
of ordinary farming. One very successful prize-taker for man- 
gold-wurzel and swedes, as well as for sheep, writes to me 
thus :■ — 
" My arable land is mostly on the chalk, and therefore I have not succeeded 
in growing any crops but turnips, mansold-wurzel, and cole, in which produce 
I believe few men can beat me. I can only grow cabbage oa the stiff 
cla\-, of which I have but little, and am conseq^uently quite decided to keep to 
turnips and wurzel." 
If the premiss in the last sentence had been quite correct, 
it does not follow that the conclusion arrived at is rational ; 
for if cabbages could not be grown on the chalk, a few 
acres of them are so invaluable on a farm, that probably no 
and causing could be pursued than to keep this small quantity 
of clay land perpetually under cabbage culture. It happens, 
however, that some of the best field crops of that vegetable 
grown in England are raised on chalk soils. The time is not 
so long since when a very common impression prevailed that 
only the deepest and richest lands would bear mangold-wurzel. 
At any rate, a soil capable of growing roots of the latter good 
enough to take the highest prizes at an exhibition is sure to be 
of the character well adapted to grow cabbages. 
When an erroneous impression of this nature is entertained 
by a large sheep-breeder, who has highly distinguished himself 
in other branches of agriculture, no surprise need be felt at the 
prejudices on the subject prevailing among the bulk of farmers, 
and causing even plots of cabbages in many districts to be few 
and far between. There can be no question that thousands of 
acres ought to be raised instead of scores, and that such would 
be the case if there were sounder practical knowledge on the 
subject. The very circumstance that the cabbage is found in 
well nigh every cottager's garden throughout England ought 
surely to be held conclusive of the possibility of adopting it 
into ordinary farm husbandry far more generally than is done 
now. There may be many soils much too shallow for cabbage 
growing in their present state, but not a few of these might be 
deepened by the subsoil plough, the steam-cultivator, or some 
other agency. Even farms remarkably thin on the rock have 
usually one particular field near the homestead much deeper in 
staple than the other land. Under such circumstances, would it 
not be advisable to select a few acres of the deepest for perpetual 
cabbage growing, considering the invaluable objects the veget- 
able is calculated to serve ? 
There is a still greater error in the assumption that the culti- 
vation required for this plant need of necessity be more costly 
than for mangold-wurzel. A Norfolk man in reply to an 
