On Green or Fodder Crops. 
125 
holes with water as the men planted the plants, so that they were mudded in. 
Although the weather continued dry, nearly all the plants took root, and we 
had two magnificent pieces of cabbage. My roots generally, were quite a 
failure ; but thanks to the cabbage, I was able to spin out a little green food 
for my sheep and cattle, the whole winter. I let them stand on the ground, 
cutting and drawing where wanted every day, and made them last till the 
end of March, 1871. 
Mr. Charles Kent, of Dewlish, Dorset, writes : — 
" I have grown cabbages on a small scale for some years, my crop being 
from 4 to 6 acres. I find it useful for lambs in the summer, for pigs after 
harvest, and for dairy cows, being very excellent food for those kinds of 
stock, and especially so for lambs. But there are a few things against 
cabbage culture, the crop is expensive to grow, particularly when the winter 
has proved severe for the plants, or a very dry season is experienced for 
planting. It is also a great exhauster of the soil, and the succeeding corn 
crop is not often so good as after turnips, although the entire crop be 
fed-off on the land. I generally grow cabbages after swedes with farmyard- 
manure thickly laid on, and the land extra well done." 
Mr. Frederick Street, of Somersham Park, St. Ives, Hunts, 
says : — 
" I have grown cabbages for the last fifteen years, and think no flockmaster 
should be without them in the hot summer months, from the middle of June 
to the end of August, or even later. I do not care for them for winter food, 
when other produce, such as turnips, kohl-rt.bi, &c., comes in, as they are 
liable to injury by the early frosts. I find that one pound of seed will 
produce sufiScient young plants for an acre of land. This should be sown into 
a prepared seed-bed the first or second week in August. Immediately after 
harvest a piece of wheat stubble should be ploughed, scarified, and forked 
over. From fifteen to twenty loads should be carted out, spread, and turned 
in in dry weather for the portion of the crop which is intended to be earliest, 
and for which transplanting should be effected early in ISTovember. In mild 
winters, such cabbages would come ready for consumption at a fortnight 
earlier than those planted the following February. Still, in the past few 
years I have preferred to manure during winter, and put in at the latter 
period, or as early as the weather will allow, because I find, what with 
damage by frost, birds, &c., the cabbages require much filling up when set in 
antimm. In transplanting, the rows are marked out with a drill, two feet 
apart, and the setting takes place about twenty inches from plant to plant. 
The price I pay for drawing the plants and setting them is 9s. per acre. I 
prefer the Enfield Market variety followed by the Imperial." 
Lieut.-Col. Sir Paul Hunter, Bart., of Mortimer, Berks., 
writes : — 
" For many years I have grown Drumhead cabbage on a small scale. The 
plants bought and planted in March, and the crop fed-off with sheep in 
September and October. The plants are set a yard apart each way, and the 
animals do admirably upon them. I find that the largest cabbages grow on 
well-manured ground. On this they apple out better than in most cases, do 
not split, and are not affected by frost. After heavy crops of mangold, which 
yielded 48 tons to the acre in 1880, and 39 tons per acre in 1881, I grew, 
without applying any more manure, 16 tons per acre of cabbage — this on 
heavy well-drained clay and loam. My object was to put the sheep on the 
heavy land before the autumn rainy period. It is a pleasant spectacle to see 
