1895.] ESSAYS. 27 



To get good early cabbage, it is very essential to Lave good plants, 

 as their principal enemy is the maggot in the root, and strong plants 

 will often get through when weak ones are destroyed. Club-foot is 

 the disease that gives the growers of late cabbage much trouble, 

 especially if they are on low ground. 



The standard early varieties here are the Early Jersey Wakefield 

 and Henderson's Early Summer. The Winningstadt is becoming a 

 popular cabbage for summer and autumn, and while it may be a 

 desirable cabbage for the dealer, I hardly think it profitable for the 

 grower, as it is quite small. It has until quite recently sold for 

 considerable more than the drumheads, and it ought to, but of late 

 some of our large cabbage growers have been growing it quite exten- 

 sively, and if it can be grown nearly as cheap as the drumheads, it 

 will probably be the standard summer and fall cabbage. The Stone 

 Mason is a standard winter cabbage and much better for this market 

 than a larger variety. The best strains are round enough so they 

 trim well during the winter. It is a good keeper. 



Early cabbage thrive best in rich and not too moist old garden soil, 

 that has not had any of the cabbage family grown on it for at least 

 three years, while late ones enjoy nothing better than a good 

 sward ; but they are rank feeders and need heavy manuring. Cabbage 

 grown on, or partially with, fertilizers and chemicals, will keep better 

 than if grown exclusively on stable manure, and they will keep better 

 if grown on sward than if grown on old land. 



Cauliflowers are treated very much the same as cabbage and usually 

 sell for more by the head, but the demand for them is very light in 

 this market. They are one of the many vegetables that are not 

 appreciated here. 



Perhaps after cabbage there is no vegetable so important with the 

 gardener as the beet. This is also a vegetable that we have practi- 

 cally the year around, although there are so many shipped here from 

 the South during the early spring, that there is not so much demand 

 for old beets late in the season as formerly. Some gardeners have 

 done considerable of a business with transplanted beets, especially 

 in southern New England ; and while it does very well if they can be 

 brought into market a few days earlier than those sown in the open 

 field, it is usually hard to get them early enough so that they will 

 clean up before there are a plenty from the open ground, when they 

 will not begin to bring what they cost, and do not sell as well as 

 those grown from seed sown in the open field. Beets will sometimes 

 come nicely if sown when the ground is quite wet and cold, but are 



