184 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



or a cut through the roots with a spade, so as to lessen its riotous 

 living by partial arrest of its supplies. 



Aside from considerations of rapid development, however, it 

 should be said that the cabbage will stand a good deal of winter f 

 water and will even go through a period of saturated soil and / 

 standing water, making good heads when better growing conditions 

 follow. 



The Time to Plant. These points on soil condition also sug- 

 gest different times of planting in different localities, according to 

 what may be reasonably anticipated in the way of heat and moisture. 

 Even in the same locality there will also be different dates of suit- 

 ability, according to the character of the current season. The best 

 practice is to have plants available in different seed beds and to 

 plant out in succession the thriftiest plants at hand at such times 

 as the season may show fitness. Planting by the calendar is not 

 usually intelligent practice in California, as has been already stated. 



Growing plants. It is wise in most parts of California to start 

 plants in a seed bed from August to October, irrigating the ground 

 well to guard against drying out on land not naturally moist. In 

 the warmer coast regions good plants can be grown at this time of 

 the year in the open ground. Field growth of cabbage plants with 

 irrigation in southern California is described in this way: 



The land is furrowed out at various widths, depending on whether 

 the wheel hoe or horse cultivator is used in the after cultivating, and 

 after the furrows have been made a light planker is drawn across the 

 field lengthwise over the ridges, which makes a fine uniform surface on 

 which to sow the seed. This is done with a seed drill, and a row is 

 made on each edge of the ridge, thus making a double row with a furrow 

 on each side for irrigation. Unless the land is very moist when the seed 

 is sown, water is turned into the furrows at once and the moisture rises 

 by capillarity to the top of the ridge, thus giving the seed a chance to 

 germinate at once. As with lettuce, if the seed is too thickly sown it is 

 thinned out so that the plants will grow stocky. As soon as the plants 

 are large enough they are transplanted into the open field, which has 

 been prepared as for the seed rows, except that the rows are always wide 

 enough for horse cultivation and only one row is set on the edge of the 

 furrow. 



In the interior, where temperature extremes are liable to be 

 greater, a cold frame, or covered seed bed, may be used to protect 

 the young plants against hot, dry winds. In small garden practice 

 the use of a seed-box is often handier. Plants should be given 



