34 CABBAGES, HOW TO CROW THEM, ETC. 



varying from a loss for seed purposes of from one-half 

 to thirty-three per cent, of the number buried ; but if 

 handled early in Spring, many that would be worthless 

 for seed purposes could be profitably marketed. A few 

 years since I buried a lot with a depth varying from one 

 to four feet, and found, on uncovering them in the 

 Spring, that all had kept and apparcntlj r equally well. 

 In the Winter of 1868 excessively cold weather came 

 very early and unexpectedly, before my cabbage plot 

 had received its full covering of litter. The consequence 

 was the frost penetrated so deep that it froze through 

 the heads into the stumps, and when Spring came a 

 large portion of them came out spoilt for seed purposes, 

 though most of them sold readily in the market. A 

 cabbage is rendered worthless for seed when the frost 

 strikes through the stump where it-joins the head ; and 

 though to the unpracticed eye all may appear right, yet, 

 if the heart of the stump has a water-soaked appear- 

 ance on being cut into, it will almost uniformly decay 

 just below the head in the course of a few weeks after 

 having been planted out. If there is a probability that 

 the stumps have been frozen through, examine the plot 

 early, and, if it proves so, sell the cabbages for eating 

 purposes, no matter how sound and handsome the heads 

 look ; if you delay until time for planting out the cab- 

 bage for seed, meanwhile much waste will occur. I 

 once lost heavily in Marblehead Mammoth cabbage by 

 having them buried on a hill-side with a gentle slope. 

 In the course of the Winter they fell over on their sides, 

 which let down the soil from above, and, closing the 

 air chambers between them, brought the huge heads into 

 a mass, and the result was a large proportion of them 

 rotted badly. At another time I lost a whole plot by 



