On Green or Fodder Crops. 
137 
crops and eat the tops, which they do, leaving the bulbs untouched. These 
nre afterwards cut off and passed through the turnip-cutter for the fattening 
flock." 
Mr. George Street, of Maulden, is very much attached to kohl- 
rabi, which he has grown extensively for several years. He 
says : — 
"My land had got tumip-sick, but I now find that after a rest or change of 
crop swedes do well again, and I do not think kohl-rabi would grow so large as 
at first if grown every four years, ily practice has been to select the cleanest 
field of about 20 acres, and fork out the couch directly after harvest ; plough 
after the first good rain, and drill about 2 bushels of winter tares per acre. 
" These are eaten off when quite young, as soon as the roots are finished, 
"by ewes and lambs, the latter having a pen forward each day, with plenty of 
dry food and a few mangolds thrown about, which are cleaned up by the ewes 
that follow the lambs, lamb hurdles being placed between the ewes and the 
lambs, to enable the latter to run forward. As soon as 3 or 4 acres are 
eaten off, the land is manmed, ploughed, harrowed aud marked as for cab- 
bage, and planted with kohl, at a cost for pulling and planting of 8s. per 
acre. The plants maybe grown in a seed-bed; but as I have been in the 
habit (until this year) of growing about GO acres a year, I generally have 
another field ready for setting out about the time the plants are required, 
Jrom which they are pulled, before the crop is singled, like swedes. If no 
plants were to be had, I should drill kohl-rabi seed where the tares could be 
eaten off earlj' enough, and the rest of the land would go to green turnips ; but 
of course where plants are at hand ready for planting there is a considerable 
saving of time. A dry hot summer is most suitable for kohl-rabi. The best 
■crop I ever grew was in 1868, when the root-crop was so generally a failure. 
About the same weight may be grown as of swedes, taking one year with 
another, but more sheep may be kept, and more mutton made per acre. My 
men prefer kohl to any other roots for sheep, cattle, or horses. I grow the 
medium sort, carefully selecting for seed those with a moderate top, sufficient 
to stand a frost, with a well-formed bulb and small stalk and root. I have 
but little trouble with the roots, which can be picked up when the barley has 
been sown, at Gc/. per acre. This may seem incredible to some, but if the 
ploughs are rightly set and the land is ploughed the same way as it is drilled, 
nearly all will be covered in. It should be distinctly understood that my 
remarks apply to light land, as I do not consider kohl-rabi suitable for heavy 
land, and 1 should add that I usually chop them off close to the ground with 
a hoe or picker, made like an adze, aud they are then cut up for sheep with a 
Gardner's turnip-cutter, just as swedes are. If the sheep are allowed to eat 
them on the ground there will be more waste, and the cost of picking up the 
roots will be considerably increased. The great advantages of kohl-rabi are : 
that it is a gooa substitute for swedes when the land is tired of the latter ; 
that kohl, compared with swedes, is of superior feeding quality ; and that, if 
a portion of the fallow be clean enough, it may be manured, ploughed, and 
drilled early, so as to give plenty of time to clean the remaining |x)rtions of 
the fallow either for swedes or for transplanting the surplus kohl-rabi plants 
from the early-cropped portions into it. 
" With the exception of cabbage, I do not know any way of producing so 
much food per acre as by first taking a crop of tares, eating them off very 
early, and then taking a crop of kohl-rabi. I have tried swedes, but they do 
not grow so well after tares as on a well-prepared tilth. Where good swedes can 
he grown, there is nothing better as a general crop, especially as they do not 
require sowing so early, and more time is allowed for cleaning the land ; but 
