CABBAGE AS A FARM CROP 175 



of seed sown in drills should furnish a sufficient supply of plants 

 for 10 acres. 



A still cheaper method of handling cabbage is sometimes resorted 

 to that of planting the seeds in drills where the crop is to be 

 harvested. After the young plants appear above the ground, they 

 must be thinned with the hoe to stand at the proper distance apart. 

 This would seem to be a cheap way, but it is a question whether it 

 is of any special advantage, as the cost of weeding and thinning 

 small plants is frequently equal to that of transplanting. 



Planting the farm crop. Even now the great bulk of the cab- 

 bage grown in the United States is transplanted from the seed bed 

 to the field by the old laborious, backaching hand methods. The 

 size of the crop and the difficulty of securing labor are rapidly 

 forcing growers to a realization of the value of the transplanter. 

 A carefully operated machine does more and better work than can 

 be done by hand, and since the machines are equipped with 

 watering devices, the grower, after carefully preparing the land, 

 is not compelled to wait for a certain season to plant his crop 

 the machine makes its own season. 



After the plants are in the field, cultivation cannot be too 

 frequent, and it should be the rule to use the cultivators at least 

 once a week. If there are frequent showers, a cultivator should 

 be run over the field as soon after each shower as is practicable. 

 Never allow a crust to form over the area occupied by this crop. 

 Cultivation should be carried on with implements which do not 

 work the soil deeply, 2 or 3 inches being a satisfactory depth. A 

 cultivator with narrow blades which leave the soil practically level 

 is to be preferred to those which have broad, deep-working teeth 

 and leave the soil in ridges. Level cultivation tends to lessen the 

 area of soil exposed to evaporation, while deep cultivation will 

 leave ridges and furrows and has a tendency to increase the loss 

 of moisture by increasing the area exposed to the action of sun 

 and wind. 



Fertilizer for the farm crop. A good fertilizer with which to 

 supplement stable manure is one containing about 3 per cent of 

 nitrogen, 6 per cent of phosphoric acid, and 6 or 8 per cent of 

 potash. Apply this at the rate of from 400 to 800 pounds to the 

 acre, according to the quantity of stable manure used. If it is used 



