CABBAGES 



produce loaved cabbages so early as my own seed would ; for, 

 that, though he had always selected the earliest heads for seed, 

 the seed degenerated, and the cabbages regularly came to per 

 fection later and later. He said, that he never should save 

 cabbage seed himself ; but, that it was such chance-zvork to buy 

 of seedsmen, that he thought it best to save some at any rate. 

 In this case, all the plants from the English seed produced solid 

 loaves by the 24th of June, while, from the plants of the Pennsyl 

 vania seed, we had not a single solid loaf till the 28th of July, and, 

 from the chief part of them, not till mid-August. 



169. This is a great matter. Not only have you the food earlier, 

 and so much earlier, from the genuine seed, but your ground is 

 occupied so much less time by the plants. The plants very soon 

 shewed, by their appearance, what would be the result ; for, on 

 the and of June, Miss Sarah Paul, a daughter of Mr. James Paul, 

 saw the plants, and while those from the English seed were even 

 then beginning to loave, those from her father s seed were nothing 

 more than bunches of wide spreading leaves, having no ap 

 pearance of forming a head. However, they succeeded the 

 plants from the English seed ; and, the whole, besides what were 

 used in the House, were given to the animals. As many of the 

 white loaves as were wanted for the purpose were boiled for sows 

 and small pigs, and the rest were given to lean pigs and the horn- 

 cattle : and a fine resource they were ; for, so dry was the weather, 

 and the devastations of the grass-hoppers so great, that we had 

 scarcely any grass in any part of the land ; and, if I had not had 

 these cabbages, I must have resorted to Indian Corn, or Grain 

 of some sort. 



170. But, these spring-cabbage plants were to be succeeded 

 by others, to be eaten in September and onwards to January. 

 Therefore, on the 27th of May, I sowed in the natural ground 

 eleven sorts of cabbages, some of the seed from England and some 

 got from my friend, Mr. PAUL. I have noticed the extreme 

 drought of the season. Nevertheless, I have now about two acres 

 of cabbages of the following description. Half an acre of the 

 Early Salisbury (earliest of all cabbages) and Early York : about 

 3 quarters of an acre of the Drum-head and other late cabbages ; 

 and about the same quantity of Green Savoys. The first class 

 are fully loaved, ami bursting : with these I now feed my animals. 

 These will be finished by the time that I cut off my Swedish 

 Turnip Greens, as mentioned in Part I. Paragraph 136. Then, 

 about mid-December, I shall feed with the second class, the 

 Drum-heads and other late Cabbages. Then, those which are 

 not used before the hard frosts set in, I shall put up for use through 

 the month of January. 



171. Aye ! Put them up : but how ? No scheme that industry 

 or necessity ever sought after, or that experience ever suggested, 

 with regard to the preserving of cabbages, did I leave untried last 

 year ; and, in every scheme but one I found some inconvenience. 



