VEGETABLES CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 151 



Rye, Wheat or Oats can be sown, Cabbage may safely 

 be planted in the open field, for if plants have been 

 properly hardened they will not be injured after being 

 planted out even by eight or ten degrees of frost. 



The conditions in the different Southern States are 

 so varied that it is not easy to give directions. It may 

 be taken, however, as a general rule that in any section 

 of the country where the thermometer does not fall 

 lower that fifteen above zero, the seed for Cabbage plants 

 should be sown about October 1st, left (without cover- 

 ing) in the seed-beds all winter, and transplanted to the 

 open ground as soon as it is fit to work in spring, 

 say January or February. In sections where the fall 

 weather continues fine into November, transplanting is 

 done in that month to where the crop is to mature. Great 

 loss is often occasioned in mild seasons in the Southern 

 States, by Cabbages, particularly the favorite variety 

 " Early Summer " running to seed. As a remedy against 

 this danger I would advise sowing from two to four weeks 

 later than the usual time, in such a way as they could be 

 covered in cold nights only with muslin, or, what is better, 

 the new protecting cloth ; these will answer all the pur- 

 poses of sashes at one-tenth of their cost. I refer to 

 this cloth more fully in another portion of this work. 



After planting in the field, no crop takes so kindly to 

 hoeing or cultivating as the Cabbage, In ten days after 

 the planting is finished, cultivation should begin. If the 

 Cabbages have been set two or two and a half feet apart 

 each way, then the horse cultivator is the best pulver- 

 izer, but if a crop has been sown or planted between the 

 rows of Cabbage, then a hand or wheel hoe can only be 

 used we ourselves now use the Planet Jr. Wheel Hoe 

 exclusively, and find it a saving of three-fourths in labor, 

 with the work better done. 



The price at which early Cabbage is now sold varies so 

 much at different dates, and in different parts of the 



