No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 619 



I was talking with a gentleman during the National Convention 

 at Boston last fall, lie said he had a contract to furnish a quantity 

 of cabbage seed for a large dealer. I asked him if the dealer ever 

 visited his farm and inspected the cabbages he had saved for seed 

 purposes. He said he had never seen the dealer. His plan he said 

 was to produce as much seed as possible, per acre, and as cheaply as 

 possible. 



We don't want such seed as that and theie is no occasion for using 

 it. In order to be dead sure of the strain of seed you are using the 

 best plan is to grow your own. 



Many of our agricultural writers have given us to understand 

 that seed raising should be done by experts that the ordinary run of 

 market gardeners don't know enough to raise their own seed. We 

 have had this drilled into us so often that many of us have come to 

 accept it as the truth. With the exception of iJw JAvingstons I can- 

 not recall any really first-class vaiieties ichlch have been developed 

 hy the so-called profession seed growers. Practically all of our im- 

 proved varieties have been developed by careful selections by the 

 practical gardeners. W^e have also been given to understand that 

 seeds can be grown in certain favored locations. There may be some 

 truth to this statement but I know that just as good cabbage seed 

 can be produced in Pennsylvania or any of the northern states as 

 can be grown in Europe, California, Puget Sound, Long Island or 

 any other out-of-the-way place. 



Our plan of raising is to sow seed about the middle of July in 

 hills where we want the plant to grow, thus avoiding transplanting. 

 When a few inches high they are thinned out to one in a hill. The 

 development of these plants is watched during the fall and only 

 those marked for seed purposes, which show a tendency to head 

 early, a uniformity of type and which have a vigorous constitution, 

 about 1 in 100. The health and vigor of a plant is one of the most 

 important considerations. It is just as irrrportant to have strong 

 vigorous plants from which to raise seed as to use vigorous animals 

 for stock breeding. On the approach of cold weather these selected 

 cabbages are taken up carefully, placed in a trench, roots downward 

 and covered to protect from severe freezing. The following spring 

 they are planted in a well-prepared piece of ground and fertilized 

 heavily with potash and phosphoric acid. When the seeds begin to 

 ripen the seed stems are cut off, placed on sheets and if weather is 

 favorable they are left in field for a few days. They are then hauled 

 in, spread out on a tight floor and when thoroughly dried the seeds 

 are pounded out and cleaned up with a fanning mill. The seeds are 

 then screened and all small and immature seeds taken out. 



Peter Henderson in his book, "Gardening for Profit," tells of an 

 old German gardener who was always first on New York market 

 with Early Cabbage. His neighbors couldn't understand how he 

 managed to beat them out vear after vear. One dav he confided his 

 secret to a friend. His plan was to mark the stumps of the earliest 

 cabbages which he cut — the suckers forming on these stumps were 

 removed, rooted in sand as florists do soft cuttings. They were then 

 wintered over in cold frames and the following spring set out for 

 seed purposes. 



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