66 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[May 



posed of with profit, if the question of demand 

 is studied enough to determine just liow and 

 where they cau be sold to best advantage. 

 "Why should we save old rags, which bring 

 only a few cents per i)Ound, with such care, 

 and throw away chicken feathers and other 

 things in the same list, as useless ? 



CABBAGES. 



{Jirassica oleracea.) 



For a detailed history of this well-known 

 and very popular plant we refer oui- readers to 

 Vol. 7, page 39, of The Lancaster Fahmee 

 — our present object being to devote our at- 

 tention, and the attention of our readers, to a 

 consideration of some of the varieties of that 

 almost universally cultivated garden vegeta- 

 ble — varieties that have not become as com- 

 mon in Lancaster county as they deserve to 

 be, and as they are in other localities, and 

 especially those of our larger seaboard and in- 

 , land towns and cities. The fii'st we shall in- 

 troduce is 



Borecole. ' 



"Borecole — sometimes known under the 

 name of Kale — is but one of the many va- 

 rieties of the celebrated cabbage family. It 

 seems to be distinguished by a large, open 

 head, and genei'ally by curled or wrinkled 

 leaves. It has a peculiarly strong, hardy con- 

 stitution. It is thought very valuable for 

 cultivation in the Southern States, because it 

 requires little or no protection during the 

 winter months. The principal sub-varieties 

 are : the Scotch Kale, the Green curled, the 

 Coesarian Kale, and the Thousand-headed 

 Kale, or cabbage.'" 



Culture. 



"Sow the seed — one ounce of which will 

 furnish four thousand plants, or about that 

 number — during the first halt or the middle of 

 May, but not earlier, unless the season be 

 quite forward. Transplant in July into rich, 

 meUow soil. For more particular directions, 

 the reader is requested to refer to the article 

 on Cabbage, before alluded to, which is cul- 

 tivated in the same manner. For preserva- 

 tion in the open air through the cold weather, 

 the plants should be quite close together in a 

 trench, with the earth drawn up to the lower 

 leaves, and covered with straw or litter. 

 When a head is wanted, it is only necessary to 

 remove the covering and cut off the stalk with 

 a shari) knife, leaving the stump in the ground, 

 where it will produce fine greens in the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



"■For need —have some of the best heads where 

 grown, or else transplant durmg open weather 

 into rows three feet each way. It is the na- 

 ture of this family of vegetables to intermix 

 freely, and run into hundreds of sub-varieties ; 

 care must therefore be taken to prevent differ- 

 ent kinds flowering at the same time in the 

 vicuiity of each other." 

 Use. 



" Borecole is considered very delicate, and 

 is much improved by an exposure to the frost. 

 The crown or head of the plant is cut so as to 

 include the leaves, which do not exceed nine 

 inches in length. It boils well, and proves 

 very tender and sweet. 



To Cook Greens. — If not fresh and plump, 

 they sliould be soaked in salt water for half an 

 hour before cooking. Put them in boiling 

 water, with a little saleratus to preserve their 

 color. A little salt .should also be added. Keep 

 the water boiling briskly until they are quite 

 tender. 



Brussels-Sprouts. 



■ ' ' Still another variety of the Braxsica family, 

 or tribe, and by many cultivators known as the 

 Thousand-lieaded cabljage. Tlie stem is erect, 

 often four feet high, and having on the sides a 

 great number of miniature cabbage head, each 

 being one or two inches in diameter, about the 

 size of a large walnut. The top of the stem' 

 much resembles a late Savoy, from which, in- 

 deed, it is thought to have originated. It is 

 greatly esteemed on the continent of Em-ope, 

 particularly in Belgium, and is now attracting 

 some attention in this country." 



Culture. 



' ' The plants are raised from seed — an ounce 

 being sufficient for about twelve square yards 

 of ground^to be sown in April or May, ac- 

 cording to the earliness of the season. Trans- 

 planting to be performed in June or July ; the 

 plants being set in rows, two feet each way. 

 The leaves at the top of the stem are cut off 

 some ten or fifteen days before the sprouts are 

 gathered. The other details of cultivation 

 correspond so much to the management of 

 cabbage that, to avoid all unnecessary repeti- 

 tion, we refer the reader to that vegetable. 



"For Heed. — Cut of the top of the stem, and 

 permit the flower stalks to come from the little 

 sprouts only. Great care is required to pre- 

 vent intermixture with other varieties. Where 

 this cannot be avoided it is the best plan to 

 purchase the yearly supply of seed from an 

 honest seedsman." 



Use. 



"The tops are said to be of very excellent 

 flavor, while the sprouts are eaten as winter 

 greens. It is yet an imsettled question, 

 whether the sprouts are improved by being 

 touched with frost before they are gatliered. 

 They commence ripening in autumn, and con- 

 tinue in season for the table throughout the 

 winter. 



"To Boil. — Place the sprouts in a vessel of 

 clean water, and let them remain for one hour. 

 They ought to be washed clean from dirt and 

 insects. Then boil them until they become 

 quite soft, when they are to be drained and 

 stewed with cream or floured butter. Season 

 with pepper and salt, or serve to table with 

 some kind of sauce." — Schenck^s Gard. Text- 

 book. 



After we are in possession of good garden 

 vegetables, it is of some importance to know 

 how to prepare them for the table, suitably to 

 the taste of civilized society. We have par- 

 taken of these vegetables that were excellently 

 flavored and palatable ; and on other occasions 

 we have found them execrable — not fit for the 

 stomach of a heathen, much less an enlightened 

 Christian. As a general thing, no variety of 

 the cabbage plant is either palatable or whole- 

 some, unless it is thoroughly boiled ; and, un- 

 less in the form of saur-krout, it is better not 

 to be cooked with meat of any kind. When 

 cooked as "green.s," some people are in the 

 habit of boiling it with a piece of smoked pork 

 (flitch) which makes a sort of mess for which 

 we entertain nothing but repugnance, especial- 

 ly when the pork is rancid, which some people 

 thinks adds to the flavor of the dish ; and this 

 is also the case in cooking green, or " string- 

 beans." It is true, that "Bubble and squeak," 

 that is, beef and cabbage togetherj is not so 

 objectionable, especially when the cabbage is 

 white and tender, the beef young and moder- 

 ately fat, and tlie whole thoroughly boiled; but 

 white cabbage, or " Weiss-krout," dressed 

 with good cream or floured butter, is far pre- 

 ferable, and this is also the case with any 

 variety of the cabbage. If a fatty or oOy sub- 

 stance is deemed absolutely essential, pure 

 fresh " sweet-oU" would be preferable to beef 

 or pork ; but, of course, in this, people must 

 be left to the dictation of their own individual 

 tastes — tastes that have been inherited, or that 

 have been acquired by a long life of usage. 

 There are stomachs that crave and appropriate 

 great slices of bacon — golden-hued and rancid 

 — with perfect impunity, that would revolt 

 against the most delicate oil. Cabbages, in 

 all their varieties, well boiled and dressed 

 witli a sauce — such as is used in dressing as- 

 paragus are, by many persons, preferred to 

 that generally limited vegetable, which is al- 

 ways too high priced for the consumption of 

 the poorer classes. Of course, the varieties of 

 the cabbage We have described above, have not 

 the staple value of the typical variety, and 

 therefore they perhai>s will never be as exten- 

 sively cultivated as the latter, but still, as 

 varieties, they are annually coming more into 

 favor. 



Farmers, this journal is devoted to your 

 interests ; what are you doing to increase its 

 circulation among your friends and neighbors? 



OUR CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL 

 EXPOSITION. 



This montli will be memorable in history 

 as giving birth to the formal opening of an 

 event that had its conception five years ago, 

 and, after a loug gestation, has for the past 

 three months been»in travail, and was finally 

 ushered into recognized being on the lUth of 

 May ; and for ultimate success and final de- 

 velopment will depend upon the liberal lacta- 

 tion vouchsafed by our whole people. There 

 is little profit in speculating upon who will 

 witness another such event, and what will be 

 the condition of oiur country and its people an 

 hundred years hence. The event has culmi- 

 nated — it is now upon us — and if we have 

 done nothing to aid its progress, it may be too 

 late to do it now. Tliere is, however, no lack 

 of material, for it appears that all of the avail- 

 able space is occupied, and if every one had 

 become an exhibitor who has felt that he 

 ought to have been one, or who others may 

 have thought should have been, it is very clear 

 that the great Fairmount Park could hardly 

 have furnished accommodations for the whole. 

 The pending event will for the next six months 

 afford our people a rare opportunity to see the 

 "world as it i«," for imless we possessed more 

 than ordmary personal influence, or oflicial 

 position, it is questionable if we could see so 

 much of the customs, costumes and produc- 

 tions of foreign countries, or such fair repre- 

 sentation of their best people, as we maj' see 

 in Fairmount Park during our Centennial and 

 International Exposition. All the world will 

 have floated in and squatted in that grand, 

 enchanted enclosure for the time being, to the 

 great gratification, edification and instruction 

 of those who pay it a visit. We need not ad- 

 vise, for no doubt all who can will patronize 

 the great Fx^wsition. The daily and weekly 

 papers contain such elaborate reports of the 

 formal opening that we do not deem it neces- 

 sary to report them here. 



HONEY ANTS AGAIN. > 

 We have for some time past been in the re- 

 ceipt of another "lot" of those singular 

 " honey ants " we alluded to in our November 

 number of 1875 (p. 175). On this occasion we 

 received them through the kindness of Mr. 

 Jno. E. Murphy, of Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

 From the small number received we secured a 

 quarter-ounce bottle of their honey, which we 

 consider a large yield from such pygmies of 

 the insect world. These ants are of a fight or 

 reddish-brown color, the eyes very black and 

 conspicuous, and, except when the abdominal 

 portion is much distended with honey, scarcely 

 a quarter of an inch in length. They have 

 long since been described by both European 

 and American authors, under the scientific 

 name of Myrmecocystus mellegrans. An allied 

 species (M. mexicanus) is common in Mexico, 

 and also a species, belonging to a different 

 genus, with similar honey secreting powers. 

 When the abdomen is exposed or inflated, they 

 are said to resemble small baloons or grapes, 

 the integument being nearly transparent. We 

 have only access to brief references to them in 

 the first and second volumes of the Ainerican 

 Naturalist, from which it appears that they 

 live in the earth, and that their honey is 

 elaborated for the support of other members of 

 the colony who do not secrete honey, and that 

 these honey-makers are successively slaugh- 

 tered when a saeharine repast is desired ; so 

 that "killing the goose to secure the golden 

 egg " has its type in the insect realm, as well 

 as among higher intelligence. The honey 

 itself is sweet to the taste, with a slight acid- 

 iferous (perhaps formic) pungency, which is, 

 however, more perceptible to the smell than 

 to the taste, and probably, diluted and in 

 quantity, would make a medicinal, if not a re- 

 freshing summer drink. There sm'ely — as in 

 the case of honey bees — must be some other 

 use for it than merely to feed the non-produc- 

 ing members of the colony. 



Query: The question is suggested, how is 

 the race of honey-making ants perpetuated, 

 when those individuals that possess that 



