218 CABBAGES. [PART II. 



other, if the bed be well managed as to heat 

 and -air. In the open ground, where room is 

 plenty, the rows may be a foot apart, and the 

 plants two inches apart in the rows. This will 

 allow of hoeing, and here the plants will grow 

 very finely. Mind, a large cabbage plant, as 

 well as a large turnip plant, is better than a 

 small one. All will grow, if well planted ; but 

 the large plant will grow best, and will, in the 

 end, be the finest cabbage. 



181. We have a way, in England, of greatly 

 improving the plants ; but, I am almost afraid 

 to mention it, lest the American reader should 

 be frightened at the bare thought of the trouble. 

 When the plants, in the seed-bed, have got 

 leaves about an inch broad, we take them up, 

 and transplant them in fresh ground, at about 

 four inches apart each way. Here they get 

 stout and straight; and, in about three weeks 

 time, we transplant them again into the ground 

 where they are to come to perfection. This is 

 called pricking out. When the plant is re 

 moved the second time, it is found to be fur 

 nished with new roots, which have shot out of 

 the butts of the long tap, or forked roots, 

 which proceeded from the seed. It, therefore, 

 takes again more readily to the ground, and has 

 some earth adhere to it in its passage. One 

 hundred of pricked-out plants are always look- 



