CHAPTER VI. 
BRASSICAS. 
“ Gcod worts ! good cabbage ” 
Merry Wives 1. 
'qPJHE brassicas are tlie most useful of all our kitchen 
Gjjff garden plants, as they are in use at all seasons, and 
may be produced with more or less success in every soil 
and climate of Great Britain. It must be a mournful case 
where the soil will not produce a cabbage that will pay for 
the labour and the land, and as regards gardens generally, the 
cauliflower may be regarded as affording a fair test of the 
capabilities both of the soil and the management. Brassicas 
include an immense variety of garden vegetables, all of which 
assimilate closely in requirements, and for the most part 
demand only the most ordinary care and average conditions. 
They are all partial to a strong soil, and may be manured to 
almost any extent with advantage, and yet on poor land, 
without the aid of manure, a very welcome dish of coleworts 
or kale may be grown with the least imaginable trouble, 
and with less risk of damage by heat, drought, frost, rain, 
wind, and vermin, than any other crop. In a well managed 
garden, brassicas of some kinds are always on the ground, 
and they are employed to occupy gaps and fill up spaces 
profitably, being never out of place and very rarely out of 
season. 
the cabbage ( Brassica oleracea.) 
Soil. — The finest cabbages are grown on deep fertile loams 
and clay lands that have been long cultivated. The land 
should be heavily manured for them, and if farm-yard muck 
is scarce, guano and wood ashes may be used instead; deep 
digging, and indeed good work throughout, are requisite to the 
production of a clean and useful crop, for cabbage should grow 
quickly to be sweet and tender, and free from disease and 
vermin. In rough garden and allotment cultivation, the long 
