On Green or Fodder Crops. 
121 
inquiry of mine relating to this paper, writes that, although 
he has had little practical knowledge in the growth either of 
this vegetable, thousand-headed kale, or kohl-rabi, he considers 
that the culture of one or all is " very expensive, as they require 
high farming." By the latter term, liberal manuring is no doubt 
implied, and the inquiry may reasonably be made whether 
either of these crops require as much outlay in the purchase 
of fertilisers as mangold-wurzel ? The latter by degrees has 
crept into very general cultivation, high though the cost in 
manuring for it must of necessity be ; and why should cabbage 
culture be retarded from extension, because nitrogen in some 
considerable quantity must be rendered either in the shape of 
farmyard-manure or artificial fertilisers, such as guano, nitrate 
of soda, sulphate of ammonia, »3cc. 
No doubt the assumption may be drawn that nitrogen in 
tolerably large quantity must be supplied to the soil by the 
cabbage-grower, unless it be naturally rich in that element. 
Dr. Voelcker, in addressing the Farmers' Club on a late 
occasion, is reported to have said : — " The members of the 
cabbage tribe were gross feeders, and would assimilate much 
more nitrogen than bulbous root-crops. They, therefore, re- 
quired a great deal of farmyard-manure, and when they could 
not have it, they should receive an ammoniacal substitutic such 
as nitrate of soda. They could not rely on phosphatic manures 
for good results, and, if they wished to grow heavy crops of 
cabbages or kale on poor land, it was all-essential that they 
should be liberal and not lay out less than three pounds per acre 
in manure." 
This advice of Dr. \ oelcker is very good, but would he not 
have to counsel the mangold-grower in the self-same terms ? and 
did he not intend to restrict the term " bulbous root-crops " to 
turnips and swedes ? The sum he named for manurial outlay 
seems not at all extravagant ; for many growers of wurzel are in 
the habit of expending 4/. per acre in manuring for that crop. 
The formulae of M. Georges Ville, the celebrated French 
chemist, of the quantities and kinds of artificial manures which 
are requisite to be employed lor different varieties of produce 
to obtain yields of them in maximum quarntity, having attracted 
considerable attention, and being stated to be the results of 
several years' careful experiments, it may be stated that he 
recommends precisely the same application for cabbage as for 
beetroot. 
The idea that a heavy dressing of farmyard-manure is 
absolutely essential for either kind of produce would, of course, 
be held only by the old-fashioned farmer who knows nothing of 
chemistry, yet there are many who seem to be deterred from 
