CABBAGES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 65 



keep them so cold that they will not grow, and just suf- 

 ficiently protected to prevent injury from freezing. With 

 this object in view the sashes must be raised whenever 

 the temperature is above freezing, and this process will 

 so harden the plants that they will receive no serious in- 

 jury though the ground under the sash should freeze two 

 inches deep ; cabbage plants will stand a temperature of 

 fifteen to twenty degrees below the freezing point. A 

 covering of snow on the sash will do no harm, if it does 

 not last longer than a week or ten days, in which case it 

 must be removed. There is some clanger to be feared 

 from ground mice, who, when everything else is locked 

 up by the frost will instinctively take to the sash, and 

 there cause much destruction among the plants unless 

 these are occasionally examined. "When March opens 

 remove the sash when the temperature will allow, re- 

 placing it when the weather is unseasonably cold, par- 

 ticularly at night. The plants may be brought still 

 farther forward by transferring them from the hot bed 

 when two or three inches high to cold frames, having 

 first somewhat hardened them. When so transferred 

 plant them about an inch apart, and shield from the sun 

 for two or three days. After this they may be treated 

 as in cold frames. The transfer tends to keep their 

 stock, increases the fibrous roots and makes the plants 

 hardier. As the month advances it may be left entirely 

 off, and about the first of April the plants may be set 

 out in the open field, pressing fine earth firmly about 

 the roots. 



When cabbages are raised in hot beds the seed in the 

 latitude of Boston should be planted the first of March; 

 in that of New York about a fortnight earlier. When 

 two or three inches high, which will be in three or four 



