CABBAGE 31 



the farm, sometimes with such success as to prove the better paying 

 crop of the two. It may be said in a general way that a Cabbage 

 may be grown almost anywhere and anyhow that it will thrive on 

 any soil, and that the seed may be sown any day in the year. All 

 this is nearly true, and proves that we have a wonderful plant to deal 

 with; but it is too good a friend of man to be treated, even in a 

 book, in an off-hand manner. The Cabbage may be called a lime 

 plant, and a clay plant ; but, like almost every other plant that is 

 worth growing, a deep well-tilled loam will suit it better than any 

 other soil under the sun. It has one persistent plague only. Not 

 the Cabbage butterfly ; for although that is occasionally a desperate 

 plague, it is not persistent, and may be invisible for years together. 

 Nor is it the aphis, although in a hot dry season that pest is a fell 

 destroyer of the crop. The great plague is club or anbury, for which 

 there is no direct remedy or preventive known. But indirectly the 

 plague may be fought successfully. The crop should be moved about, 

 and wherever Cabbage has been grown, whether in a mere seed-bed 

 or planted out, it should be grown no more until the ground has 

 been well tilled and put to other uses for one year at least, and better 

 if for two or three years. There are happy lands whereon the club 

 has never been seen, and the way to keep these clear is to practise 

 deep digging, liberal manuring, and changing the crops to different 

 ground as much as possible. A mild outbreak of club may generally 

 be met by first removing the warts from the young plants and then 

 dipping them in a puddle made of soot, lime, and clay. But when it 

 appears badly amongst the forward plants, their growth is arrested, 

 the plot becomes offensive, and the only course left is to draw the bad 

 plants, burn them, and give up Cabbage growing on those quarters 

 for several years. 



For general purposes Cabbages may be classified as early and 

 late. The early kinds are valuable for their earliness, but are not 

 well adapted for extensive cultivation, and, as compared with mid- 

 season and late sorts, may be described as unprofitable. In the 

 scheme of cropping, it may be reckoned that a paying crop of 

 Cabbage will occupy the ground through a whole year; for although 

 this may not be the case exactly, the growing time will be pretty well 

 gone before the ground is clear. After Cabbage, nothing of the 

 brassicaceous genus should be put on the land, and, if possible, the 

 crop to follow should be one requiring less of sulphur and alkalies, 

 for of these the Cabbage is a great consumer, hence the need for 

 abundant manuring in preparation for it. The presence of sulphur 



