132 
On Green or Fodder Crops. 
The letter of a third writer contained the following : — • 
"Last year I planted out late in June about Ij acre of kale, and on the 
side of it about the same breadth of cabbage. The kale was not in the least 
injured by the frost and severe winter. The cabbages were all more or less 
dustroyed. The snow which fell did not protect either crop from the frost, 
and the only advantage that the kale could have was that it was planted on 
a rather higher slope of the hill, and the cabbage may have been affected by 
the damp of the snow which was left on it. Sheep and lambs were fed on the 
kale till the middle of April, when the tops were picked and sent to market, 
to clear the ground for barley. I am informed by one who farms in N.W. 
Iowa that this kale is the only green-crop that will stand their severe winters. 
I may add one remarkable fact : that I planted out some kale in the earlier 
pait of last year, and part ol a flock of sheep were turned on to it in September,, 
and that the sheep so turned on have had more lambs than the rest of the 
flock." 
Mr. T. R. Hulbert, of North Cerney, Cirencester, appears 
not to have quite made up his mind whether or not the ordi- 
nary crops can be improved upon for such land as he occupies, 
He writes to me to the following effect : — 
" I have grown a great deal of thousand-headed kale. It wiLl some season* 
grow a large bulky crop, but prefers black, peaty soils ; is a slow-grower to 
start with. Sheep will eat rape much more readily ; but it has this advantage, 
that it will remain much longer in the spring without going to seed. I do not 
consider it will grow the same weight of crop per acre, or yield feed so 
nutritious as cabbage." 
Professor Buckman, on the contrary, says : — 
" Thousand-headed kale was always a favourite of mine, which I have 
grown after the same method as cabbages, drilling the seed in the spring into 
the land where it is intended to be grown. This year I have a double crop of 
swedes and thousand-headed kale, plants of the latter having been set between 
every fourth and fifth swede in tlie rows. They make a capital crop together, 
which will now (November) be very soon ready for feeding. The swedes arc 
not at all injured by the overhanging of the kale, but on the contrary, the 
protection afl'orded thereby has enhanced the development of the former." 
Mr. J. R. Evans, of Benham Grange, Newbury, also ob- 
serves : — 
" In 1880 1 cropped 5 acres at one end of my swede-field to thousand-headed 
kale. I obtained seed from Messrs. Sutton and Sons, and drilled 5 lbs. per 
acre as they recommend, in rows 2 feet apart, the time of sowing being about 
the middle of June. The plants were afterwards singled out, 14 inches distant 
from one another in the rows. The crop grew capitally, and the severe frost 
in the winter did not hurt it a bit, although our swedes all rotted. In April 
1881, I had a first-rate piece of food for ewes and lambs, and I never knew 
lambs do better than mine while feeding it off. In the summer of 1881 1 
cropped three acres in a similar way, with the exception of sowing only 3 lbs. 
of seed per acre. This quantity I found to be ample, and have at the present 
period (February 1882) a very good piece of kale indeed ; a much better 
crop than the swedes in the same field. In fact, I wish that I had sown the 
entire piece of land to the former. I shall not require to commence feeding 
the kale until April, by which time, if the mild weather continues, the greens 
will be as high as the hurdles. . Some of my neighbours who h.avc seen it like 
