MONTHLY CALENDAR. 819 



The subsequent culture is confined to weeding and occasionally stirring the 

 earth during summer, and drawing it up round the stem when about eight or 

 nine inches high. 



888. The best varieties of the white cabbage are the Early York, Early 

 Ba.ttersea, Early Dwarf Sugar-loaf, the Late Sugar-loaf, Vanack, the 

 Portugal, or Couve TinincJiuda, — of all of which there are many varieties ; 

 as Atkin's Matchless, Sutton's Dwarf Combe, Sutton's Imperial, Enfield 

 Market, Shilling's Queen. The conical Pomeranian is singularly hardy 

 and very compact. The Vanack was subjected to experiment by the 

 Horticultural Society, and Mr. George Lindley reported it as "always 

 in season by timely sowings, making excellent spring coleworts ; becomes 

 white-hearted cabbage very early, and furnishes fine sprouts after the 

 cabbage is cut." The red cabbage is chiefly used for pickling, and the varieties 

 are confined to the Dutch, Aberdeen, and Dwarf Red. Their cultivation is 

 in all respects the same as the white cabbage, and the vegetable is only gathered 

 when the head is thoroughly formed, and when so gathered the stem is thrown 

 away as of no further value. 



889. The Savoy has been in cultivation in this country since the times of 

 Gerarde, by whom it is described. It is distinguished by its curly leaves and 

 deep green colour from the cabbage ; like it, however, it grows a compact 

 well-shaped head, and a plentiful crop of sprouts on the stem during winter. 

 Like the others, it is propagated by seeds and cuttings in the spring, sown on 

 a hotbed in February, or on beds in the open ground early in April. Plants 

 will be ready for planting out permanently in May, June, and July. 



890. In all respects the treatment is the same as with cabbages, 

 removing the plants to a nursery-bed when two inches high, selecting 

 the strongest plants first. When planted out permanently, they should stand 

 two feet apart in the rows and 20 inches between the plants ; but it is not 

 unusual to plant them between standing crops of peas or other less permanent 

 crops, whose place they thus occupy when removed. 



891. Brussels Sproiits have the same treatment in the seed-beds ; early in 

 April being the best time for sowing in the open ground. Mr. Cuthill thinks 

 ]\larch sowing would be better. " When thus sown," he adds, " I have had 

 them three feet high, each stem producing a peck of large close sprouts." The 

 after-treatment Mr. Cuthill recommends, is to "select a rich stiff loam, and 

 plant them in rows 2 feet or 18 inches apart, keeping the ground loosened by 

 hoeing ; and as soon as the stems reach their full height, which is known by 

 the top beginning to cabbage, it is cut. This throws all the strength of the 

 plant into the sprouts on the stem, and makes the bottom ones as good as 

 the top." Mr. Mcintosh dissents from this practice of cutting the top : 

 "Fromtheir form and position," he says, '* they protect the sprouts during 

 vinter, and in wet weather, from frost, snow, and rain." 



892. Borecole, Greens, and Curlies, are a numerous tribe of the Brassicsc, 

 cultivated for their leaves in winter and for their sprouts in the spring. The 

 first week in April or May, and again about the second week in August, is the 



