146 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



a ball of earth is the gall-nut-like excrescence which 

 is sometimes found on the roots of the plants. If 

 such appear they must be pinched off; but the dis- 

 ease does not occur on newly trenched ground. Snails 

 are worse in April than in March, and worse in May, 

 if the weather be wet, than in April ; but this enemy 

 is altogether overcome by having your plants strong, 

 early set, and so managed that their growth is never 

 suspended. By attention to the above methods, you 

 will see your cabbage field in ample foliage whilst 

 your neighbours are only planting, or needlessly fill- 

 ing blanks, and complaining that the garden is a mere 

 waste of money, as nothing can be saved from the 

 snails. Of the cabbage crop, a few stocks, not of 

 the largest size, but chosen for their firmness, may 

 be sunk in a furrow with their heads down, and 

 covered up to the roots; by which means they keep 

 all winter, and may be used in a season when the 

 garden yields fewest varieties. There is a red sort 

 which is used for pickles and sour krout. If you 

 are afflicted with scurvy, and subject to no acidity of 

 stomach, you may indulge in vinegar and cabbage 

 leaves. 



Carrot. This root should grow eighteen inches 

 long and nine in circumference; but for the table 

 it is better at half that size. It is saccharine and 

 nutritive, admirable for milch cows, and not bad food 

 for horses. Well boiled, it may be eaten to the 

 amount of three ounces by the sedentary, and by 

 labourers as they please. The cultivation of it is in 

 most places of this country the greatest trial of the 

 gardener's patience and skill. When the plants have 

 attained the thickness of a feather, are nicely thinned, 



