VEGETABLES CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 153 



soil for about nine or ten inches deep and wide. In this 

 way about 300 pounds per acre will be needed, when 

 6,000 or 7,000 plants are set on an acre. In our prac- 

 tice we find nothing better than pure bone dust and 

 guano mixed together. 



In transplanting Cabbages from the seed-bed to the 

 open field in summer, the work is usually done in a dry 

 and hot season end of June or July and here again 

 we give our oft-repeated warning of the absolute neces- 

 sity of having every plant properly firmed. If the plant- 

 ing is well done with the dibber, it may be enough, but 

 it is often not well done, and as a measure of safety, it is 

 always best to turn back on the rows after planting and 

 press alongside of each plant with the foot. This is 

 quickly done, and it besides rests the planter, so that he 

 can start on the next row with greater vigor. In some 

 sections of the country, particularly in the New England 

 States, six or eight Cabbage seeds are planted in the 

 hills, and when of the height of two or three inches, are 

 thinned out to one plant in each hill. This we think 

 not only a slower method, but is otherwise objectionable, 

 inasmuch as it compels the manure to be placed for three 

 or four weeks in the ground before the plant can take 

 it up, to say nothing of the three or four weeks' culture 

 necessary to be done before the seedlings in the hill get 

 to the size of the plants when set cnit. The cultivation 

 of late Cabbage is, in all respects, similar to that of early, 

 except as it is usually planted alone ; the work of cultiva- 

 tion is done entirely by the horse cultivator, the rows and 

 plants in the rows being, according to the kind, from 

 twenty-four to thirty inches apart. There are a great 

 number of kinds offered in the different seed lists, but 

 experienced cultivators confine themselves to but very few 

 kinds. These we give in the order in which they are 

 most approved : " Henderson's Selected Flat Dutch," 

 "American Drumhead/' and " Marblehead Mammoth." 



