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In the truck-farming area a few special crops are grown on a very 

 extensive scale, while in market-garden regions a great manj'- crops are 

 grown in succession on a comparatively restricted area. Truck farm- 

 ing is in reality extensive market gardening, while market gardening 

 is the most intensive form of farming. It is the practice of many 

 market gardeners to plant coarse-growing, long-season crops far apart, 

 and interplant one, two or even three short-season, quick-maturing 

 crops between them; or a quick-growing, short-season crop may be 

 planted, and between the rows a crop requiring a longer season, so 

 that as the quick-growing crop is harvested the whole area is given 

 up to the longer-season crop. Cabbage is frequently made the basis 

 of such a combination. Sometimes lettuce and radishes are grown 

 between the rows of cabbage. Sometimes cabbage is planted between 

 the rows of early beets, while late potatoes are frequently planted 

 between the rows of early cabbage. The various combinations of 

 such crops are too numerous to be catalogued. 



Young Plants for the Market Garden. — The preparation of cabbage 

 plants for the use of the market gardener in the north is a different 

 matter from growing plants for use on a truck farm in the south. The 

 market gardener at most grows only a few thousand heads. The seed 

 for these can be sown on an area covered by a hotbed or cold-frame 

 sash. The extra early crop is either started in the open in September 

 and transplanted to a cold frame as the frosty nights come on, to be 

 protected through the winter by sash and shutters and transplanted 

 to the open as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, or the 

 plants may be started in a hotbed from the first of February to the 

 middle of March, depending upon the locality, and hardened off, as 

 the days grow milder, by lifting the sash. 



Plants grown and hardened off in this way are nearly as hardy as 

 cold-frame wintered plants. They can with safety be transplanted to 

 the open as soon as the condition of the soil will warrant. As a rule, 

 hotbed-grown plants do not head as quickly as wintered plants; on 

 the other hand, there will be fewer plants that shoot to seed. The 

 grower will, therefore, use the plan best adapted to his cropping system, 

 and may employ both plans in order that the peculiarities of the 

 seasons may be most advantageously met. In some seasons the win- 

 tered plants give best results, while other seasons seem to favor the 

 hotbed product. The use of both plans will safeguard the crop to the 

 greatest degree. 



Setting Plants in the Field. — The cabbage plants are usually set 

 in the field in rows about 30 inches apart and about 18 inches apart 

 in the row. For the extra early crop the Jersey Wakefield is exten- 

 sively employed. A later variety may be sown in the hotbed at the 

 same time and the plants given similar treatment, but since the late 

 sort requires a longer season, it will form a succession with the Wake- 

 field, enabling the gardener to maintain a continuous supply up to 



