66 



CABBAGE. 



&c. — " The cabbage is cut so as to leave about two inches 

 or more of the stem attached to it ; after which the pith is 

 scooped out to about the depth of an inch, care being taken 

 not to wound or bruise the rind by this operation. The 

 cabbages then are suspended by means of a cord, tied round 

 that portion of the stem next the cabbage, and fastened at 

 regular intervals to a rope across the deck. That portion 

 of the stem from which the pith is taken, being uppermost, 

 is regularly filled with water." 



To save cabbage seed, — " The raising of the seed of the 

 different sorts of cabbage, Neill observes, affords employ- 

 ment to many persons in various parts ojf England. It is 

 well known that no plants are more liable to be spoiled by 

 cross breeds, than the cabbage tribe, unless the plants of 

 any particular variety, when in flower, be kept at a very 

 considerable distance from any other ; also in flower, 

 bees are extremely apt to carry the pollen of the one to the 

 other, and produce confusion in the progeny. Market gar- 

 deners, and many private individuals, raise seed for their 

 ov, n use. Some of the handsomest cabbages of the differ- 

 ent sorts are dug up in autumn, and sunk in the ground to 

 the head ; early next summer a flower-stem appears, which 

 is followed by abundance of seed. A few of the soundest 

 and healthiest cabbage-stalks, furnished with sprouts, an- 

 swer the same end. When the seed has been well ripened 

 and dried, it will keep for six or eight years. It is mention- 

 ed by Bastien, that the seed-growers of Aubervilliers have 

 learned by experience, that seed gathered from the middle 

 flower-stem produces plants, which will be fit for use a 

 fortnight earlier than those from the seed of the lateral 

 flower stem ; this may deserve the attention of the watch- 

 ful gardener, and assist him in regulating his successive 

 crops of the same kind of cabbage." — Loudon, 



Field culture, — The variety cultivated in the fields for cat- 

 tle is almost exclusively the large Scotch, or field cabbage. 

 The land is prepared the same way as for other hoed crops. 

 " The preparation given to the plants," says Loudon, " con- 

 sists in pinching off the extremity of their tap-root, and 

 any tubercles vfhich appear on the root or stem, and in im- 

 mersing the root and stem in a puddle or mixture of earth 

 and water, to protect the fibres and pores of the roots and 

 stem from drought. The plants may then be inserted by 



