CABBAGE. 



be too much manured, as they are an exhausting crop. 

 Autumnal plantations, intended to stand the winter, should 

 have a dry soil, well dug and manured, and of a favourable 

 aspect. The cabbage, whether in the seed-bed or final 

 plantation, ever requires an open situation. Under the drip 

 of trees, or in the shade, seedlings are drawn up weak, and 

 grown crops are meager, w^orm-eaten and ill-favoured. 



Sowing cabbage seed, — M Mahon says, " The proper pe- 

 riod for sowing cabbage in the Middle States, to produce 

 early summer cabbages, is between the sixth and the tenth 

 of September, if intended to be transplanted into frames in 

 October, for winter protection, which is the preferable 

 method ; but if they are designed for remaining in the seed- 

 beds till spring, the period is between the fifteenth and 

 twentieth. However, it will be very proper to make two 

 or three sowings within that time, as it is impossible to say 

 whether the fall may be favourable or otherwise, and, there- 

 fore, the better way is to be prepared in either case by suc- 

 cessive crops. 



" The consequence of having crops too early is, that they 

 are subject to run to seed in the spring soon after being 

 planted out ; and if the seeds are sown too late, the plants 

 do not acquire sufficient strength before winter to withstand 

 its rigour, without extraordinary care. But in either case 

 there is a remedy ; that is, if the plants are likely to become 

 too luxuriant and strong, transplant them once or twice in 

 October, and if too backward and weakly, make a slight 

 hot-bed towards the latter end of that month, and prick 

 them out of the seed-bed thereon ; this will forward them 

 considerably." 



Mr. M'Mahon thinks that, in the Eastern States, the 

 fore part of September will be a suitable time to sow cab- 

 bages intended to be grown the succeeding summer. The 

 seeds should be covered about a quarter of an inch deep, 

 and, if the weather prove dry, should be watered occasion- 

 ally in the evening till they come up. According to Aber- 

 crombie's seed estimate, ^' for a seed-bed to raise the early 

 York and similar varieties, four feet wide by twenty in 

 length," two ounces will be required ; for a seed-bed to 

 raise the large sugarloaf, and other luxuriant growers, four 

 feet by thirty-six in length, two ounces. The same writer 

 directs to sow at three dilFerent seasons, that is, spring, 



