CABBAGES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 5 



that of the leaves surrounding fruit buds, when each 

 die and drop off. In my locality the public must have 

 perceived more or less clearly the analogy between the 

 heads of cabbage and the buds of trees, for when they 

 speak of small heads they frequently call them " buds." 

 That the close wrapped leaves which make. the cabbage 

 head and surround the seed germ, situated just in the 

 middle of the head at the termination of the stump, are 

 necessary for its protection and nutrition when young, 

 is proved, I think, by the fact that those cabbages the 

 heads of which are much decayed, when set out for 

 seed, no matter how sound the seed germ may be at the 

 end of the stump, never make so large or healthy a seed 

 shoot as those do the heads of which arc sound ; as a 

 rule, after pushing a feeble growth, they die. 



For this reason I believe that the office of the head is 

 similar to and as necessary as that of the leaves which 

 unwrap from around the blossom buds of our fruit trees. 

 It is true that the parallel cannot be fully maintained, 

 as the leaves which make up the cabbage head do not to 

 an equal degree unfold, (particularly is this true of 

 hard heads) ; yet they exhibit a vitality of their own, 

 which is seen in the deeper green color the outer leaves 

 soon attain, and the change from tenderness to tough- 

 ness in their structure ; I think, therefore, that the 

 degree of failure in the parallel may be measured by the 

 difference between a higher and a lower form of organic 

 life. • 



Some advocate the economy of cutting off a large por- 

 tion of the heads when cabbages are set out for seed to 

 use as food for stock. There is certainly a great temp- 

 tation, standing amid acres of large, solid heads in the 

 early Spring months, when green food of all kinds is 



