118 GARDENING FOE PROFIT. 



ameter. It is, however, a large foliaged variety, and 

 would require considerable space to grow in; for this 

 reason it will not likely become a popular market variety. 



CABBAGE. EABLY. {.Bramea oleracea.) 

 The early varieties of Cabbage are cultivated more ex- 

 tensively than any other vegetable we grow. If they 

 do not occupy a larger number of acres, they certainly 

 sell for a much larger amount than any other crop. They 

 are also generally considered to be the most profitable of 

 all crops of our gardens on congenial soils. Experience 

 in a great variety of soils in the cultivation of this crop, 

 shows that what is known as heavy sandy loam, overlay- 

 ing a porous subsoil, is the best adapted to it. Along the 

 sea shore, for about one mile inland, we have often an ad- 

 mixture of oyster and other shells in the soil ; wherever 

 such is found, there, with proper cultivation, Cabbage 

 can be raised in the highest degree of perfection. The 

 large amount of lime in the soil, produced by the gradual 

 decay of the shell, is not only congenial to the growth of 

 the Cabbage tribe, but is certainly destructive to the larva 

 of the insect which is known to produce club-root. In 

 such soils, where in some instances Cabbages have been 

 grown for fifty consecutive years, club-root is never seen. 

 It is plain from this then, that lime is indispensable in the 

 cultivation of this crop, and that if not naturally found in 

 the soil, it must be applied. The most profitable applica- 

 tion, I have found to be the flour of bone ; a detail of 

 some experiments with which will be found in the Chap- 

 ter on " Insects." 



