CABBAGE. 141 



To secure the necessary hardiness, and low, stocky 

 growth, the seed should be sown thinly on rather light, 

 unmanured soil. Instead of making a sowing in the 

 open air later than November 1st, the careful gardener 

 will provide against losses by frost, by sowing under 

 glass in cold frames, about November 15th. The cold 

 frame plants will only be used in case those in the open 

 ground have been killed or injured by freezing, or have 

 grown too large to be transplanted for a later crop. To 

 render the plants as hardy as possible, the soil of the 

 frames should not be manured, and it should be kept as 

 dry as the health of the plants will permit. Sashes 

 must not be used, day or night, to force the plants, but 

 are only to be put on at night for protection against ap- 

 prehended black frost. 



For the location of a cabbage seed bed in the open air, 

 see chapter on "Insects." A deep and freshly stirred soil 

 is not indispensable to produce good plants, and, where 

 moles are numerous, they are very apt to haunt a bed 

 freshly stirred, and destroy many young plants. The 

 bed may be thrown up by the plow a fortnight or more 

 before the seed is to be sown. When it is raked off later, 

 many young weeds, which might have become annoying, 

 will be destroyed. 



The seed bed should be about four feet wide, level on 

 top, to avoid washing by heavy rains, and elevated a few 

 inches above the general surface. The seed is sown from 

 one-fourth to one-half an inch deep, according to the 

 character of the soil. Make the drills across the bed four 

 to five inches apart, to allow the earth to be stirred be- 

 tween the rows, firming the soil by the roller or by a 

 patting board. When sown under glass, the drills may 

 be three and a half inches apart. If the soil is dry, the 

 beds may require watering to cause the seed to germi- 

 nate. It is not advisable to sow any seed within two or 

 three inches of the back of the frame, or the plants will 



