86 PIGTOEIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



President Carnot, or Suttons^ Matchless for general use. Suttons' 

 Exhibition is superior to any of them for show, but it is not so good in 

 flavour as Matchless. Aigburth is a large, popular, and useful Sprout. 

 Savoys :— 



The Savoy Cabbage is the early winter Green. The old tradition 

 that it must have a frost on it before it is at its best has truth in it, 

 though many misread it. Savoys sown in March or April, and planted 

 24 to 30 inches apart, either between Potatoes or in open quarters, in 

 May or June, give useful produce in December and January. 



The old Drumhead is too coarse for the modern garden, but the 

 Dwarf Green Curled is just the thing. Early Dwarf Ulm and 

 Buttons' Perfection are also good sorts. 



Chapter u — Cabbaaes* 



It is a poor kitchen garden that has not its bed of Cabbages in 

 spring. 



The Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) is a vegetable that can hardly 

 be excelled in usefulness by any other that is grown. Most people 

 make more fuss about the first new Potato than about the first 

 spring Cabbage, but I doubt if they really enjoy it more, and I am 

 quite sure that it does not do them so much good. 



The capable vegetable grower schemes things so that his 

 Cabbages just fit in with, or slightly overlap, his Broccolis. I mean 

 he arranges that before the last Broccoli is cut there shall be sweet 

 young Cabbages ready. Sometimes his plans go wrong, and then 

 there is a much-felt gap. 



There are lucky people in this world who can sow Cabbages in 

 July or August, and cut them the following February or March. 

 All are not so favoured with soil and climate, and are very well 

 satisfied if they are able to begin cutting in April. In cold soils and 

 bleak, wind-blown districts Cabbages from summer sowings are 

 often not in till May, which is uncomfortably late. 



The most irritating thing that befalls the spring Cabbage 

 grower^ is " bolting," or running to seed. Sometimes one or two 

 plants in a bed go, sometimes nearly the whole of them. Bolting is 

 very liable to occur where a mild, wet autumn and early winter 

 follow a dry summer. The plants first languish through the 

 drought, and are then pushed along at a great pace by the wet, thus 

 making most of their growth at the wrong time. The experienced 

 grower can tell very early in the bolting stage what is going to 



