510 
On the Kohl-Rabi. 
employed as a manure, experiment has shown that, if it be sown 
broadcast over drills of the ordinary depth, and these split in 
the usual way, the crop maintains a steadier and more prolonged 
growth, and produces a better yield than when the drills are very 
shallow, and the manure near the surface." * 
Sowing and Quantity of Seed. 
The ordinary system of drilling has never been followed t<) 
any extent with Kohl-Rabi. The comparatively high price of 
the seed has, we suppose, led to the almost universal practice of 
sowing in a seed-bed at the side of the field, and afterwards 
transplanting to the drills. The present price of the best seed j 
is 4s. Qd. per lb. ; and if drilling be adopted, 4 lbs. of seed per 
acre will be necessary, which will cost no less than 18s. A 
turnip-seed two-furrowed drill, drawn by one horse, will get over 
five acres a day, the cost of which may be set down at 5s., or Is. 
per acre. Singling the plants afterwards will cost 3s. Gc?. per 
acre. In all 22s. 6ff. per acre. If the young plants are raised in 
a seed-bed, and afterwards transplanted, the cost will stand thus : 
labour in preparing the bed. Is. ; 8 ozs. of seed, which will be 
sufficient to furnish plants for one acre, 2s. Ad. Four women 
will easily dibble an acre of plants in a day, and their wages, 
at lOr/. each, will amount to 3s. 4c?., making the total cost only 
6s. %d. per acre. In a conversation we had a short time since 
with Professor Wilson, of the Edinburgh University, he states 
that, notwithstanding the additional cost; his practice has always 
been to sow with the turnip-drill, as he found that the uncertainty 
of procuring labour, added to the inconvenience of transplanting 
from a seed-bed, and the risk of the operation being performed 
in a dry season, more than counterbalanced the additional price 
of the seed. 
In correspondence with several growers in Ireland, where the 
breadth of the crop is greatly extending, we find that tlie prac- 
tice of dibbling the seed, in the same manner as that of mangold- 
wurtzel, is gainin": ground. Mr. James Alexander, steward to 
the Marquis of Kildare, who has grown Kohl-Rabi for the last 
thirty years, says : — " I have sown Kohl-Rabi, in drills at once, 
about the beginning of May, by dibbling in the seed 1 inch 
deep, and 10 inches apart, and, when the plants were strong 
enough, to single them out to one in each hole, to remain for the 
crop. They answer very well to be sown in this way, and are 
not liable to be attacked hy the turnip fly, as I have had them 
• Morton's ' Cyclopaedia of Agriculture.' Art. " Turnip," vol. ii. p. 1025. 
+ Mr. Innes, factor to Colonel North, found, after repeated experiments, that 
seed two years old produced much larger and handsomer bulbs than new seed. 
