CHAP. III.] CABBAGES. 227 



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 harvested amidst ice and 

 snow! The proposition is, upon the face of it, 

 an absurdity; and my experience proves it to 

 be false. 



191. This book says, if I recollect rightly, 

 that the culture has been tried, and has failed. 

 Tried ? How tried ? That cabbages, and most 

 beautiful cabbages will grow, 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 will grow in 

 gardens, why not in falds? Is there common 

 sense in supposing, that they will not grow in 

 a piece of land, because it is not called a gar 

 den? The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives an 

 account of twelve acres of cabbages, which 

 would keep "forty-five oxen and sixty sheep 

 " for three months ; improving them as much as 

 " the grass in the best months in the year (in 

 " England) May, June, and July." Of these 

 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, as we have seen. Why, then, 

 are men frightened at the labour? All but the 

 mere act of planting is performed by oxen or 



