CABBAGE. 41 



occupied, its roots have gone deep down, and the 

 heads are forming. Another week, they begin to 

 give way to the increasing forms of the cabbage, and 

 they in turn are marketed. This leaves the cabbage 

 the sole occupant of the soil, and it requires it, as the 

 heads begin to form and the outer leaves are expand- 

 ing to give the head the room it needs, no less 

 than to shade the soil and protect it from the 

 sun's burning rays, than which there is nothing 

 more injurious. 



It can be readily understood that when such 

 demands are made upon the soil, it will, in turn, 

 demand sufficient nourishment to produce such 

 results. But the food it gets is but one of its require* 

 ments. It asks to have its surface kept clean and 

 fine, in order that weeds cannot grow. The plants, 

 too, assert their rights, and say if we are expected to 

 produce large heads we must not have our roots dis- 

 turbed, upon them we depend, almost wholly, for 

 support. The gardener responds, and from the time 

 the cabbage and lettuce plants are set, and the young 

 radishes appear, no implement is used, other than a 

 small hoe, about four inches in width. By the 

 middle of June the cabbages are marketed, the soil is 

 again enriched, and another crop comes on in strict 

 order of rotation. 



PLANTING THE SEED WHERE THE CABBAGE IS TO 

 GROW. 



It is a common practice with New England 

 farmers to sow the seed with a drill, and where the 

 plants are to grow, a plan we highly recommend, 

 having tried it many times with the best possible 

 success. Last year several of our truckers lost a large 



