40 
CARTERS KOHL RABI. 
Each year this crop is becoming more extensively grown as farmers learn to appreciate the 
value of the profitable root. 
A few years ago Kohl Rabi was only to be seen on a few sheei) farms, whilst the works of 
agricultural writers contained but a brief reference to the cultivation of the crop. 
Now it takes its place amongst the other important root crops of the farm, and shares the 
honours of the Shows with the more popular mangel or swede. 
Kohl Rabi is a plant of the same order as the turnip, but differing from it in showing the effects 
of cultivation in the enlargement or swelling of the foot-stalks of the leaves, instead of the root. 
Taking it in the order of seed-sowing. Kohl Rabi should have preceded mangel ; but it is 
more convenient, in our opinion, for this occasion, to let it follow the other cruciferous root 
crops, with which it is so closely identified. 
The special advantages of this plant are its immunity from insect attacks, the great extent to 
which it resists frost, its habit of carrying all the edible portion well above ground — thus rendering 
it a most valuable plant for feeding off sheep without waste, or the labour of hacking up the last 
part of the bulb — its remarkable power of standing drought, and its freedom from mildew. It 
may also be sown earlier than the turnip and in stiffer soil, and will stand transplanting better 
than any of the root crops, which renders it valuable for filling up blanks. Formerly, when the 
seed was dear and labour cheap, this method used to be adopted, but now this state of things is 
reversed, and drilling is universally resorted to. 
In addition to the main crop, however, it is advisable to have a bed of young plants in 
readiness for filling up blanks, and planting out where another crop may have failed. 
The time for drilling the seed is during March, at the rate of four pounds per acre, and the 
cultivation is similar to that of the turnip. The distance for singling is from twelve to sixteen 
inches, the globe-shaped varieties requiring more than the oval. 
The early .seed time enables the plant to get well advanced before the “fly” appears, and so 
to escape its attack. 
VVe have always advised a more extended cultivation of Kohl Rabi, especially as a crop for 
ewes and lambs, and foreseeing its increasing value, we have spared no pains to improve both the 
cropping and feeding qualities of the best sorts. During the last few years M'e have applied our 
method of ennobling^ the seed as employed in the case of our swede turnips, kale, &c , 
to the two leading varieties, which we offer under the names Carters Model and 
Carters Imperial Green Kohl Rabi. 
Ravnics I*akk, London, S.W. — 1912. 
