236 ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
all know how important it is to retard the eating off of 
roots as long as possible. 
Practically, we have found all kinds.of stock do well upon 
cabbage, and we therefore recommend a few acres to be 
grown on the plan proposed, not, however, mixing the sorts 
as we have done, but the three sorts last described in sepa¬ 
rate plots; these will come in successively thus: The Ox- 
heart the last week in September, the London Market 
the end of October, and the Battersea the middle of Novem¬ 
ber. Nor should they be all treated alike, though sown at 
the same time, as the Oxheart should be left twenty inches 
apart in the rows, and the others from twenty-four to thirty 
inches, according to the richness of the soil. 
Cabbages may be grown in the held in the manner de¬ 
scribed for the vegetable market. It is not at all necessary 
to transplant either cabbages or lettuces ; we believe that in 
both the best results, in a given time, are to be obtained by 
thinning out. This kind of field cultivation is not half so 
liable to injury from insects. 
In both 1866 and 1867 our garden crops were overrun by 
caterpillars, especially those of the white butterfly, but the 
field crops remained uninjured, the fact being that our wide 
fifty-acre fields are too exposed for them. 
In concluding these remarks we would observe that, as 
the growth of cabbage is certainly extending as an agricul¬ 
tural crop, we have penned these remarks upon actual ex¬ 
periments with various members of this family, over a great 
many acres, in the hope that it may stimulate others, like 
us, to “ prove all things.” 
The bulboid forms of the cabbage tribe, generally known as 
turnips , come on now for review, and had we time or space 
to devote to the subject it would form a lengthened and 
interesting history of farm progress. 
Before the introduction of turnip culture as a regular 
farm crop stock had to live hard during the winter, when, 
indeed, fattening of sheep and cattle was next to 
impossible. 
In those days cattle were fattened on the pastures and 
salted down for winter use, but at present it is often found 
that both cattle and sheep are made out during the winter, 
and this has been mainly due to the growth of roots. 
Of these the Swedish and the common turnip may be 
looked upon as two specific forms, of both of which are very 
many varieties. Indeed, so plastic are roots, that in a very 
short time a new variety may be attained to as the result of 
care and attention, so that each seedsman has his own 
