127 



who pack them away in a broad shallow pit, cover with 

 hay or straw and then with dirt, and I have seen beds cov- 

 ered first with dirt and then with seaweed. The object 

 being in all these different ways to so cover them as to keep 

 them warm enough not to freeze much, a little freezing does 

 not harm, and keep them cool enough not to heat and decay. 

 This all seems simple enough, but when put in practice it 

 is often found quite difficult to make a perfect success of it. 

 Cabbage should be bedded in some well-drained spot, for 

 wet ground or standing water will draw frost, so it is nec- 

 essary to have the rain find a quick passage from the bed 

 or frost will often follow it down and hurt or spoil the cab- 

 bage. I have tried to make plain the different methods of 

 keeping the crop, and now as to the objects of keeping it, 

 which are two, one to save valuable time at harvest and the 

 other to gain money in selling. 



Although there is sometimes a year when the price rises 

 but little on account of an extra large crop somewhere, or 

 for some such good reason, yet the price is generally much 

 higher in winter or spring than when harvested, as was the 

 case last year when the price rose from 50 cts. a barrel in 

 Nov. to $2.50 and $3.00 in April and first week in May, and 

 in Boston somewhat higher, although those who sold in 

 January or February received only from 75 cts. to $1.25. 

 To know just how to keep the crop and just when to sell it 

 requires experience and a close watching of both the mar- 

 ket and the supply, but the reward when you get it is suffi- 

 cient to pay well for the work and expense incurred. 



We often hear of a crop of 400 bbls. per acre, but 300 

 bbls. is a good crop, and perhaps 200 or 250 would be 

 nearer the average. One man near Lowell told me last 

 winter that he had grown 1000 bbls. on 3 acres, and was 

 just beginning to sell them at $ 2.00 per bbl., and he really 

 seemed quite happy about it. 



Another man near Boston had the crop from six or seven 

 acres bedded in and started them to market when the price 

 reached $2.50 per bbl. ; he was doubtless happy, too, but I 

 know a man who bedded a hundred barrels or so, covered 



