On Green or Fodder Crops. 
133 
ihe appearance very much, and say they shall certainly try some. The 
seed was rather too dear, 2s. 6c?. per lb., but I think it is cheaper this year ; 
drilling and cutting out, the same as swedes, is, I think, a better plan than 
sowing in a bed and transplanting, it saves so much labour, which is a great 
desideratum these bad times." 
Mr. Russell grows double crops of swedes and kale as well 
as Professor Buckman, and his testimony fully endorses the 
opinion that the friendly protection of the one stimulates the 
bulbing function of the other instead of retarding it. Mr. 
Russell's testimony is also totally opposed to that of Mr. Hulbert, 
both as to the quantity and quality of the green-food produced. 
In some few instances complaints have been made of sheep not 
taking kindly to thousand-headed kale, attributable, no doubt, 
as in the case of comfrey, to the crop having overstood before 
being consumed. When such is the case the leaves and stalks 
should, perhaps, be passed through the chaffcutter. The latter 
plan is adopted by the Rev. E. Highton, of the Bude Vicarage, 
Cornwall, in feeding his milch cows. In a letter to me, dated 
Dec. 26, 1881, he says: — 
" I have grown thousand-headed kale on a small scale this year. I put in 
the seeds in a fine seed-bed about March, and transplanted them into ground 
from which I had just taken a good crop of potatoes. I dressed the land well, 
and the growth of the kale is now very luxuriant, and I am using it in a way 
which I find very profitable. The large outer leaves are picked oif and passed 
through the chaffcutter, which, by the bye, is better for cutting up ' lears ' 
than the pulper, tliough the barrel pulper makes very good work of the flat- 
pole (Drumhead) cabbage. One meal of my cows each day just now is this 
chaffed kale mixed up with bran and crashed oats, and another is the chaffed 
kale and chafi'ed hay and straw mixed up into a warm damp mess, with 
bran and boiled crushed oats or boiled linseed. I find the milk larger in 
quantity from this kale than from a greater weight of pulped swedes, and I 
liave been surprised at the amount of vegetation the kale has supplied. One 
meal of my pigs each day is a small basketful of this chaffed kale with a pint 
of oats crushed. I find it is eaten up more clean in this way, and so a larger 
amount of stock may be kept than if it is thrown loose to the animals." 
The above testimony is all the more important as it fully 
confirms the theory which has been occasionally advanced that 
this produce is calculated to become a valuable food for milch 
•cows in the dead of winter, after the autumn cabbages are all 
consumed, and before mangolds have been stored long enough 
to become ripe for use without scouring the animals. The 
point is also worthy of note that kale may be made a food for 
pigs in winter. 
Sprouting Broccoli and Winter Greens. 
The number of farmers having brought these crops into field 
culture is only small, but Mr. Robert Russell has for many years 
past grown the former extensively, and even in comparison with 
