32 



CROP PRODUCTION 



commonly started in hot-beds or greenhouses for the 

 early crop, and in outdoor seed-beds for the late crop. 

 When started outdoors or when properly hardened off 

 from indoor culture, they are quite hardy as to frost. 

 The small-headed sorts may be planted two feet apart 

 each way, but the large ones require thirty inches or more. 

 After the plants are set, good tillage must be given to 

 save the moisture in the soil, so that there may be no 

 checking of growth. Unless the ground is very rich, the 

 plants will be benefited by one or two light applications 

 of nitrate of soda or other fertilizer rich in nitrogen. 

 Young Cabbages may be planted from late in April until 

 early in July for successive crops. 



It is especially important that Cabbage seed be selected 

 from the best plants of each type. Commercial growers 

 appreciate the importance of this and wilHngly pay 



high prices for strains 

 of seed produced by 

 speciah&ts. The differ- 

 ence between profit and 

 loss from a given field 

 may easily depend upon 

 the percentage of plants 

 that make sound heads, 

 and this depends very 

 largely upon the quality 

 of the seed. 



Insect Enemies 

 Two insect pests are often destructive to cabbages — 

 the Root Maggot and the Cabbage Worm. The Root 

 Maggots hatch from eggs laid about the base of the young 



