Water 89·42 Oil ·08 ·75 [*] Soluble protein compounds 1·19 11·24 Sugar, digestible fibres, &c. 7·01 66·25 Soluble mineral matter ·73 6·89 [+] Insoluble protein compounds ·31 2·93 Woody fibre 1·14 10·77 Insoluble mineral matter ·12 1·17 ------ ------ 100·00 100·00 [* Containing nitrogen ·19 1·79] [+ Containing nitrogen ·05 ·47] If I were asked what plant I considered the most valuable for forage, I certainly should pronounce an opinion in favor of cabbage. This crop yields a much greater return than that afforded by the Swedish turnip, and it is richer in nutritive matter. Cabbages are greedily eaten by sheep and cattle, and the butter of cows fed upon them is quite free from the disagreeable flavor which it so often possesses when the food of the animal is chiefly composed of turnips. If the cabbage admitted of storing, no more valuable crop could be cultivated as food for stock. Mr. John M'Laren, of Inchture, Scotland, gives in the "Transactions of the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland for 1857," a report on the feeding value of cabbage, which is highly favorable to that plant:-- On the 1st December, 1855 (says the reporter), two lots of Leicester wethers, bred on the farm, and previously fed alike, each lot containing ten sheep, were selected for the trial by competent judges, and weighed. Both lots were put into a field of well-sheltered old lea, having a division between them. All the food was cut and given them in troughs, three times a day. They had also a constant supply of hay in racks. At the end of the trial, on the 1st of March, 1856, the sheep were all re-weighed, sent to the Edinburgh market, and sold same day, but in their separate lots. As I had no opportunity of getting the dead weights, I requested Mr. Swan, the salesman, to give his opinion on their respective qualities. This was to the effect that no difference existed in their market value, but that the sheep fed on turnips would turn out the best quality of mutton, with most profit for the butcher. Both lots were sold at the same price, viz., 52s. 6d. During the three months of trial, we found that each lot consumed about the same weight of food--viz., 8 tons 13 cwt. 47 lb. of cabbage, being at the rate of 21-1/3 lbs. per day for each sheep, and 8 tons 10 cwt. 7 lb. Swedes, being at the rate of 20-9/10 lb. per day.