164 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



some weeks subsequently. These remedies will prove 

 effective unless under extremely adverse conditions. 



Cultivation. The relation, between abundant 

 yields, and the nature and extent of the cultivation 

 that is given to the cabbage crop, is both close anJ. 

 intimate. As soon as the young plants distinctly 

 mark the line of the row the cultivation should begin. 

 And when weeds are superabundant, if the land is 

 stirred by the hand hoe close up to the plants and 

 for a short distance on both sides of them, the labor 

 thus expended will be amply rewarded in the more 

 vigorous growth of the plants, and in the greater 

 ease with which they can be thinned. The culti- 

 vation should be frequent and should be continued 

 as long as it can be done without breaking off any 

 considerable number of the lateral leaves of the 

 plants. 



The thinning of the plants should ordinarily 

 begin while they are not yet more than three or four 

 inches high. If left unthinned for a much longer 

 period they become more or less spindling and do not 

 produce so large a head. But when the cutworms 

 are numerous it may be well to defer thinning to a 

 later period than would be advisable in the absence 

 of such an enemy. The thinning is almost entirely 

 done by the use of the hoe. The individual using 

 it strikes forward and pushes backward as in thin- 

 ning turnips ; the plants not wanted fall before the 

 hoe. The distance to which they should be thinned 

 will depend upon the variety, upon the time during 

 which the crop may continue to grow, and upon the 

 nature of the soil and season. The distance will 

 vary, say, from eighteen inches to thirty inches. 



