Chap. III.] Cabbages. 125 



quantity, of such a quality, to be got for fiftij dollars ? 

 The Scotch Edition gives an account of Jifty-four tons 

 raised on an acre where the land was Avorth only twelve 

 shillings (less than three dollais) an acre. In fairness 

 then, the American Editor should have giAcn to his 

 agricultural readers what the Scotchman had said upoa 

 the subject. And, if he still thought it right to advise 

 the American farmers not to think of cabbages, he 

 should, I think, have offered them some, at least, of 

 the reasons for his believing, that that which was ob- 

 tained in such abundance in England and Scotland, 

 was not ti> be obtained to an> piofit at all here. What ! 

 Avill not this immense region furnish a climate, for this; 

 purpose, equal even to Scotland, where an oat will 

 hardly ripen ; and where the crop of that miserable 

 grain is sometimes hanested amidst ice and snow! The 

 proposition is, upon the face of it, an absurdity ; and 

 my experience proves it to be lalse. 



191. Tliis book says, if I recollect rightly, that the 

 culture has been tried, and has failed. Tried ! How 

 tried ! That cabbages, and most beautiful cabbages iri/i 

 prow in all parts of America, every farmer knows ; 

 for he has them in his garden, or sees them, every year, 

 in the gardens of others. And, if they A\ill grow in gar- 

 dens, why not infields? Is there common sense in sup- 

 Eosing, that they will not grow in a piece of land, 

 ecause it is not ca//ed a garden? The Encyclopaedia 

 Britanoica gives an account of twelve acres of cabbages, 

 which Mould keep '■'■ forty-Jive oxen and sixty sheep for 

 " three months ; improving them as nuich as the grass 

 " in the best months in the year (in England) May, 

 " June, and July." Of the^e large cabbages, being 

 at four feet apart in the rows, one man will easily plant 

 out an acre in a day. As to the seed-bed, the labour 

 of that is nothing, a.s we have seen. AVhy, then, are 

 men frightened at the labour ? All but the mere act of 

 planting is performed by oxen or horses ; and they 

 never complain of " the labour." The labour of an 

 acre of cabbages is not half so nnich as that of an acre 

 of Indian Corn. The bringing in of tlie crop and ap- 

 plying it are not more expensive than those of the com 

 And Mill any man pretend, that an acre of good cab 



