BURNET, CABBAGE. 



75 



seed-stems and flowers come out nowhere but from the Uttle cab- 

 bages themselves. It is, most likely, owing to negligence in this 

 respect that we hardly ever see such a thing as real Brussels sprouts 

 in England ; and it is said that it is pretty nearly the same in 

 France, the proper care being taken nowhere, apparently, but in 

 the neighbourhood of Brussels. 



129. BURNET is a \ery well-known grass, or cattle-plant. 

 Some persons use it in salads, for what reason I know not, except 

 that, when cut or bruised, it smells like cucumber : its taste is cer- 

 tainly most disagreeable : it appears to me to be of no use in a 

 good garden : it is perennial, 'and, if curiosity should induce any 

 one to have it in a garden, it can be propagated either from seed, 

 or from a parting of the roots, and one square foot of ground will 

 be certainly enough to let it have. 



ISO. CABBAGE. — Very different, indeed, is this article from 

 the last ; for, here we have a plant, universally used, growing easily 

 in almost every sort of soil, and forming part of the table supply, 

 in one shape or another, from the first day in January to the last 

 day of December. Under this head, therefore, I shall be very mi- 

 nute in my instructions, more especially as the instructions under 

 this head have been and will be so frequently referred to. First, 

 of the manner of sowing. I will speak of the seed, and of the sorts 

 and of the season for soN^dng by-and-by ; but let me first speak of 

 the manner of sowing. This manner I have already described in 

 great part in the fourth Chapter, where I speak of the drawing of 

 drills across a seed-bed. Make a seed-bed of the extent that you 

 want, and make the earth very fine : then mark it out in little 

 drills. Drop the seed thinly along these drills, put the earth back 

 upon the seed, and press it down very tightly upon it. When the 

 seed comes up, which will be veiy thickly, thin the plants to an 

 inch apart, or perhaps a little more ; and do not delay this work 

 by any means ; for, small as the roots are, the plants injure one 

 another if they stand crowded for even a short space of time w hile 

 in the seed-leaf. At the same time that you thin the plants, hoe 

 the ground all over very nicely with a small hoe, and particularly 

 near the plants. When the plants have got four or six rough leaves, 

 they will touch one another, and ought to be removed from the 

 seed-bed. They are too small as yet to be transferred to the spot 

 where they are to come to perfection ; but they ought now to be 

 removed for the purposes presently to be mentioned. Prepare 



