e and recent experience, that Early York
and Sugar-loaf Cabbages will yield as sweet milk and butter _as any food
that can be given to a cow_. During this last summer, I have, with the
exception about to be noticed, kept, from the 1st of May to the 22d of
October, _five cows_ upon the grass _of two acres and a quarter of ground,
the grass_ being generally _cut up for them_ and given to them in the
stall. I had in the spring 5000 cabbage plants, intended for my pigs,
eleven in number. But the pigs could not eat _half_ their allowance,
though they were not very small when they began upon it. We were compelled
to resort to the aid of the cows; and, in order to see _the effect on the
milk and butter_, we did not _mix_ the food; but gave the cows two
_distinct spells_ at the cabbages, each spell about 10 _days in duration_.
The cabbages were cut off the stump with little or no care about _dead
leaves_. And sweeter, finer butter, butter of a finer colour, than these
cabbages made, never was made in this world. I never had better from cows
feeding in the sweetest pasture. Now, as to _Swedish turnips_, they do
give a little taste, especially if boiling of the milk pans be neglected,
and if the greatest care be not taken about _all_ the dairy tackle. Yet we
have, for months together, had the butter so fine from Swedish turnips,
that nobody could well distinguish it from grass-butter. But to secure
this, there must be no _sluttishness_. Churn, pans, pail, shelves, wall,
floor, and all about the dairy, must be clean; and, above all things, the
pans must be _boiled_. However, after all, it is not here a case of
delicacy of smell so refined as to faint at any thing that meets it except
the stink of perfumes. If the butter do taste a little of the Swedish
turnip, it will do very well where there is plenty of that sweet sauce
which early rising and bodily labour are ever sure to bring.

128. The _other point_ (about which I am still more anxious) is the
_seed_; for if the seed be not _sound_, and especially if it be not _true
to its kind_, all your labour _is in vain_. It is best, if you can do it,
to get your seed from some friend, or some one that you know and can
trust. If you save seed, observe all the precautions mentioned in my book
on _Gardening_. This very year I have some Swedish turnips, _so called_,
about 7000 in number, and should, if my seed had been _true_, have had
about _twenty tons_ weight; instead of which I have about