94 



CABBAGE 



of phosphoric acid, one hundred fourteen pounds of potash, and 

 sixty-seven pounds of nitrogen. What does that mean? It means 

 that, to balance this, you would need these amounts: 165 pounds 

 acid phosphate of a 14% grade; 228 pounds of muriate of potash of 

 50% grade; 447 pounds of nitrate of soda of 15% grade. You 

 have then a fertilizer which would give eight per cent nitrogen, three 

 per cent phosphoric acid, and fourteen of potash. There is hardly a 

 man in the country that uses a fertilizer of that form, because more 

 soils lack phosphoric acid than any other element. 



RETURNS 



I have some figures that would be of great interest in the w^ay of 

 prices, the average returns per ton for eleven years, strictly for 

 storage cabbage, of the Danish Ball Head type. For November 

 the average price per ton was $7 to $9; December $9 to $11.70; 

 January $13.10 to $15.70; February $16.40 to $18.70; March $20.30 

 to $23. Those are interesting because, with the figures for this 

 year and these figures, you can arrive at some conclusions as to just 

 exactly what the average is in a series of years. 



THE LATE CROP 



Perhaps it would be better for me to emphasize the late growing 

 cabbage than the early. The first thing is the manuring of the land. 

 My general advice is to apply twenty-five to forty tons of manure. 

 If this is not practicable, use ten tons and one thousand pounds 

 fertilizer. I should plow under the manure, and apply the fertilizer 

 when the crop is set and cultivate it in. I would want all the manure 

 covered. Plow a little less narrow furrow slice and a little deeper, 

 so the furrow slice will not turn flat down. Following this plowing, 

 I should use some fining tool as a disk-harrow and fine the field as 

 much as possible. Then I would employ some smoothing tool, such 

 as a spike tooth, and perhaps go one step farther and use a Meeker. 

 It would depend a great deal, in using this Meeker, just what process 

 of planting was to be employed and what crop raised. In raising a 

 late type, it might not pay to use a Meeker. The Meeker fines the 

 soil even more than a garden rake. This is a tool that should be 

 more familiar to gardeners throughout the United States. 



The next step would be planting just as soon as possible. On 

 a small acreage, there is nothing better than the hand planter, a 

 dibble, or trowel, having the field marked out. If you have only 



