370 THE CABBAGE CROP. 



structure the largest amount of mineral and other matters, 

 is certainly that which offers the most benefit to the far- 

 mer, and ought to be the most remunerative in cultivation. 

 We are sufficiently advanced in the chemistry of vegetable 

 substances to know that there is a certain relation in plant 

 development between their inorganic and organic consti- 

 tuents ; that the first are derived from the soil, while the 

 latter are obtained- from the atmosphere; that the first 

 (inorganic) are restricted to what the soil contains, and 

 to the powers of assimilation possessed by the individual 

 plant, while the latter (organic) are inexhaustible in quan- 

 tity, and are always ready to supply the plant to its fullest 

 powers of appropriation. If, therefore, a plant is possessed 

 of a great capacity for abstracting and assimilating mine- 

 ral constituents from the soil, it generally possesses an 

 equivalent capacity for abstracting from the atmosphere 

 the relative proportions of materials necessary for building 

 up its organic structure, and thus completing its growth. 

 Its bulk and produce, then, mainly depend upon its feeding 

 capacity and its power of obtaining sufficient supplies from 

 the soil in which it is grown; and the larger the amount of 

 matter it has thus been able to obtain and convert into 

 its own structure, the heavier the crop and the greater 

 the amount of keep there will be for the farmer, and the 

 greater the quantity of the resulting manure. 



When we come to consider these points, and then turn 

 to the chemistry of the cabb'age, we see how far it bears 

 out that which we are endeavouring to explain in reference 

 to what are termed exhausting crops. 



We place out the young plants in the field in May or 

 June, and in about four or five months we expect them 

 to have reached their maturity, and to have produced 

 a satisfactory yield. In this time their bulk gene- 

 rally exceeds that of the turnip crop, while their relative 

 proportion of mineral constituents is also slightly in ex- 



