26 
berries or flowers with woody stems would 
keep better if treated in this manner, though 
barberries, which have a softer stem retain 
their beauty many weeks when they are put 
into water and cared for according to the 
general rules for flowers. 
Flowers with very porous stems — like 
asters — will last longer if a small piece of 
charcoal is added to the water. 
There are many ways advised for reviving 
withered flowers. For instance, plunging 
the stems of withered roses into boiling hot 
water, then into cold, but as the results are 
not invariably satisfactory, it is hardly safe 
to recommend them. However, if one is 
fond of experimenting, it will be found 
interesting to observe how heliotrope that is 
fading will sometimes revive immediately 
if a drop of camphor is added to the water 
in which it stands. 
Various conditions also call for various 
sorts of treatment. Flowers that are to be 
worn will retain their freshness longer if 
they are kept close to the ice in a refrigerator 
for at least four hours before using, and much 
experience has shown convincingly that 
flowers that are to be transported any dis- 
tance, by hand, mail or express, should be 
left in a large receptacle of water over night, 
or until the stems are thoroughly saturated. 
Connecticut. PENELOPE Kay. 
Profit 
Wyse cabbage is easily grown on 
any land that will grow corn, and 
often cabbage plants are set in open spaces 
where the corn plants have died, I do not 
recall a single instance when I was successful 
in producing a crop of ‘‘market-topping” 
quality or of maximum yield, where any- 
thing less than thorough culture, and liberal 
fertilization was given and I have grown 
hundreds of acres of cabbage for the car- 
load trade on various soils under different 
climatic conditions, and fertilized with all 
sorts of manurial substances. 
While the selection of soil is important, 
it should be noted that cabbage can be grown 
successfully on a wider range of soil than 
almost any other vegetable. Soils running 
from a light loam through all the various 
types (including muck and silt), to heavy, 
impervious clay will profitably grow cabbage 
if properly cared for. One of the ideal soils 
for the late or main cabbage crop is a clay 
loam slightly inclined to sand or gravel. 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
The best results that I have had, either 
early or late, have been on such a soil. 
Although a large amount of moisture is 
required to produce a marketable crop of 
heads, still any land that is soggy or sour 
must be avoided. The experienced grower 
for market employs only fields that are well 
drained. 
The best variety to grow will depend largely 
upon the market in which the cropistobesold. 
The Danish Ballhead is the ideal variety 
to grow for shipping! purposes and for long 
keeping. By long keeping I mean a head 
that will come out of storage in perfect con- 
dition up to the time that early cabbage 
from the South comes in. There are a 
number of excellent varieties for fall and 
winter use that are also long keepers, and 
such varieties will continue to be grown in 
a limited way. The Drumhead and the 
Flat Dutch are profitable standard varieties, 
always in demand. I believe, however, 
that the Ballhead will eventually supersede 
the other existing varieties as the commercial 
long keeper and shipper. As with the older 
varieties, the seedsmen now offer a num- 
ber of different selections in so-called 
(3 types. ” 
Such a small amount of seed is required to 
supply cabbage plants for an acre of land 
that the difference of price between the very 
best and the average is of no material con- 
sequence, and the grower should procure 
the very best stock even at double the 
price. 
The germinating vitality of the seed should 
be a known quantity long before planting 
time, so as to provide for seed that will not 
grow. With most vegetable seed, the matter 
of freshness or age is of considerable moment; 
this does not hold good with cabbage, ‘Test 
germination by placing a known number 
of seeds between a couple of moist blotters 
or layers of cotton, and note the percentage 
of seeds sprouting. 
The time for planting the seed will depend 
upon latitude, care being taken not to sow 
too long before the plants are to be set. 
Plants that remain in the plant bed many 
days after they are three or four inches high 
are likely to become spindling. A large 
plant is harder to lift from the bed, is un- 
wieldy to handle, is harder to protect in 
handling, is less resistant to the shock of 
transplanting. I prefer a plant three to 
five inches high. 
Sow the seed thinly in drills a foot or more 
apart, so that the plants may be readily 
cultivated with the wheel hoe, and this 
should be done often to maintain a contin- 
uous, rapid growth. A seed-bed should be 
moderately well fertilized but not over-rich, 
as excessive fertility will produce plants that 
are too tender and delicately succulent. 
Artificial watering may be given in the first 
stages of growth, but cease a few days before 
transplanting to the field so as to harden the 
fibres. 
Plants for early cabbage may be grown 
by starting the seed in a warm room in the 
house and exposing to the outside air as 
temperature permits, and transplanting to 
larger trays as size increases. R. W. M. 
FEBRUARY, 1908 
Cut Some Twigs for Your Win- 
dowsill Before March ist 
you can transform the dullest period 
of the year into one of the most inter- 
esting by forcing twigs of fruit trees and 
flowering shrubs in the home window so that 
they will bloom a month or more earlier 
than they would outdoors. Nothing could 
be simpler. Cut them a foot or two long 
and put them in vases. Change the water 
every two or three days, or better still, put 
Flowers of the red maple, the earliest maple to 
bloom in the spring 
a piece of charcoal in the water and you 
need not change it so often. Keep the twigs 
free from dust by dipping them once a week 
into a pan of cool water. The twigs will 
look better if you have only one kind in a 
vase, and you can get still lovelier effects by 
cutting off large branches and putting them 
in jars of water in the attic near a sunny 
- window, provided there is no danger of their 
freezing. Red maple and “pussy” willow 
are very easily forced. Of the cultivated 
shrubs, the favorites are forsythia, flowering 
almond and Japan quince. 
Flowers of the “pussy” willow forced in a home 
windowsill while snow lies outside 
