A SUCCESSFUL CABBAGE FIELD. 



59 



A Successful Cabbage Field. 



E. C. WLLARD, MARKET GARDENER, MANKATO, MINN. 



Friends have told me that I make a mistake in selling plants 

 and in telling how I do things. But for several years one of my 

 specialties has been early tomatoes. Every year I have sold 

 plants and told how to get them to fruit early, and still our 

 income from plants and fruit grows larger each year. So I con- 

 clude that, while there may be 

 some loss through the compe- 

 tition of my customers, it is 

 not as great as some people 

 imagine. Moreover this paper 

 is not addressed to the men 

 who would grow ten, twenty 

 or forty acres of cabbages, 

 but to the one who might 

 grow a few dozen or hundred 

 for his own use. 



The matters of first impor- 

 tance are seed and soil. Buy 

 the best cabbage seed you can 

 find. If you cannot find out 

 what is the best any other 

 way, test it. Get supplies large 

 enough to last you two or 

 more years from two or more 

 reliable seed houses. Plant 

 some from each lot, note 

 which gives the best germina- 

 tion, the best plants, the heavi- E - c - wniard and daughter juiia. 

 est yield, the freest from rot in the field, and the best storage 

 properties if stored. 



The ground for cabbage should be manured and plowed in 

 the fall or early spring and cultivated every ten days until set- 

 ting time. The seed for early varieties may be planted in hotbed 

 or greenhouse or boxes or pans and set in the light of a sunny 

 window in the dwelling house in February or March. Care must 

 be taken that the plants have light enough and not too much 

 heat or they will grow spindling. The stockier the better. As 

 soon as the plants show their first true leaves they must be trans- 

 planted about one inch apart in flats or beds, and as soon as the 



