22 
Early Cabbages. 
f 116 °/ tilG Iar & est Showers of veg- 
es or the Baltimore market to me a 
day or so ago: “The dry weather has made 
r cabbage plants very late and they are 
Togo Henderso » barges |5 per 
’ or good plants to winter over Do 
r **“"* these small plants will come 
thiough if transplanted into frames’” I 
assured my f rien d that I thought they 
would if set deeply enough to protect the 
stems well, and we separated. But the 
question set me to thinking again over the 
whole subject of early cabbage and cauli¬ 
flower. I became satisfied a good many 
years ago that the practice of sowing cab 
age seed in autumn for early spring cab¬ 
bage was a waste of time, seed and labor 
and that much better results can be ob¬ 
tained from seed sown under glass with 
a moderate degree of heat about the first 
of February, and the plants kept growing 
in a healthy manner from first to last, than 
can be obtained from the stunted and frost¬ 
ed plants wintered over, either in frames or 
on ri ges Years ago I grew annually 
many thousands of plants in frames during 
winter from fall sown seeds, because there 
was a demand for such plants, and I was 
growing plants to meet the demand, but 
for my own sowing I always preferred 
plants started in green-house or hot-bed in 
ebruary. About twenty years ago a friend 
Z ° Jd niarket gardener, had 
planted his Early Yorks as usual on the 
sides of sharp ridges for wintering. I had 
just gotten a new garden and was busy 
until late in the fall getting green-house 
and frames finished, and let the season for 
sowing go by. Not to miss the cabbage 
crop entirely, I sowed emly.in February 
on a slight hot-bed. seed of Earlv Winnig- 
stadt cabbage. By the first of March the 
heat had waned until my hot-bed was but 
a cold-frame. The plants were given plenty 
of air, and by the middle of March were 
ready io go out. They were set in freshly- 
worked and heavily-manured soil, and 
were in a strong, thriftv growth before my 
neighbor’s plants had recovered from their 
winter’s freezing, and begun to search for 
the manure that had largely been washed 
out of their reach during the winter. The 
result was that before the first of June I 
had g O0d heads of Winnigstadt cabbage, 
i e mj- neighbor had no heads even of 
Early York. This incident led me experi¬ 
ment further until I became convinced 
(and I believe the leading growers at the * 
North now are) that the best success with 
early cabbage is to be had from plants, 
started under glasses and set in fresh land 
as early as possible in spring. This shows 
the great importance of fire-heated pits or 
green-houses to the grower of vegetables 
for market. Tn one of these low, narrow 
houses the cabbage plants can be grown in 
soil o„ the benches in February, using as 
ittle hre heat as will keep them in healthy 
growth, and giving plenty of air until the 
plants are made hardy and ready for the 
open ground as soon as it can be well work¬ 
ed. The pit for these hardy plants should 
be constructed so that the sashes could be 
entirely removed for a while before final ' 
planting out. The day is not far distant 
when these fire-heated pits, where work 
can be carried on in any weather, will en- 
irely supersede the cumbersome, incon¬ 
venient and expensive hot-bed made with 
meS'of manUre - No who tries this 
method of growing earlv cabbage plants 
ever again go to the trouble of sowing seed 
m autumn, in this latitude at least-V F. 
Massey, in American Farmer. 
5 Si : o° r S ’ 5 ' Geranimns and 
ed, freelbv mail n? 5 dlff , erent sorts, all label- 
to cover charges) ’by^ express af® vn^ “ eXtT S ” 
Special offer for Februarv q fc A UI V, ex P e «se. 
Mention this pape?™^ 
--- Wil liamsport, Pa. 
“RANCOCAS ! ” 
BERttV Pr e UC f e ; hardy ’ ear] y RED RASP. 
^ i C °'° r - Fine qU “ Ut y- Carrieslfll. 
A great Market Berry. Should be planted by 
ft foTs 0 p, e i',>g A ot ISraS Sffw™. should "offer 
t. 8 UmoSialfal\^ ms SeBdf ^. hl ^.^ription. 
A_ (Co-Iutroducer.) Pa. 
s-.-wiv, 
WM. PARRY, Parry P. o., N. J. 
