216 
Cultivation of Carrots and Cabbages. 
retained even after the breed has been crossed several times, 
as may be clearly seen in the district of Rennes. This fixed 
character and property of the race arises probably from its 
antiquity. 
XIV. — Cultivation of Carrots and Cabbages for the Fecdinq 
of Stock. By C. Lawrenxe. 
How does it happen that these valuable foods for stock are sO' 
rarely met with on ordinary farms ? 
Is it that their feeding qualities, as compared Avith other roots 
in common cultivation, are imperfectly known ? 
Is it that the comparative produce of food per acre has been 
under-estimated ? or 
Is it from misapprehension as to the comparative expense and 
trouble of raising them, which may be attributable to defective 
preparation and subsequent management? 
I had contemplated an illustration of our second question by 
giving a table of analyses of canots, cabbage, mangolds, and 
swedes, compiled from those of various chemists which have been 
published in our Journal, and other works of authority, under 
the several heads of " Nitrogenised organic substances capable 
of producing flesh ;" " Substances fitted for the support of animal 
heat and the formation of fat ;" " Inorganic matters (ash)," 
&c. ; but every year's experience teaches us, that however valu- 
able and useful may be the indications afforded by the chemical 
laboratory, there exist occult operations in the animal laboratory 
that produce results which tend to discourage too close a reliance 
on such analyses. Moreover, all these roots yield very various 
analyses at different stages of their growth and maturity, and nc 
comparative analyses that had not been made of each kind in a 
perfect state of maturity can be depended on. There are some 
very valuable observations on the first question under our con- 
sideration in a pamphlet recently published by Dr. Voelcker, 
being a report by him, in the ' Journal of the Bath and West of 
England Society,' of the result of investigations which he had 
been requested to make " on the scouring lands of central 
Somerset." Feeders of stock, who ma}' be free from the pest 
of scouring land, may pass over this article as inapj)licable to 
their individual cases ; but I commend to the attention of all 
stock-masters an attentive perusal of at least the observations 
commencing at page 1(5 of the pamphlet. 
We have hitherto placed, it seems, too much reliance on the 
amount of the nitrogen disclosed by analyses in the various roots 
