( 4lJ5  ) 
XXV. — On  the  Kohl-Rabi.  By  J.  Towers. 
To  Mr.  Pusey. 
Dear  Sir, — Having  ha  1 occasion,  some  years  since,  to  investigate 
the  culture  of  the  kohl-rabi,  I beg  to  send  you  such  particulars  as 
have  come  to  my  knowledge.  I had  been  assured  by  a gentle- 
man who  had  long  resided  in  India  that  the  white  variety  (to 
which,  he  said,  they  in  the  East  had  applied  the  name  of  ftnoT 
khol ) formed  one  of  the  best  vegetable  dainties  of  the  table,  being, 
when  well  boiled,  tender  in  pulp,  almost  like  a custard,  and  of 
the  most  delicate  flavour.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  procure 
genuine  seed  in  England,  and  my  Croydon  friends,  who  plant  it 
in  the  large  way  for  cattle-food,  raise  the  seed  from  the  latest 
transplantations,  or  import  it  from  Germany.  I sowed  it  in  a 
garden-plot,  in  the  manner  of  cabbage  seed ; and  when  the 
plants  had  attained  a fair  size,  in  May,  or  early  June,  transferred 
them  to  a prepared  plot  in  an  orchard,  apart  from  trees,  setting 
each  in  rows,  in  every  way  about  the  distance  required  for 
middle-sized  broccoli  plants.  I thus  obtained  both  varieties, — 
the  purple  and  the  greenish  white.  Both  grew  at  first  like 
broccoli,  but  gradually  the  stems  began  to  enlarge,  and  became 
swoln.  They  attained  their  full  size;  but  being  of  slow  growth 
in  our  cold  climate,  they  never  became  tender  when  boiled, 
which  a plant  forced  forward  by  the  vaporous  heat  of  the  East 
Indies  would  do.  The  red  sort  was  the  coarser  ; but  indeed  one 
or  the  other,  when  boiled  for  the  cow  or  pigs,  yielded  so  un- 
pleasant a smell,  that  it  was  soon  abandoned,  and  especially  as, 
Avhether  raw:  or  boiled,  the  root  communicated  a most  disagree- 
able rank  flavour  to  milk.  I thus  acquired  the  inediod  of  grow- 
ing kohl-rabi,  and  noticed  the  very  great  strength  and  fibrositv 
of  the  lower  stem,  which  raised  the  bulb  four  to  six  inches  above 
the  ground  ; but  when  I came  to  Croydon,  and  saw  the  great 
breadths  cultivated  by  the  best  farmers,  I could  not  discover  that 
tall  and  thick  development  of  stem.  Upon  inquiry  of  Mr. 
Davis,  I was  informed  that  a more  delicate  variety  had  been 
imported,  the  bulb  of  which  was  better  and  larger,  but  ihe  por- 
tion of  stem  below  its  bulbous  expansion  more  slender.  In  1847 
I witnessed  the  entire  success  of  large  crops  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, during  that  year  of  great  heat  and  protracted  drought,  and 
have  therefore  made  it  a point  to  ascertain  the  practice  of  the 
several  cultivators.  It  was  observed  upon  four  farms  of  very 
different  qualities  of  soil,  but  fine  and  highly  productive  upon 
all.  As  I believe  that  Mr.  Hewitt  Davis  supervised  three  of 
those  farms  at  that  time,  I cannot  do  better  than  extract  a few 
lines  from  his  ‘Farming  Essays,’  published  in  1848,  and  pre- 
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