174 GARDEN FARMING 



CABBAGE AS A FARM CROP 



Cabbage as a farm crop is produced chiefly in the northern tier 

 of states, including New England, the states bordering on the Great 

 Lakes, and to a less extent in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and 

 Colorado. New York grows almost three times the acreage of any 

 other state. It is this farm crop of cabbage which finds its way to 

 the kraut factories, to the cities of both the North and the South, 

 as the cool days of fall and early winter come, and to the large 

 storage houses distributed through New York and Wisconsin. 



Soil for the farm crop. The soil upon which cabbage is most 

 extensively grown in this region is either rich alluvial bottom lands 

 or the rich prairie soils of the states west of New York and Penn- 

 sylvania. While cabbage is a bulky product and usually does not 

 sell for a very high price per ton, yet the large tonnage produced 

 per acre and the fact that it is so universally consumed by all 

 classes account very largely for the extensive acreage devoted to 

 its cultivation throughout the area of dense population. 



Preparing the soil for the farm crop. When cabbage is grown 

 as a farm crop it is used as one of the factors in a crop rotation 

 and, with potatoes, occupies the area in which clover has been grown 

 the year previous and turned under. A common rotation is to 

 follow corn with oats and clover sown together ; the clover is cut 

 twice during the season and turned under the following spring, 

 and the area then devoted to cabbage and potatoes. The part of 

 the clover sod to be devoted to cabbage is enriched by a heavy 

 dressing of stable manure. If this is not available, the necessary 

 supply of plant food is secured by the use of a high-grade fertilizer 

 carrying 3^ or 4 per cent of nitrogen, 6 or 8 per cent of phosphoric 

 acid, and 8 or 10 per cent of potash, applied at the rate of from 

 1 200 to 1500 pounds to the acre. 



The seed bed for the farm crop. The seed bed should be made 

 in rich, well-drained soil which has not previously grown cabbage 

 for at least five years. The soil should be thoroughly cultivated, 

 fined, and compacted, and the seeds sown in beds 6 feet wide with 

 1 8 inch alleys between them, or with a seed drill in drills 12 or 

 14 inches apart, so as to allow cultivation with the wheel hoe. A 

 seed bed which is a quarter of an acre in extent and uses 3 pounds 



