On Green or Fodder Crops. 
123 
furrow than on a ridge, or even on the level. In a storm the snow preserves 
them so much better both from the weather and game. I ridge and manure 
the land in winter for planting in spring, which latter is effected as early as 
possible, and generally concluded about the middle of May. I commence 
consuming the autumn planted ones ia June and go on up to Christmas. The 
Scotch Drumhead seed I sow as early ;is possible in the sprinz, and transplant 
them from the nursery beds to the land about the middle of June. 1 find 
we cannot get enough weight per acre if tliey are planted later. We use 
them princiiiall}^ for ewes in the lambing season. The great value of the 
cabbage crop, however, is for consumption in the months of June, July, and 
August, for the lambs after they are taken off the ewes and before turnips are 
ready. They are invaluable then, and I have known them save a Hock. In 
onr cold climate we cannot grow catch crops as they do in the south ; and 
after our clover eddishes are eaten, if turnips are not ripe, it is very difficult to 
keep a fiock of lambs right without cabbages. Tliey are very valuable, too, 
all the summer for calves after the mangolds are finished. There is nothing 
you can grow the same weight per acre, and no crop on which flocks will do 
better. I have tried several kinds, but only grow the two mentioned. I 
dress my seed well with parafBn before sowing, to prevent small birds from 
devouring it." 
Professor Buckman, who farms at Bradford Abbas, Dorset, 
adopts a method of cultivation which, according to Arthur 
Young, was first practised by Bakewell. He writes : — 
" I grow cabbages on land prepared as for swedes and mangolds, drilling 
4 lbs. of seed per acre where the crop is intended to be grown in rows 
20 inches apart as early as the season wiU permit in the spring. The plants 
when up are thinned o\it just as swedes and mangolds are with a 1-foot boe. 
If there were a market for the plants they mi^ht be drawn out and sold 
at so much per hundred. Manurmg for the crop consists of the ordinary 
dressing of farmyard-mantire employed for roots, which is laid on in autumn 
and ploughed into the land before Christmas, and 3 cwts. of Proctor's manure 
distributed broadcast just before the seed is drilled. One inconvenience will 
be felt in the growth of cabbages in so much of the crop gettmg to its best at 
once, after which the outer leaves begin to fall off, and it diminishes in bulk 
instead of increasing, and, besides, the ripened hearts sometimes burst up or 
decay. This 1 endeavour to obviate by sowing three kinds of seed, the 
Oxheart, the London Market and the Batter.>ea. All kinds of stock readily 
take to cabbage, and do well upon it ; and I therefore recommend a few 
acres to be grown on the plan proposed; not, however, mixing the sorts as 
I have done, but by growing the three varieties in separate plots, which 
wiU come for use successionally in August, September, and October." 
Mr. John Treadwell, of Upper Winchendon, Aylesbury, 
writes : — , 
"I grow the Enfield Market cabbage by drilling in a patch of seed in the 
last days of July or very early in August, 1 lb. of seed generally yielding 
sufiBcient plants for an acre of land. At the end of harvest I tnanure heavily 
and plough at once. About the middle of October I harrow down the land 
and mark out the rows 1(5 inches apart with the drill. The cabbages are 
planted about the same distance apart in the rows, but n'>t square. I give 
Is. 3d. per thousand for pulling and planting, and find that it takes about 
22,000 plants to serve for an acre. Tliey turn into heart, and are usually fit 
for cutting to commence at the end of May. I pick out the best for first 
consumption, and proceed picking more out as fast as they ripen, and if not 
