13(> 
On Green or Fodder Crops. 
" For several years in succession swede turnips could not be successfully 
grown. The land was said to be turnip-sick, but it appears to have been the 
results of seasons more than any other cause, as crops of immense weight, free 
from finger-and-toe, have been grown during the past few years. Kohl-rabi 
crops are not grown now to the same extent the}' were in the hot seasons 
from 1868 to 1874. In some counties during this period they almost super- 
seded swede turnips. The cultivation should be the same as for mangold- 
wurzel. Only 2 lbs. of seed per acre should be drilled 2 feet from row to 
row. The period of sowing may range from the second week in April to the 
middle of May ; but if the crop is intended to stand the winter, to give early 
feed for ewes and lambs, June will be sufficiently early for the seeding, and it 
may be put in up to the longest day. I prefer transplanting for a portion of 
the crop, in the same way cabbages are put in. A crop of 20 tons per acre 
in a good season can be grown after tares. The price paid for transplanting 
is 9s. per acre, and one wet season I transplanted 20 acres. I do not know 
of any sort so good as that for which the seed is supplied by Mr. Saunders, of 
Clayhithe, near Cambridge. This sort grows both quality and quantity, has 
a small top, and does not exhaust the soil to the same extent the coarser 
varieties do." 
Quite as heavy crops, it appears, were grown when the plant 
was first introduced as have been experienced since, for Arthur 
Young quotes a letter written by Mr. Reynolds, January 15th, 
1774, which contains the following : — 
" This is certain, large crops have been obtained during the last two years 
in several counties, their produce having risen from 25 to 35 tons per acre ; 
and if my memory serves me right, there are two accounts from Nottingham 
and York as high as 44 tons. Kent and Sussex have obtained near 50 tons, 
but one gentleman in Surrey has outdone all I have heard of. This planta- 
tion, and that no small one, produced upwards of 56 tons per acre in 1770. I 
have this well attested, and that many of his single roots weighed 14 lbs. each." 
This crop has during the past twenty years been very much 
employed as a substitute for rape, no less than for swedes, in 
Essex and many other parts of East Anglia, as well as in some 
of the southern and western counties. Although rape may be 
a safe plant to calculate upon in the Fen districts, on other soils 
it is extremely liable to contract mildew, especially in a dry 
season. After long protracted scorching weather this prevails 
to such an extent that the produce turns out a complete failure, 
owing to the mildewed leaves becoming shrivelled and dry. In 
the decade from 1864 to 1874 not a few sheep-farmers adopted 
kohl instead of rape, and expressed themselves highly satisfied 
with the results of so doing. A Dorset farmer told me a few 
years since that he found kohl-rabi the most salutary of all his 
green-crops for lambs at the latter part of August and during 
September, and that they throve on it better than on anything 
else. 
Mr, J. H. Blundell, of Eastwood House, Keighley, says : — 
" Some of the Suffolk farmers grow kohl-rabi extensively, the practice with 
them being to allow the crones, or broken-mouthed ewes, to run over the 
