256 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Cli- XXI. 



that description, or on wet and sandy loams thus enriched, it yields an 

 abundant produce of very valuable food, and will therefore be found more 

 advantageous than turnips ; but it is an exhausting and expensive crop, 

 much exposed to hazard from drought and insects, and requiring a warm 

 though moist season : for which reasons it is not generally grown, and 

 seldom upon a very large scale *, though it has the convenience of being 

 easily come at in frost and snow. With respect to the exhaustion which 

 it occasions to tlie soil, this has however been attributed, perhaps not 

 unjustly, to the fact of its being a common practice when the crop is 

 taken, to cut the head from the stem at a considerable distance from the 

 ground, leaving the root in the earth, which throws out sprouts, and thus 

 draws the land when the effect of the growth of the plant ought to have 

 entirely ceased t. But when the entire cabbage has been drawn, or the 

 roots have been turned out of the ground by the plough, the succeeding 

 crops of corn have been very abundant J. 



The mode of culture Yiecirly resembles that of turnips ; but the plough- 

 ings are so much deeper, that one plough is frequently made to follow 

 another in the same furrow, and the land being heavy as well as generally 

 wet, is more generally laid in ridges, commonly of four furrows each. 

 When laid flat, the manure is commonly plou<;hed in previous to the hist 

 ploughing ; but when laid into ridges, the muck is usually spread in the 

 furrows between the bouts, and the ridges, being divided by the plough, 

 are turned upon the dung immediately before planting. 



The seed may be either sown in drills — the shoots being afterwards 

 singled out to the requisite distance, and the roots allowed to stand for a 

 crop ; or, it may be sown in a nursery, and the shoots be afterwards 

 transplanted : the latter is the plan most usually adopted. The ground 

 intended for this purpose should be rich, well sheltered, and dry, in order 

 that the seeds may vegetate kindly and equally. The beds are commonly 

 made about four feet broad ; and, if the goodness of the seed can be 

 depended on, it is sown rather thin, and covered liglitly with well pul- 

 verized earth. About a quarter of a pound of seed will be found sufficient 

 to produce plants enough for an acre. 



The jiroper season for sowing depends upon the time when it is 

 intended to make use of the crop. If meant for consumption in the latter 

 end of autumn, the seed should be sown at Michaelmas, or rather sooner, 

 and the shoots will be ready for transplanting early in the following 

 spring ; but if intended to stand during the winter, it should be sown in 

 March, and the shoots may be planted out in all June. Most farmers 

 indeed plant a succession, perhaps from April until the end of June, so as 

 to afford a constant supply of fresh and perfect plants ere they begin to run 

 to seed : April and May are the most usual months. 



1l\\q mode of planting out hi\\Q ?.».mG. <\?, that already described in the 

 transplantation of turnips; but, in consequence of the greater length of the 

 j)lants, and their long and slender tap-roots, requires still greater care. The 

 operation should therefore never be confided to any other than an expe- 

 rienced and careful man who has been accustomed to gardening: the roots 

 should be dipped in a paste made of marly clay and cow-dung united with 



* Arthur Young indeed says, " that he has seen from 40 to 70 acres of cabbages on 

 a. farm, every 3^ear, for se\eral years ;" (Survey of Suffolk, 3rd edit. p. 113.) but such 

 instances are extremely rare. 



t Report of Suffolk, 3rd edit. p. 119. Cambridge, p. 119. Essex, vol. i. p. 375. 



X Young's Norfolk, p. 321. 



