162 CABBAGE. 



plants are afterwards inserted ; but the ground has 

 become hard, the season is gone, and the sickly crop 

 remains to be finished by the caterpillar. This is 

 nonsense. A penny worth of seed and less wit 

 might save all this vexation. Sow on the first of 

 August, or earlier if your climate be cold; and two 

 months after sowing, take up two or three hundred 

 of the best plants and dibble them into a warm 

 border, three inches asunder. Thus treated, they 

 grow short-stemmed and thick-necked, with a bark 

 which the snail can no more injure than that of an 

 oak. Early in February the fresh green leaf ap- 

 pears, and the plant begins to gather strength for 

 its summer's work. From the middle to the end 

 of this month, when the weather is fresh and the 

 ground dry, the plants may be taken up with the 

 ball of earth which adheres to the many fibres pushed 

 from the root in consequence of the previous trans- 

 planting, and transferred to a large open quarter 

 duly prepared for their reception. Such plants 

 never feel their removal. There is no heat to 

 wither them, and slight frosts do not affect them. 

 The ground, having been dug before winter with 

 a deep rough furrow, mellowed with frost and 

 swollen with rich manure, may be stirred from the 

 bottom and well loosened, but not turned over, 

 and the plants set at the distance of three feet by 

 two. 



The only objection to the advantage of retaining 

 a ball of earth is the gall-nut-like excresence which 

 is sometimes found on the roots of the plants. If 



