104 



LATE CABBAGE 



to raise five tons of cabbage per acre as it does twenty bushels 

 of wheat. Very few crops will repay for the use of fertilizer 

 like cabbage. Manure and commercial fertilizer are best for 

 cabbage. We usually apply about ten tons of manure per acre 

 and from four hundred to seven hundred pounds of commer- 

 cial fertilizer. If no manure is at hand, about one hundred 

 pomids of 4-8-10 will answer. We also apply about one ton 

 of lump lime per acre. The fertilizer and lime are applied 

 broadcast. It does not pay to put the fertilizer in hills for 

 late cabbage, because they are gross feeders and the mere 

 the root system can be spread the better. Spreading the fer- 

 tilizer has a strong tendencj^ to spread the root system. It 

 takes about one thousand spoonfuls of water to make cne 

 spoonful of commercial fertilizer all available for a plant. 

 Here comes that important factor moisture again. Often if 

 a field of cabbage is a little slow in the latter part of the sea- 

 son, a dressing of two hundred to three hundred pounds of 

 nitrate of soda will start them along. A satisfactory way to 

 apply the nitrate is by turning small handfuls through a 

 tube taken from a grain drill. The height the tube is carried 

 from the ground will govern the spread of the nitrate. In 

 this way, none of it falls upon the leaves. 



Setting the Plants. 



Setting cabbage is of more importance than most of us 

 think. W^e ought not to be satisfied with just making the 

 young plants live. Too often there is a fight between life and 

 death of a week or ten days bei jie tAe young plants start to 

 grow. This loss can never be made up. Lost tune is never 

 found. The probabilities are the crop ^^ill be three weeks 

 farther behind in the fall if the plants are slow about start- 

 ing. We prefer to loosen our plants in the seed bed with a 

 screw-driver or some ?::r_:l: r tool, when taking them up. 

 There are som^e cases vrAeic plants can be pulled all right, 

 but generally most of the root system is spoiled. Medium 

 sized plants are preferable t: Ifice ones, because more of 

 their root system will be rnairuaiiicd in transplanting. We 

 like to have our cabbage all set by the z::e-::::i of June. 

 Then they will start in time to get most of the spring mois- 



