100 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



4,840 per acre; at this rate you can secure larger heads and it will give 

 a greater tonnage than closer planting. Great care should be taken 

 to get the best seed. In no truck crop does the character of the seed 

 count for more than in cabbage. The grower cannot afford to risk his 

 crop for a small saving. This is true of all kinds of seed. There is no 

 greater disappointment than to discover that your labor for the season 

 has been useless, because you have bought cheap and useless seeds. The 

 year is spent and nothing for it but failure. One often blames the soil 

 and weather conditions, when the seed is at fault. Some of the best 

 varieties for Oregon are Early Jersey Wakeneid or Charleston Wakeneid; 

 late cabbage, the Danish Ball Head (imported seed), is chiefly grown 

 for storage and sour kraut. Care should be taken when transplanting 

 in hot weather, when evaporation is rapid. It is at that season advis- 

 able to prune off most of the leaves; in this way the plant receives less 

 check than it otherwise would. Seed beds for cabbage should be pre- 

 pared in a new place each year, either broad cast, or in drills. Care 

 must be taken to have healthy plants. It is well to sow a thin coat of 

 salt on the soil and work it in before sov/ing the seed. This destroys the 

 fungus that may be in the land, which causes club-root and other 

 diseases. 



Cauliflower plants are grown the same as cabbage plants, both the 

 early and late varieties, and are transplanted in the same manner. In 

 order to have the plants grow rapidly and produce the desired quality 

 of product, good cultivation must be given, and in order to do this, the 

 plants should be set so as to cultivate both ways. If you will give the 

 plants the necessary cultivation and float the land between the rows 

 to conserve the moisture of the late planting, you will find that the 

 aphis will not do so much härm, for the aphis will only attack the 

 weak plants. When the cauliflower begins to head, in order to bleach, 

 the leaves should be loosely gathered together and pinned with a tooth- 

 pick, so as not to exclude air, but only to keep off most of the sunshine. 

 To draw the leaves too close will scald the head, therefore let the plant 

 have plenty of air. In case of shipping and packing the cauliflower 

 should be cut early in the morning while they are cold. But if it is 

 necessary to cut in the afternoon, care should be taken to spread them 

 out over night so as to cool them before packing. They will stand 

 shipping better and will keep much longer by this simple pre-cooling. 



Onion-growing is one of the most profitable industries of Oregon. 

 Soil and climate conditions are such as to produce a good onion, mild 

 and withal a good shipper and keeper. Most any good soil will produce 

 onions. However, some soils are better than others; the famous Oregon 

 beaverdam land is without question the best. 



How to Prepare the Onion Lani. — Plow the land deep, pulverize and 

 smooth it, let the land rest about two weeks then harrow thoroughly a 

 second time and smooth it; in this way the first crop of weeds are 

 destroyed that otherwise would have to be weeded by hand. This method 

 of preparing the soil is good for any crop that is likely to require 

 weeding. Onions require rieh soil, and the cheapest manure for onion 

 land is to sow early in September about 75 pounds of vetch seed, and 

 in early spring plow this under, and good large onions will be the result. 

 Another very essential way of helping the onion is to give the land a 

 good dressing of salt about two weeks before planting. Onions like salt. 

 To produce sweet onions they must be kept growing rapidly. Stunted 

 onions are sharp and strong. Sow the seed as early as possible and not 

 later than about the Ist of April. Onions should ripen about August 

 15th to 20th. The early crop brings good prices; the v/riter of this 

 article has sown onion seeds as early as February 3rd and as late as 



