GROWING CABBAGE IN CALIFORNIA 161 



coast influences. It does not resent fogs and cold winds, and thrives 

 directly upon the coast as well as in coast valleys. In the interior 

 it reaches its best estate on bottom lands, but will succeed on plains 

 and uplands with enough moisture by irrigation to supplement the 

 rainfall, but without irrigation it is often disappointing even though 

 it be started early enough. Cabbage is sometimes a very profitable 

 winter crop in young orchards in southern California. 



Soil. The cabbage does well on heavy soil, and it does not 

 object to alkali if it is not too strong. It delights in copious treat- 

 ment with stable manures. For quick fall growth, for early win- 

 ter maturity, such soil, if moist enough by rainfall or irrigation, 

 will bring it along rapidly while the autumn heat is ample. For 

 later fall planting to reach early spring maturity, a warmer, lighter, 

 well-drained soil or a raised bed will push full growth in a month 

 or six weeks less time than heavy soil in a rainy region, which is 

 likely to be cold and water-soaked. But the cabbage sometimes 

 repays great kindness by growth to bursting or cracking of the head. 

 Care should be had against overgrowth for this reason. Cracking 

 can be prevented by giving heads which threaten it a pull, or a 

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

 by partial arrest of its supplies. 



Aside from consideration of rapid development, however, it 

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

 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 conditions also sug- 

 gest different times of planting in different localities, according to 

 what may be reasonably anticipated in the way of heat and moist- 

 ure. Even in the same locality there will also be different dates of 

 suitability, 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 aleady 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 side 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 



