On Green or Fodder Crops. 
127 
a high condition of fertility being kept up, but by rapid crop- 
pings. No sooner has one kind of produce been fed-ofF or 
taken awav than the steam cultivator prepares the land for 
something else, and the fresh seeding or planting is conducted 
with marvellous celerity. Green cropping is carried out to an 
extent scarcely deemed possible by nine-tenths of those who 
occupy even the lighter soils of the United Kingdom. Thus, 
at one period in autumn Mr. Russell had 26-4 acres of cabbages, 
thousand-headed kale, and sprouting broccoli, 30 acres of 
swedes, and 30 acres of mangold-wurzel. A very large breed- 
ing flock is kept, and the intense enjoyment Mr. Russell derives 
in shepherding lies at the very foundation of all this enterprise. 
Although the farm is only 600 acres in extent there are often 
nearly a thousand sheep on it at certain times of the year. The 
ffreat care and attention bestowed on the in-lamb ewes will be 
made sufficiently apparent by the following statement. The 
number of ewes forming the breeding flock in the autumn of 
1880 was 351, of which not a single one was lost in yeaning, 
nor for a period of six months from October till April. Fifteen 
threw their lambs prematurely and fifteen turned out barren, and 
the remaining 321 reared most successfully 412 lambs. 
Such results not only prove that Mr. Russell's character as a 
good shepherd admits of being fully substantiated, but also that 
the food on which the flock subsists must be perfectly conducive 
to health. His ewes and lambs are largely fed on thousand- 
headed kale, of which he speaks in the following high terms : — 
" This is the least known, but most desirable, of any green crop I have ever 
seen. It is a plant that produces more food per acre than any other ; does not 
disagree with any stock, nor does it impoverish the land ; with me it has 
never caused sheep or lambs to blow or scour. Eighteen perches per day 
with a little oat straw have kept 270 sheep for three months without the loss 
of one." 
Mr. Russell stated at the Farmers' Club in 1877, that he 
considers an annual profit of 28s. per acre to be derived from 
his flock after debiting it with every expense, which is another 
fact affording conclusive testimony to the high utility of his 
system of feeding and management, depending so intimately on 
green crops not commonly cultivated. As not a few may find 
it difficult to understand how he could possibly find room for 
204 acres of cabbages, kale, and broccoli, with 60 acres of 
mangolds and swedes, on a farm only 600 acres altogether, the 
following additional facts may not be deemed out of place. 
In the month of April from 40 to 60 acres are drilled with 
the seed, chiefly of kale, but smaller portions with that of 
cabbage and sprouting broccoli, at the rate of from 4 lbs. to 
5 lbs. per acre. Broccoli seed is also sown broadcast the follow- 
