CABBAGE. The more or less compact leaf-formed 

 head of Brassica oleracea; also applied, with designa- 

 tions, to related forms of the same species, as Welsh 

 cabbage, tree cabbage. Closely related plants are the 

 kales (Fig. 706), collards, Brussels 

 sprouts, cauliflower. See Brassica. 



The Chinese cabbage of this country 

 is a wholly different species from the 

 common cabbages. It does not form a 

 compact and rounded head, but a more 

 or less open and soft mass of leaves, 

 after the manner of Cos lettuce. It is of 

 easy culture, but must be grown in the 

 cool season, for it runs quickly to seed 

 in hot and dry weather. 



The culture of the cabbage antedates 

 reliable historical record. Writers of 

 Pliny's time or before refer to variations 

 in growth and character which must 

 have resulted from selections and culti- 

 vation for many generations, under 

 conditions very different from those 

 which seem to be the natural 

 habitat of the plant on the com- 

 paratively barren chalk cliffs of 

 England, and in similar locations 

 in Europe. 



It is indeed hard to realize that 

 the scrawny and somewhat starved- 

 looking plant shown in Fig. 628 

 (Vol. I) could be the ancestral 

 origin of such corpulent, overfed 

 individuals as are shown in Figs. 

 701 to 704. Such a change in habit 

 of growth can be accounted for 

 only by the plant's possession of ex- 

 ceptional capacity for using the 

 more abundant food-supply fur- 

 nished by cultivation for many 

 generations, and the storing of it in 

 a way that makes it available for 

 man's use rather than for the mere 

 perpetuation and multiplication of 

 the parent plants. 



701, Conical form of cabbage 

 Jersey Wakefield. 



702. Round-headed type of cabbage. 



Characteristics of the plant and req- 

 uisites for best development. 



The cabbage is classed by bota- 

 nists as a slow-growing bi-annual, 

 and has three distinct periods of 

 life: First, the more or less 

 rapid growth of leaf and plant. 

 Second, a more or less distinct 

 resting period during which the 

 formation of embryonic blos- 

 soms is started. Third, the 

 growth and development of the 

 flower and seed. The culti- 

 vated cabbages retain very per- 

 sistently these distinct growing 

 periods, but have added what 

 might be classed as another, 

 that of head-formation, which 

 is in reality simply a distinct 

 division of the first. This ad- 

 ditional head-forming period, 

 although essential to the plant's 

 value as a cultivated vegetable, 



39 



is not at all necessary for the growth and perpetuation 

 of the plant, which, when it has been held in check by 

 long-continued severe frost or drought, will often 

 revert to the original order of growth and pass directly 

 from the growing to the seeding stages 

 with no attempt at head-formation. 



Cultivated cabbage thrives best in a 

 moist and comparatively cool climate, 

 and will not reach its best and rarely a 

 satisfactory or profitable development in 

 a hot dry one, nor where there are likely 

 to be even occasional days of high tem- 

 perature or hot dry winds. Even if 

 there is abundant moisture in the soil, 

 a few hot dry days, such as corn and 

 tomato plants would delight in, will 

 often not only check but permanently 

 prevent any vigorous or profitable 

 growth. This sensitiveness to over-heat 

 is most pronounced during the second or 

 unnatural period of growth, and the 

 least so during the first. Young 

 plants will often thrive in tempera- 

 tures in which it would be quite 

 impossible to induce older ones to 

 form a solid head. Excessive heat 

 is quite as injurious, and often more 

 so, than freezing, but the latter is 

 especially injurious to the younger 

 plants, particularly if they are grow- 

 ing rapidly, the older ones being 

 little injured by frost which would 

 kill rapid-growing seedlings. One 

 notable effect of exposure of young 

 plants to severe or long-continued 

 low temperature is that it takes the 

 place of the resting period, and thus 

 cuts out the second or head-form- 

 ing period, so that the plant, as 

 soon as established in the field, be- 

 gins to shoot to seed without form- 

 ing any head. The degree to which 

 the plant suffers from unfavorable 

 temperature seems to vary not only 

 with different varieties but in differ- 

 ent locations. In the Puget Sound 

 country, cabbage plants are often 

 killed by exposure to low tempera- 

 tures, which those of the same 

 variety and age growing in similar 

 soil and exposure on Long 

 Island would endure with little 

 apparent injury. In the United 

 States, favorable climatic con- 

 ditions are most likely to occur 

 in succession during the winter, 

 spring and fall months, as one 

 moves northeast along the 

 Gulf and Atlantic coasts, or in 

 the West along the coast north 

 from Portland, Oregon, and 

 in isolated sections south of 

 that point. Some of the finest 

 cabbages ever produced in 

 America have been grown at 

 points on the Pacific coast as 

 far south as Los Angeles, Cali- 

 704. A modem cabbage plant in head Early Flat Dutch, f ornia. There are also locations, 



(603) 



