CATTLE CABBAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 8

CATTLE CABBAGE.

Of late years the cabbage has come rapidly to the front as a field crop, and most deservedly, as, when liberally treated, it not only attains a great weight per acre, and is of high feeding value, but has the additional advantage of being available for the greater part of the year by a judicious selection of early and late varieties. Where dairying is carried out on heavy clays, cabbages are being planted in yearly increasing quantity, as on such land they succeed admirably, and planting can be done iv showery weather, when it would be difficult to go on with either mangels or turnips, the moisture being of the greatest benefit to the plants in giving them a successful start.

On heavy land the cabbage appears to come to its greatest perfection, immense heads being grown, and a correspondingly heavy crop being obtained when the conditions are favourable — deep culture, thorough cultivation, and plenty of manure being, however, absolutely essential to success, as the plant is a gross feeder, and the roots must have every opportunity afforded them of penetrating the soil in their search for nourishment.

While doing well on light soils, and the preparatory cultural operations being less laborious, a heavier dressing of manure is usually necessary for the production of a good crop than when grown on clay or clayey loam. Farmyard dung must be the basis of every fertilising dressing given to the cabbage, unless the soil is unusually full of manurial resource, but its effect is largely increased by the use of artificials — nitrate of soda and a high-class superphosphate giving excellent results. Nitrate of soda may be used in larger quantity than for any other crop, as there is no danger of injury from excessive luxuriance — 4cwt to the imperial acre and the same weight of superphosphate being a suitable addition to about 15 tons of good dung. The increased crop, when these fertilisers are used in the above proportions, is obtained at the moderate cost of a fraction over 8s a ton, the union of a nitrogenous and phosphatic fertiliser increasing the weight of crop at a considerably less cost than when either is used alone.

To the dairy farmer the cabbage is invaluable, as, by having successional plots of early and late varieties, a supply can be obtained for the greater part of the year. Even the giant Drumhead — one of the best of the late kinds — can be extended over a lengthened period, and made to answer nearly all the purposes of an early variety. Planted early in spring, with plenty of manure, stripping the under leaves may begin in July, and be continued daily till the heads are formed and fit to cvt — a plot of this variety continuing in use for five months, if an imperial acre has been planted for every 10 cows and the crop a success. Quite outside of the very large quantity of food which can be obtained from an acre of cabbage, its increasing popularity as a field crop is based, in large measure, on its extreme suitability for dairy purposes, as, whilst being at once filling and nourishing, it does not impart any disagreeable taste to the produce. Now that the demand for butter of the finest quality is so universal amongst all classes, and when nothing but extra good quality has the slightest chance of paying the producer, turnips, as food for cows in milk, are scarcely admissible, and cabbages, as an almost inevitable consequence, are gradually displacing them.

In no circumstances can turnips be given in large quantity to a milch cow without communicating the well-known and most unpleasant flavour to her produce ; and it is scarcely too much to say that turnips should not be used at all in a butter dairy. Cabbages easily take their place, being in perfection at the period wheD, the grasses beginning to fail, a morning and evening feed in the house is specially valuable, keeping the cows longer in milk, and enabling their owner to get some advantage by the rise in value of dairy produce which invariably occurs in September. No dairy farmer on light land or the heavier clays can afford to neglect the growth of those crops, valuable for their stem and leaves, which, by taking advantage of the fertilisers which have been brought to light by the researches of modern science, can be grown so easily and in such abundance. By their extended use he keeps his cattle in full produce for a longer period than is otherwise possible, and they are always in creditable and profitable condition ; his family and servants are kept fully employed ; and the permanent and acquired resources of the soil, from which he derives his liviDg, are not only maintained, but yearly iocreased. — " Rusticus," in the Irish Farmers' Gazette.