Book I. 



WHITE CABBAGE. 



609 



In their subsequent growth, give occasional hoeing to kill weetls, and to draw earth round the stems, as 

 advised for the August-sown plants. 



3499. iMte spring or snnnner sown crop. For late young summer and autumn cabbages and winter 

 plants, you may sow small portions at any time from May to July, principally of the quick-hearting kinds ; 

 plant out finally in summer and autumn to produce young heads, and small cabbage- hearted coleworts in 

 August, September, October, and thence till midwinter. The large late family cabbages, which make 

 returns for autumn, winter, and early spring, also the largest kinds usually adopted for field-culture, are 

 to be excluded from this sowing, as they are only properly raised as part of the principal crops sown in 

 August and early in spring. (Abercrombic.) 



3500. Watering cabbages. During long continued droughts in June and July or later, cabbages are apt 

 to become stinted in their growth, and covered with aphides. To prevent this apply copious waterings 

 every evening; water so abundantly supplied is supposed to injure the flavor of some plants, but it is 

 found to have no efFect of that kind on cabbages. 



3501. Cabbage- coleworts. The original variety of cabbage called colewort (if ever the 

 plants which passed by that name were a distinct variety) is, or seems to be, lost, and is 

 now succeeded by what are called cabbage-coleworts. These, Abercrombie observes, are 

 valuable family plants, useful in three stages : as young open greens, as greens with 

 closing hearts, and as greens forming a cabbage growth. 



3502. Sorts proper for coleivorts. Procure seed of some middle-sized early variety of the cabbage, 

 quick-hearting, and of close growth ; such as the early and large York, East Ham, and large sugar-loaf. 

 Occasionally, for larger coleworts, you may adopt some Battersea, imperial, Antwerp sorts, or early 

 London hollow; but avoid the larger late kinds of cabbage, which, in a colewort state, are too spreading 

 and open ; the others grow close, stocky, and full in the heart, and boil most tender and sweet for the 

 table. 



3503. Times of sowing. To have a good supply of coleworts for autumn, v/inter, spring, and returning 

 summer, it is proper to make three or four sowings in summer and autumn : that is, one sowing toward 

 the middle of June, a second about the same time in July, with a third in the last week. These 

 supplementary crops are for transplanting in August, September, and October, and will amount to a con- 

 tinued prt)vision of autumn, winter, and early spring coleworts, from September till March or April. At 

 this time the plants of these sowings will mostly start for seeding. To succeed these, effect a very con- 

 siderable sowing in the begiiming from about the third to tiie sixth of August. Having been transplanted 

 in autumn, the forwardest of the August-raised plants will be fit for gathering in the course of winter, if 

 the weather be mild ; but the principal supply should be set apart for a continuing spring crop to increase 

 in growth from March till June, without running to seed, as would generally be the case, if sown before 

 the time just specified. What are not used in their colewort state in spring, will advance in cabbaging, to 

 be cut either with small hearts, or with middling, or full heads, in the early part of summer and autumn. 

 If it be required to have coleworts in a younger state in summer and autumn, you may sow at the time of 

 raising the spring-sown crop of cabbages. 



3504. Sowing, thinning, and transplanting. Sow in some open compartments of light mellow ground, 

 in one or more beds, distributing the seed evenly on the surface ; and rake it regularly into beds length- 

 wise. If the weather be dry, give occasional waterings, both before and after the plants are up. When 

 the young plants have two or three leaves, if thick in the seed-bed, prick out a portion into intermediate 

 beds, to increase in growth three or four weeks. When these and those in the seed-beds have several 

 leaves two or three inches broad, transplant them finally into open compartments of ground, in rows 

 twelve or fifteen inches asunder, by eight or twelve inches in the lines, as it may be intended to gather 

 them in smaller or larger growth. If tlie weather be dry and warm, a watering at planting would be of 

 much advantage. In their subsequent growth, keep them clear from large weeds by occasional hoeing; 

 at the same time, loosen the ground aliout the plants, drawing a little earth to the stems, which 

 will forward and strengthen their growth ; the hoe will also wound and kill many of the slugs which 

 sometimes annoy these plants in their young state, about the end of autumn and beginning of winter. 

 {^Abercrombie.) 



3505. Taking the cabbage crop. After cutting off the head, never neglect immediately to pull up the stalk, 

 and carry it off" with all the refuse leaves to the compost-heap. This practice is enjoined as well to prevent 

 the stem from pushing out shoots, and needlessly exhausting the ground, as to promote neatness and order. 

 It is necessary, however, to make an exception in favor of the practice of some, who, instead of removing 

 the roots and stems of the main summer crop, leave them in the ground deprived of their injured leaves, 

 and with the intervals between the rows stirred and perhaps manured, allow them to stand till spring. 

 Thus treated, they push out in autunm, and in January or February abound in fine cabbage-sprouts, not 

 much inferior to young cabbages. Sometimes this practice is applied to the earliest spring or summer 

 crop in which case the sprout- cabbages come into use the following autumn. 



3506. Cabbage-coleworts are gathered when the leaves are as broad as a man's hand. The largest are 

 drawn up by the root, which is generally allowed to remain attached to those taken to public markets, as 

 it retains the sap, and tends to preserve ihem succulent a longer period, than if they were wounded close 

 to the succulent leaves, 



"3507. Preserving cabbages. Where this is thought necessary, the plants are laid down on their sides, 

 and the stems covered with earth close to the head, the outer part of the more exposed side of which may 

 be sometimes injured, but the inside remains sound. 



3508. To save cabbage-seed. The raising of the seed of the different sorts of cabbage, 

 Neill observes, affords employment to many persons in various parts of 'England. It is 

 well known that no plants are more liable to be spoiled by cross breeds than the cabbage 

 tribe, unless the plants of any particular variety, when in flower, be kept at a very 

 considerable distance from any other ; also, in flower, bees are extremely apt to carry 

 the pollen of the one to the other, and produce confusion in the progeny. Market- 

 gardeners, and many private individuals, raise seed for their own use. Some of the 

 handsomest cabbages of the different sorts are dug up in autumn, and sunk in die 

 ground to the head ; early next summer a flower-stem appears, which is followed by 

 abundance of seed. A few of the soundest and healthiest cabbage-stalks, furnished with 

 sprouts, answer the same end. When the seed has been well ripened and dried, it will 

 keep for six or eight years. It is mentioned by'Bastien, that the seed-growers of Auber- 

 villiers have learned by experience, that seed gathered from the middle flower-stem 

 produces plants which will be fit for use a fortnight earlier than those from the seed of 

 the lateral flower-stems : this may deserve the attention of the watchful gardener, and 

 assist him in regulating his successive crops of the same kind of cabbage. 



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