CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 
273 
if necessary. A team, a driver and two droppers can 
plant three to four acres in a day of 10 hours. 
The plants may also be set by the use of dibbers and 
trowels. Some growers open furrows with a narrow 
shovel plow. When the furrow method is used, the 
plants should be set promptly, before the fresh soil be- 
comes dry. 
357. Intercropping. — When cabbage is grown on a 
large scale, intercropping is seldom practiced. Market 
gardeners, however, with a limited land area often find 
companion cropping very desirable. (See Chapter 
XXIII.) 
358. Cultivation. — Tillage should begin as soon as the 
plants are sufficiently erect after setting and be repeated 
at frequent intervals. It should be continued as late as 
possible, crowding between the rows, even if some 
leaves are broken from the plants. There will be few 
broken, however, if the cultivating is done between 9.00 
A. m. and 4.00 p. m., when the leaves are limp and bend 
readily. 
359. Harvesting. — When the demand is great and 
prices high, it requires patience to wait until the early 
crop is fully ready to market. The fact is that a large 
percentage of early cabbage is cut before the heads be- 
come sufficiently solid to hold up well. The result is the 
market is crowded with inferior cabbage, which causes 
dissatisfaction among dealers as well as among con- 
sumers. The bulk of the southern crop is packed and 
sold in crates or barrels, with insufficient regard to the 
weights of the filled packages. A nearly matured head 
will occupy about as much space as it would a few days 
later when hard and solid, but would weigh much less. 
Sales are always restricted when the heads are soft and 
loose. It is doubtful whether cabbage should ever be 
cut until solid, except late in the fall, when there is dan- 
ger of severe weather that would entail loss. If sold by 
