262 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



others produced, and those which form compact and solid heads 

 such as the drum-head, and the savoy, weighing, in some cases, 

 upwards of forty pounds each, though such must be considered 

 as remarkable. In Scotland, they are rarely cultivated as a field 

 crop. In the south and most temperate parts of England, they 

 may be safely left in the ground, uncovered, through the winter. 



The usual course is to plant them in a nursery, and then re 

 move them to a field ; and the largest kinds require ample room, 

 and may be planted at three or four feet distance each way. In 

 transplanting, a dibble is commonly used; but, in such case, the 

 root is often doubled up and crowded into the hole, to the injury 

 of the plant. A better way is, to plough a furrow, and, taking 

 the plants singly, cut off a portion of the top, and dipping the 

 root ends in some liquid, lay them at proper distances in the 

 furrow, and then cover them with a plough ; having a third per 

 son to follow, who may relieve any plants which may have 

 been too deeply covered, and pressing the earth against the roots 

 of those plants which require it. 



Cabbages are deemed most excellent food for sheep and stock, 

 though some persons consider them as of too laxative a nature 

 for cattle a fault which would be corrected by an ample supply 

 of meal, or some dry feed, given in conjunction with the cabbage 

 Oil cake is given with them to fattening sheep, with extraordinary 

 advantage. 



Cabbages are considered as great exhausters of the soil ; but 

 where they are consumed upon the farm, they undoubtedly 

 make a full compensation for what they have abstracted. At 

 Ockham Park, in Surrey, the seat of the Earl of Lovelace, which 

 I had the pleasure of visiting, they have been cultivated, for 

 several years, in connection with a crop of beans. The beans 

 are planted in double lines, four inches apart, and with an inter 

 val of three feet to the next row. The ground between the 

 rows of beans is then carefully cultivated, until the time of set 

 ting out the cabbages, which are then planted, two feet apart, in 

 the rows. The beans are harvested in August, and the cabbages 

 are then ploughed and cultivated, and are ready to be fed off in 

 December. He thinks that he gets as much feed from the land 

 by this crop as he should obtain from a crop of common turnips, 

 though not as much as he would obtain from a crop of swedes ; 

 and the crop of beans is not diminished. Indeed, he adds that 



