126 
On Green or Fodder Crops. 
three or four sheep eatinj^ away at the same cabbage. I have had some speci- 
mens reach the weight of over 50 lbs. each. I have grown very heavy crops of 
cabbage from seed sown in April, drilled as for turnips; the sort, Sutton's 
Intermediate Drumhead." 
The subjoined fact may be added to the above testimony : — 
In a prize report of Mr. J. M'Laren, published in the "Trans- 
actions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland " 
for 1857, he stated that he obtained 42 tons 14 cwts. of cabbages 
(value 18Z. 65. Gd.), and 26 tons 12 cwts. of turnips (value 
12/, 6s. T^d.) per acre, and that the profit made in converting 
these crops into mutton was greater in the case of the cabbages 
by 1/. 15s. llfJ. 
Thousaud-headed Kale. 
This hardy and highly productive member of the cabbage 
tribe was no doubt, in the first instance, like sainfoin and lucerne, 
introduced to this country from France, where it has been 
a favourite with market-gardeners for many years. English 
tourists imbibed favourable impressions of the French " Chou 
a mille tetes " thirty years since or more, and the Rev. Canon 
Huxtable and others about that period recommended the plant 
for adoption into English field culture, as calculated to prove a 
superior, extremely nutritious, early feed for ewes and lambs in 
spring. That this opinion was well founded has been abun- 
dantly proved since ; nor is its use confined to the spring, as, 
like the cabbage, thousand-headed kale possesses the merit of 
affording highly serviceable green food at very different periods 
of the year. Thus, if a field be prepared early in spring, for 
April deposition of the seed by a manure-drill, the surplus 
plants may be drawn out in the ensuing month by thousands 
and tens of thousands to be either sold or transferred to other 
well-prepared lands to form successional feeding crops, while 
those left behind after the necessary hoeings furnish valuable 
food for lambs in July, much earlier than a crop of rape could be 
matured for the purpose. This is one of the methods of culture 
which is pursued by Mr. Robert Russell, of Horton Court Lodge, 
Kent, who has done more than any other man to interest the 
agricultural public in the good qualities of a crop which had 
extremely limited adoption until he read his two celebrated 
papers before the Farmers' Club in 1876 and 1877. 
i hose who delight in witnessing intensive agriculture profit- 
ably applied should pay a visit to the Horton Court Farm, 
which has been held in the Russell family for uj)wards of two 
centuries. The soil's capabilities to yield a lull maximum 
return is there fully tested, not only by liberal manuring and 
