60 FARM-GARDENING AND SEED-GROWING. 



a four-sash frame, and will produce about six thousand 

 plants covering lightly with sifted soil, gently pressing 

 with a shovel, and sprinkling with lukewarm water 

 at evening. A good wetting when they are to be 

 pulled for transplanting will soften the ground, and cause 

 the earth to adhere to the roots, and be a general benefit 

 to the plants. 



Planting and Cultivating, I have already stated the 

 plants should be set sixteen inches apart in the rows, but 

 a variation of an inch or two either way, will not make 

 any material difference. When desirable to have them 

 exact, use a marked pole, as directed in the chapter on 

 transplanting. Whether wintered in a cold-frame or 

 grown in hot-beds, the plants should be set out as early 

 in the spring as circumstances will admit of, and those 

 from the cold-frame may be transplanted just as soon as 

 the ground can be worked, as they will not be injured by 

 possible subsequent severe weather, provided they are set 

 deep and the roots firmly fastened. These are two very 

 important points, more fully explained in the chapter on 

 transplanting, and alike applicable to either cold-frame or 

 hot-bed plants. The plants will soon take root, when the 

 harrow-cultivator may be run between the rows, and the 

 ground about the plants deeply loosened and made fine, 

 being careful, of course, not to disturb the roots. Just 

 before they begin to form heads, the large-toothed culti- 

 vator should pass between the rows, and the hoe again 

 used as before, which is ordinarily all the attention they 

 will require. 



Cutting and Marketing. As a general rule, as is well 

 known, a " cabbage head " should be solid to be marketable, 

 or in fact to be eatable, but about New York those who are 

 fortunate enough to have it well advanced very early, not 

 unfrequently cut a few loads of such as are only an apology 

 for " heads," which bring large prices. When the main 



