Dry matter.
Matter. Per cent.

[*] Protein compounds 1.65 10.19
Non-nitrogenous matter 13.38 82.10
Mineral matter 1.25 7.71
----- ------
16.28 100.00
[* Containing nitrogen .26 1.63]

In the following table the results of a more elaborate analysis of the
_heart_ and inner leaves are shown:--

COMPOSITION OF HEART AND INNER LEAVES.

In natural state. Dry.

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 judge