CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



15 



most striking, but care must then, as already 

 stated, be exercised that the .solution be well 

 diluted — as fluid as water, and of color like very 

 strong tea. 



The soil for cabbages must be deeply cultivated and 

 the subsoil be turned or broken if very hard or clayey. 

 A frequent stirring of the surface of the ground will 

 at the same time keep the weeds down and admit air 

 and moisture, so essential for the solution and assimi- 

 lation by the plants of the nourishing elements in the 

 soil, 



EAELY CABBAGES. 

 When a favorable soil in a high state of fertility 

 is combined with a good market, not too distant, 

 early cabbages will be found to be one of the 

 most important farm-garden crops. The soil and 

 manure question have already been treated of 

 above. The vital point in growing early cabbages 

 for marketing is to force the crop to early market- 

 able condition, so as, on the one hand, to reap the 

 advantage of being among the first in the market 

 and securing the higher prices that are always 

 obtained for extra early garden products of first- 

 class quality, and, on the other hand, to have the 

 ground cleared as early as possible for second crops. 

 It will in many cases be of advantage to keep up a 

 succession either by repeated plantings of the same 

 variety, or by growing a variety of sorts with dif- 

 ferent degrees of earliness in maturing ; the latter 

 method is generally preferable. The inexperi- 

 enced grower will do well by trying both ways, in 



