CABBAGE, 



63 



The plants will not be injured, and they are an excellent food 

 for cattle, and will much increase the milk of cows. But 

 tl ^ least decayed alone should be given to cows, lest they 

 give the milk a bad taste. Much account is made of cab- 

 bages, in England, for feeding cattle in the winter ; but 

 the difficulty of preserving them renders them less valua- 

 ble for that purpose with us. Cabbages are also eaten by 

 swine and horses, and are thought to be excellent food for 

 ewes that have newly dropped their lambs, and for calves. 



Preserving cabbages, — Mr. M'Mahon recommends the 

 foiiowing method for preserving cabbages for winter and 

 spring use : — " Immediately previous to the setting in of 

 hard frost, take up your cabbages and Savoys, observing to 

 do it in a dry day ; turn their tops downward, and let them 

 remain so for a few hours, to drain off any water that may 

 be lodged between their leaves ; then make choice of a 

 ridge of dry earth, in a well-sheltered, warm exposure, and 

 plant them down to their heads therein, close to one anoth- 

 er, having previously taken off some of their loose, hanging 

 leaves. Immediately erect over them a low, temporary 

 shed, of any kind that will keep them perfectly free from 

 wet, which is to be open at both ends, to admit a current 

 of air in mild, dry weather. These ends are to be closed 

 with straw when the weather is very severe. Ii? ^his situa- 

 tion, your cabbages will keep in a high state of preservation 

 till spring ; for, being kept perfectly free from wet, as well 

 as from the action of the sun, the frost will have little or 

 no effect upon them. In such a place the heads may be 

 cut otf as wanted, and if frozen, soak them in spring, well, 

 or pump water, for a few hours previous to their being 

 cooked, which will dissolve the frost, and extract any disa- 

 greeable taste occasioned thereby." 



The principal gardener in the Shaker establishment, in 

 New Lebanon, Columbia county, N. Y. directs not to pull 

 up cabbages in autumn, till there is danger of their freez- 

 ing too fast in the ground to be got up. If there happens 

 an early snow, it will not injure them. When they are 

 removed from the garden, they should be set out again in 

 a trench dug in the bottom of a cellar. If the cellar is 

 pretty cool, it will be the better." 



The London Monthly Magazine gives the following meth- 

 od, by which cabbages may be preserved on board ships, 

 6 * 



