312 How THE FARM PAYS. 



drills, they should be about two inches deep; if sown broadcast, 

 it is best to " chip " the ground all over with a steel rake so as to sink 

 the seed to the depth of an inch or so, but in both cases do not omit 

 to firm the soil by patting the surface over with the back of the spade. 

 All these .directions for spring sown plants are given for the latitude 

 of New York, where operations of planting cabbage plants in the 

 open ground is usually begun about 25th March and finished by the 

 middle of April. For it must be always borne in mind that cabbage, 

 being a hardy plant, when wanted for an early crop, its setting out 

 in spring should be done in any section as soon as the land is 

 dry enough to work. As a guide, we may say that whenever spring 

 crops of rye, wheat or oats can be sown, cabbage may safely be 

 planted in the open field, for if plants have been properly hardened 

 they will not be injured after being planted out, even by eight or ten 

 degrees of frost. 



The conditions in the different Southern States are so varied that 

 it is not easy to give directions. It may be taken, however, as a gen- 

 eral rule, that in any section of the country, where the thermometer 

 does not fall lower than fifteen above zero, cabbage plants should be 

 sown about 1st October, left ( without covering ) in the seed-beds all 

 winter, and transplanted to the open ground as soon as it is fit to 

 work in spring, say February or March. In some sections, where 

 the fall weather continues fine into November, transplanting is done 

 in that month where the crop is to mature. After planting in the 

 field, no crop takes so kindly to 



HOEING OR CULTIVATING 



as cabbage. In ten days after the planting is finished, cultivation 

 should begin. If the cabbages have been set two or two and a half 

 feet apart each way, then the horse cultivator is the best pulverizer, 

 but if a crop has been sown or planted between the rows of cabbage, 

 then a hand or wheel hoe can only be used we ourselves now use 

 the wheel hoe exclusively and find it a saving of three-fourths in labor, 

 with the work better done. 



The price at which early cabbage is sold now varies so much at 

 different dates, and in different parts of the country, that it is impos- 

 sible to give anything like accurate figures, the range being all the 

 way from $2 to $12 per 100. Perhaps $4 would be a fair average for 

 " Wakefield" and $5 for "Early Summer," so that counting 11,000 as 

 the average per acre of the former and 9,000 of the latter, we have 

 respectively $440 per acre for "Wakefield" and $450 for "Early 



