No. 7. 



Cabbages. — Compost and liquid Manures. 



207 



gate yield is over three hundred and seventy- 

 seven millions of bushels, which, at half a 

 dollar a bushel, would amount to over one 

 hundred and eighty-eight millions, sufficient 

 to pay all the indebtedness of the States. — 

 N. Y. Express. 



Cabbages. 



Editors of the Farmers' Cabinet. — We 

 learn from a late number of the United 

 States Farmer, that a Committee of the Ame- 

 rican Institute, recently reported an exami- 

 nation they had made last fall, of a field of 

 cabbages of about twenty acres, on the farm 

 of Lambert WyckofF, at Bushwick, Long 

 Island; which they found in a remarkably 

 fine condition. From something less than 

 an acre of this field, a dozen cabbages were 

 selected, the average weight of which was 

 twenty-four lbs. and three-quarters. From a 

 bed of red pickling cabbage, half a dozen 

 heads were selected, which averaged twelve 

 lbs. and three-quarters. These were certain- 

 ly fine specimens of this excellent plant, and 

 as the Committee very properly observe, re- 

 flected great credit upon the gardener, Peter 

 Hultz. But it was in Bergen county, N. J. 

 that the lover of Zour Krout might look 

 abroad over extensive fields, and promise 

 himself never to fear a scarcity of his fa- 

 vorite luxury. The Committee say, the land 

 in that section is very rich and fertile, being 

 literally embedded with the shells of oysters 

 " So congenial is the soil to the growth of cab- 

 bage, that the roots of this plant are seldom 

 attacked by insects, which prove so destruc- 

 tive in less favoured situations." After sur- 

 veying the crop of Garret Vreeland, which 

 they visited by invitation, the Committee 

 took "a circuit of three miles around the 

 southern part of Bergen township. In the 

 course of this short ramble, 11\ acres, yield- 

 ing more than six hundred thousand heads of 

 cabbages, fresh, vigorous and thriving," came 

 within their view. On Long Island they 

 plant the hills about three feet apart each 

 way, early in the spring: — in Bergen, where 

 the soil is more fertile, they are planted but 

 little more than two feet distant, thus giv- 

 ing from eight to ten thousand plants on an 

 acre. 



Now it appears to me, that the cabbage 

 culture, when properly managed, and on soils 

 that suit, and within a reasonable distance of 

 market, must be a profitable one. In your 

 own good city, they are always of ready sale, 

 bringing from two to five dols. the hundred. 

 They delight in a rich soil: indeed they will 

 not thrive in any other. I remember the 

 advice of an old Dutch neighbor, who said, if 

 you would raise fine cabbages, put as much 



manure on the ground as you think will pos- 

 sibly do, and then go over it, and put as much 

 more ! 



Grazing and raising wheat in this vicinity, 

 have become but a dull business. Farmers 

 in the interior, and in the west, on their rich 

 virgin soils, and cheap lands, and with their 

 increasing facility for transportation, can af- 

 ford to drive our beef and wheat out of the 

 market. We must look around, and see if 

 our lands, may not here be more profitably 

 appropriated to articles of a perishable na- 

 ture, and yet of every day demand, which the 

 distant agriculturist cannot supply. 



These facts are stated, and these hints are 

 thrown out by one, who knows something of 

 the difficulty of growing profitable crops in 

 the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and who 

 is sensible, there is now full demand for all 

 the shrewdness of the farmer. If he would 

 make both ends meet, he must be wide awake. 

 He must not settle down contented to raise 

 the same identical crops that his father, and 

 grandfathers raised before him — to profit or 

 no profit, — but he must wake up to a new 

 state of things, and study his location — the 

 adaptation of his land to crops — and the de- 

 mands of the market within his reach. Z. Y. 



Compost and Liquid Manures. 



Manures are the very sinews of agricul- 

 ture; its food; its life-blood. To this matter 

 the attention of most farmers cannot be too 

 strongly directed. 



It is generally conceded, that all animal 

 manures have most efficacy when applied in 

 the greenest state. They are then most 

 active: and their chemical effects upon the 

 soil are immediate and powerful. In a di- 

 rect application to the soil, however, they 

 cannot be very thoroughly intermixed ; and 

 on this account, without question, they are 

 less efficacious than they would be, if uni- 

 formly distributed and thoroughly incorpo 

 rated with the earth. To effect this object 

 in the best manner, it is desirable to form 

 them in compost heaps, with other sub- 

 stances; mud, scrapings of yards, scrapings 

 of roads, sods, or decayed vegetable matters 

 of every description; and even simple loam 

 or mould, or any substance which will act as 

 a retentive absorbent. Thus compounded, 

 the liquids of the manure will be retained 

 and the escape of the valuable gaseous efflu- 

 via prevented ; and by being thoroughly and 

 equally intermixed and diffused, the whole 

 mass becomes a valuable and efficacious ma- 

 nure. The amount of manure in this way 

 is greatly increased; and it is believed, that 

 one part of green animal manure, combined 

 in this way with two parts of mould, swamp 



