KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



same manner as the early cabbages. It is put out in the 

 fall of the year ; but it is large and must have the same 

 distances as broccoli. They form their heads in the early 

 part of the summer and are hard, and fit for pickling, 

 towards the end of it. There remains now to speak of 

 the manner of saving cabbage seed, which is a matter of 

 great importance, because the trueness of the seed is a 

 circumstance on which depends the earliness and good- 

 ness of the plant. The cabbage is a biennial. When it 

 makes its loaf in the summer, you cut the loaf off in a 

 sloping cut. The plant will then throw out side-shoots j 

 but, in a month after cutting the head, the stump should 

 be taken up and laid by the heels, which will check the 

 growing of the"sprouts. In the month of November these 

 stumps should be put out into rows where they are to 

 stand for seed. There should be two rows about eight 

 inches from each other, the stumps in one row being 

 opposite the intervals of the other row ; and then there 

 should be an interval of five feet between the rows in 

 order to give you a clear passage for putting stakes and 

 rods to hold up the seed-branches j and, also, for the 

 purpose of going freely into the plantation to keep off 

 the birds, many of which are great purloiners of cabbage- 

 seed. When the seed-pods begin to turn brown, cut the 

 stems off close to the ground, and place them upon a 

 cloth in the sun. When perfectly dry, thrash out the 

 seed y put it by, and keep it in a dry place. The ground 

 where the seed is grown should be kept perfectly clean. 

 The stems of the plants should be hilled up^in the same 

 manner as directed for a crop of cabbages ; and the whole 

 of the ground in the intervals should be dug in the 

 month of March, an operation that will add greatly to 



