498 
On the Kohl-Rabi. 
As tlie plant is cultivated to a rawch. greater extent in Ii-eland than 
in either England or Scotland, and w-ith very satisfactory results, we 
deemed it advisable to pursue our inquiries there as well as in this 
country. In ]VIr. Corrigan, the Curator of the Koyal Dublin Society's 
Agricultural Museum, we found a wiUing coadjutor. Through him we 
addressed a series of queries to the principal growers in that country, 
with a view to elicit information more especially on those points where 
we had no experience to guide us ; and it is gratifying to record the 
readiness with which it was given. 
There is no doubt that the cultm-e of the Kohl-Eabi is greatly ex- 
tending, judging fi'om the increased amoimt of seed imported and sold 
in this coimtry in the last as compared with former years. Dating 
from 1856, the consumption has increased fourfold ; and for the present 
season will no doubt be large, owing to the great deficiency of the 
turnip crop last year, and the disposition to serious diseases which 
it continues to show. 
Kohl-Eabi has been pronounced "the bulb of dry summers," heat 
and drought not being inimical to its gro\s"th, and yielding an excellent 
crop where white tm-nips and swedes could barely exist. The great 
mass of evidence in its favom- brought forward in the following paper 
is crowned by the report of Dr. Anderson, whose analysis of its feeding 
propeiiies proves it to be ahout twice as valuable as ordinary turnips, 
and naturally to surpass the hest sicedes. 
Careful comparative experiments, on the large scale, are still want- 
ing ; and we shall be glad to hear of such experiments being instituted 
by some of the leading agriculturists connected with the Society, and 
the results published in the Journal for the guidance of the members. 
We are, dear Sir, 
very faithfully yonrs, 
Peter Lawsox and Son. 
To E. S. Thompson, Esq., M.P., Kirby Hall, York. 
In 1836, we published a description of the Kohl-Rabi in 
our ' Agriculturist's Manual,'* since which time, with the ex- 
ception of a short notice by Mr. Towers, in the 11th vol. of this 
Journal, and the Art. "Kohl-Rabi" in Morton's 'Cyclopsedia of 
Agriculture,' by tlie same writer, nothing has appeared — beyond 
occasional paragraphs in the agricultural papers — tending to afford 
additional information on the history, uses, and cultivation of this 
valuable plant. The Kohl-Rabi is the only crop of importance 
which lacks a place in our agricultural literature. No systematic 
account of it has ever been printed. It is not matter of surprise 
therefore to find that few farmers are acquainted even with its 
name, fewer still with its habit and appearance, whilst very few 
imiced know anything of its properties and value as a feeding 
plant. In the following paper, therefore, we purpose giving a 
* Edinbargh : W. Blackwood and Sons. 
