222 



CABBAGE 



CABBAGE 



The first four groups are grown for stock-feed- 

 ing as well as for human consumption. The last 

 two are grown exclusively for table use. 



Cabbages have been cultivated from time imme- 

 morial for human food. The Greek writers do not 

 mention the head cabbage, but Columella and 

 Pliny do, although it is believed that they 

 referred to some soft-headed form. The hard- 

 headed form was in use in England in the four- 

 teenth century, and is mentioned as a New' 

 England product in the poem attributed to Gov- 

 ernor Bradford, written in 1656. 



Composition. 



The average composition usually given for cab- 

 bages is water 90.5 per cent and dry matter 9.5 

 per cent. In twenty-two analyses of five varieties 

 made at Cornell University during 1904-1906, the 

 average dry matter content varied between 5.74 and 

 8.42 per cent, an average considerably below that 

 usually given. The content of protein is high, the 

 9.5 per cent of dry matter being made up of ash 

 1.4 per cent, protein 2.4 per cent, crude fiber 1.5 

 per cent, nitrogen-free extract 3.9 per cent, ether 

 extract 0.4 per cent. 



Propagation and cultivation. 



The plant may be grown successfully on any soil 

 that is in good condition. It is a gross feeder, 

 and care must be taken to supply it with an abun- 

 dant but not excessive supply of moisture and to 

 keep the land well stirred. Rich, heavy loams are 

 to be preferred for the production of heavy yields 



Fig. 316. Types of cabbage heads. Left, compact head; 

 right, loose head. 



for cattle-feeding. Deep fall-plowing is advisable, 

 and the land should be loose, friable and moist ; an 

 application of ten to twenty tons of manure per acre 

 may be made in the fall before plowing, and this 

 may be supplemented by fertilizers, and, if the land 

 has not been limed recently, by an application at 

 the rate of 1,000 pounds of quicklime per acre, 

 to be applied in the spring and harrowed in. 

 Manure, lime and fertilizers should be uniformly 

 applied. Frequently, fertilizers are applied at the 

 rate of 400 to 800 pounds of acid phosphate (16 

 per cent available) or its equivalent, i. e., 60 to 

 130 pounds of phosphoric acid ; 100 to 150 pounds 

 of muriate of potash ; fifty pounds of nitrate of soda 

 per acre, in spring and harrowed in ; and about 150 

 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre, applied to the 

 plants when they are growing, in three applications 

 of about fifty pounds each at intervals of ten days, 

 beginning as soon as they are about four inches 



tall. This pushes them through the critical period 

 when their leaf surface is small and when a single 

 green worm is able to eat a plant in a day. 



The seed is sometimes treated by dipping it in a 

 solution of formalin of the strength of 1 to 240 in 

 order to destroy the spores of black-rot. It is then 

 dried and sown. The seeds may be sown in a "fied 

 and transplanted with a transplanting machine ; 

 or they may be sown where the plants are to stand. 

 Both methods are successful. In the latter case, 

 one to one and a half pounds of seed is required 

 per acre ; in the former, less seed is used, say one- 

 fourth to three-fourths pound. A drill, which will 

 drop four or five seeds twenty-seven or thirty 

 inches apart in rows is needed. In this case the 

 plants will be thinned to one plant as soon as three 

 inches tall. For New York, sowing early in May is 

 advisable, although later sowing may give smaller 

 heads which will keep better in storage ; but there 

 will be a correspondingly diminished yield. 



No crop responds better to good tillage, and if 

 this be given every seven or ten days and the small 

 applications of nitrate of soda, already mentioned, 

 be harrowed in, the plants will soon meet in the 

 rows ; then tillage ceases. For success, it is essen- 

 tial that there be a good plant in every place ; 

 7,500 to 9,000 plants should be grown per acre. 

 Rows thirty inches apart seem to be convenient, 

 the plants being twenty-four to thirty inches apart 

 in the row. Cabbages may be grown in the place 

 of corn or any other intertilled crop in the rotation. 



Varieties. 



Some of the best varieties for stock-feeding pur- 

 poses are : Surehead and Autumn King (both of 

 which mature in September when sown in May, and 

 must then be used) ; Volga, a new Russian variety of 

 merit ; Drumhead or Flat Dutch, a standard variety. 

 Danish Railhead and Hollander give rather lower 

 yields but are considered better for storage. 



The varieties may be classified according to 

 shape (Fig. 315), as 



Flat, — as Drumhead, Surehead, Flat Dutch. 



Round, — as Danish Ballhead. 



Obovate or egg-shaped, — as Early York, Lata 



York. 

 Elliptical or oval, — as Sugar Loaf. 

 Conical, tapering to apex, — as Early Jersey 

 "Wakefield, Winnigstadt, Pomeranian and 

 Oxhearts. 

 Varieties are spoken of as early, medium or late 

 in maturing ; and as having green, purple or varie- 

 gated leaves. 



The cabbage is a good illustration of a plant 

 which has reached that stage in which it is much 

 influenced by its environment. Not only has it 

 been in a variable state for some time, but man has 

 been interested in the plant and prepared to pick 

 out and preserve some of the variations which are 

 of value to him. These two factors are necessary 

 for the improvement of plants. 



Harvesting. 



In stock-feeding, the cabbages are hauled trom 

 the fields as required. The aim is to have some- 



