CABBAGE 137 



of the past season ranged from two dollars per barrel up- 

 wards; as much as seven dollars and fifty cents having 

 been secured for some marketed from middle Florida. 

 The beet is, in this country, remarkably free from insect 

 depredations. 



CHAPTER XV. 



CABBAGE (Brassica oleraced). 



CTioupomme, or Cabas blanc, French ; Kopfkohl, German ; Kool, Dutch ; 

 Cavdo, Italian ; Berza, Spanish. 



The Cabbage was a favorite culinary vegetable of the 

 Romans, who introduced its cultivation into England 

 before the Christian era, although it grows wild along 

 the sea shore of that country, particularly near Dover, 

 where it is abundant on the chalk cliffs. 



Cultivation has evolved from the wild plant very 

 many sorts and varieties. Of these, the truck-farmer 

 of the extreme South is at present concerned with only 

 a few select varieties of the common or heading cabbage 

 and with the cauliflower, kale being grown only at Nor- 

 folk and vicinity. Possibly the large German element 

 in the populations of the Northern cities may in time 

 provide a market for kohl rabi. 



VARIETIES. 



Climate affects the cabbage more, perhaps, than it 

 does any other vegetable ; and a variety growing, as to 

 appearance, indifferently well in both countries, may be 

 considered superior in England, and be discarded as 

 worthless in America, while some sorts, which grow 

 satisfactorily in one region, may fail in another not very 

 distant. 



