58 FARM-GARDENING AND SEED-GROWING. 



or bake. The land should be plowed and harrowed in the 

 fall, and if not in a very high state of fertility, a liberal 

 dressing of manure or coarse bone may be turned under at 

 that time to good advantage. 



Plow again in the spring, turning under thirty two-horse 

 loads of stable manure to the acre for wide planting, when 

 more is to be applied directly to the plant, to fifty or sixty 

 loads for close cropping. In the absence of stable-manure, 

 apply to the acre one ton of coarse bone in the fall, nnd 

 one tone of bone-flour or one half a ton of guano, in the 

 spring, harrowed in, or where only enough manure can be 

 had for applying direct to the plants in wide planting, use 

 one half the quantity of bone and guano, broadcast, as 

 above directed. I much prefer the plan of heavy manuring 

 and close planting for this crop. For this purpose mark 

 rows thirty inches apart (use the fifteen-inch marker and 

 plant on every other mark), and set the plants sixteen 

 inches in the rows, whicli will require about thirteen thou- 

 sand plants to the acre. When grown wide, the land 

 should be lightly furrowed out three feet each way, a half 

 shovelful of well-rotted manure or compost placed where 

 the furrows cross, and thoroughly mixed with the soil by 

 means of a hoe, and the surface gently pressed. Five 

 thousand plants will set an acre planted in this way. By 

 either method, prepare the ground immediately preceding 

 the planting, by a thorough plowing and harrowing, 

 and smooth the surface with the back of the harrow. 



Sowing Seed and Growing the Plants. Cabbage 

 seed germinates quite readily, and there is but little art 

 in sowing it ; still, painstaking in preparing the soil, 

 covering, etc., thus giving each seed a chance, will 

 insure a greater number of plants from a given 

 quantity of seed, than if carelessly sown. To get 

 the crop off early, and to grow early cabbages in 

 perfection, the seed should be sown in the fall, and the 

 plants wintered over, as directed in the chapter on cold- 



