134 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



which has not one of these three? Cabbage 

 Stum/is are also to be preserved ; for they are 

 very useful in the spring. You have been cut- 

 ting cabbages to eat in October and November. 

 You leave the stumps standing, no matter what 

 be the sort. Take them up before the frost sets 

 in : trim off the long roots, and lay the stumps in 

 the ground, in a slofiing direction, row behind 

 row, with their heads four or five inches out of 

 ground. When the frost has just set in in earnest, 

 and not before, cover the stumps all over a foot 

 thick or more, with straw, with corn-stalks, or 

 w;th ever-green boughs of some sort. As soon as 

 thefbreaking-up comes, take off the covering, and 

 stir the ground (as sown as dry,) by hoeing, 

 amongst the stumps. They should be placed in 

 an early sfiot ; in one of the warmest places you 

 have ; and they will give you (at New York) an 

 abundance of fine greens towards the end of April, 

 when a handful of wild dock -leaves sells in New 

 York market for sixpence York money, which is 



rather more than an English three pence. 



Lastly, as to the saving of cabbage seed. The 

 cabbage is a biennial. It brings its flower and its 

 seed the second year. To have cabbage seed, 

 therefore, you must preserve the cabbage, head, 

 root and all, throughout the winter ; and this 

 must be done, either in a cellar ', or, under cover- 

 ing of some sort out of doors; for, the root must 

 be kept in the ground all winter. It is possible, 

 and, I think, likely, that seed from the stu?nfi is 

 just as good as any ; but as one single cabbage 

 will give seed enough for any garden for three, 

 four, or five years, the little pains that the preser- 

 vation can require is not worth the smallest risk. 



