70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



green. Evidently the dry crop gives more " geine " (earth) 

 than the green ; the one acts as a quick consuming fire, the 

 other a slow smouldering ember, giving off gases that serve to 

 feed plants and decompose the sand and quartz. These hard 

 silicates in the soil have their part to perform, and it is for the 

 cultivator of the soils to supply them with vegetable matter, 

 such as muck, meadow hay, straw, <fcc, and their decay causes 

 an evolution of gas that decomposes the silicates of potash in the 

 sand ; and the potash converts the insoluble into soluble manure, 

 which produces the crop. A word to our young farmers or 

 farmers' boys. Take a few square rods of your light soil, if any 

 you have, and try the experiment as suggested, and we believe 

 that an outlay of $20 on one-eighth of an acre in labor, will in 

 due time produce from 50 to 100 bushels of onions, or its 

 equivalent in some other crop ; will you try it ? 



Cabbages. — Evidently this crop can be grown on almost any 

 soil where a crop of corn can be cultivated with success. Gen- 

 erally, however, in this section, we get the best return where 

 the surface soil is black loam, approaching muck, and a clay 

 subsoil, or on reclaimed meadow ; in case the surface soil is 

 sandy, a compost of muck, night soil and leached ashes will 

 produce a stronger and more remunerative crop than the same 

 amount of barn manure. 



The best variety for fall and winter use doubtless is the 

 " Stone Mason " ; heads have been grown from plants the 

 present year weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds, equal 

 in flavor to the " Savoy," and selling in some sections at a 

 higher rate. The 10th of June is the proper time to plant for 

 winter use ; if planted earlier they are liable to crack and decay. 

 The best and more successful crops are usually grown by pre- 

 paring the soil as for a field of corn, manuring in the hill, 

 dropping the seed and covering from one-half an inch to three- 

 fourths in depth, without transplanting. 



From the circumstance that such extensive crops have been 

 grown the past year, the growers have been obliged to sell at 

 comparatively low prices, yet " Yankee skill has guessed it out " 

 that \vc may " have a home market " for the crop. A very 

 extensive milk producer in this section having purchased some 

 ten tons to feed out to cows, says, to quote his own language : 

 " My cows, since feeding with cabbage, have increased their 



