20 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
in. the form of “ cabbage sprouts ” or greens, ob¬ 
tained by setting out cabbage stumps in spring. 
These are all the forms of the plant grown 
with ns, but there are others more or less known. 
As illustrations of the manner in which a single 
plant may vary in cultivation, and be thus 
adapted to different seasons and uses, they are 
interesting and curious, but we had another ob¬ 
ject in view in presenting them; they include 
plants little 
known beyond 
a certain few, 
that should be 
known and 
grown by all. 
In the majority 
of farmers’ gar¬ 
dens, the late 
cabbage is the 
only one that 
finds a place. 
Here are six 
distinct sorts, 
each differing 
in fiavor, and 
in season, all of 
which might, 
with no more 
care than is required for the common cabbage, 
be grown and thus add largely to the variety 
upon the table. Our city markets are supplied 
with cabbages in June, from plants that have 
been wintered 
over. The 
seed is sown 
in September, 
and the young 
plants are set 
in cold frames 
where they 
pass the win¬ 
ter, and are 
transferred to 
the open 
ground in ear¬ 
ly spring. The 
cabbage is 
quite hardy, 
and more 
plants are lost 
by keeping 
the frames 
too cl(isely 
covered, and 
thus weaken¬ 
ing them, than 
there are by 
aetual freez¬ 
ing. Any one with a few sashes at command, 
can put together a rough frame of boards of 
the proper size for the sashes; he should set the 
young plants rather closely, down to their 
leaves, and have them well established l^efore 
cold weather comes on. He can afterwards, by 
a little attention 
to airing, carry 
plants through 
the winter with¬ 
out any difiiculty. 
Kohl-rabi does 
not transplant as 
readily as do the 
other varieties, 
and the safest way 
with this is, to 
sow it in drills 
where it is to 
stand, and after¬ 
wards thin to the 
required distance. 
We have not room to treat at length of their 
cultivation now, but in our notes for the 
month these things are always noticed. 
•--■-«■ - - — --- - 
Sports, as Affecting" Fruits. 
That plants will sport — that is, deviate from 
their ordinary ways, and produce leaves and 
flowers different in form and color from the or¬ 
dinary—is a well known horticultural fact. It 
is also well known, that many of our varieties 
have been obtained by perpetuating these sports 
by cuttings, grafts, etc. Some of our variegated 
leaved Geraniums or Pelargoniums, and other 
plants with marked foliage, have been obtained 
in this way, and some of our fine Roses are 
sports from other varieties. That the quality 
of fruit may be affected by sporting is not so 
well established; yet some cases have come to 
our notice that look as if this were the case, 
and which we wish to put on record, with a view 
of calling out other and similar facts. At our 
grape exhibition, in 1863, a dish of Isabellas 
was presented, the- berries in which were of a 
size so great that the judges decided that such 
fruit could only be produced by ringing the 
vines, and excluded the dish from competition. 
Since then the exhibitor has assured us that no 
ringing was practised, but that one part 
of the vine always bore just such fruit, 
while the other portion produced that 
of only ordinary size. Recently, Mr. 
Albert Granger,of Washington Heights, 
N. Y., brought us some bunches of 
grapes, for an opinion, which we gave 
to the effect that the fruit was an in¬ 
different Isabella. The account that he 
gave of the fruit was so remarkable, 
that we requested him to make his state¬ 
ment in writing, which is as follows: 
“In the spring of 1860,1 procured 9 
Catawba vines from Dr. Underhill, Cro¬ 
ton Point. I set them all, they lived 
and thrived, and, in 1862-63, fruited, 
bearing Catawba grapes. In Hov., 1863, 
the trellis on which they grew was 
partially destroyed by fire (catching 
from a burning barn,) and one of the 
vines was burnt down to within one 
foot of the ground. I left the stump 
standing. In the spring of 1864 several buds 
appeared just above the ground; I let them 
all grow, and in the summer broke off all but two 
thrifty canes that sprung from opposite sides of 
the stump. These two canes grew well that 
year, and in 1865 the vine again bore Catawba 
grapes. This year it has borne very prolifically, 
and, as it had the best exposure of any of my 
vines, the fruit commenced changing two weeks 
earlier than on any other vine on the same trel¬ 
lis. The beautiful tints of the berries—the semi¬ 
transparency so to speak—was matter of re¬ 
mark ; but to my surprise the fruit soon lost 
that character of color, and changed to the 
color of an Isabella. When ripe, they were 
found not to possess a single characteristic of a 
Catawba, but are pronounced by all persons 
who have partaken of the fruit to be Isabella 
grapes, and so they appear and taste to me. 
There can be no question about the history of 
the vine, and the fact that it bore, in 1862-3-5 
Catawba grapes; to this I would affirm.” 
From a long conversation with the writer 
of the above, we cannot see where he could 
have made any error in his observations, and 
that, as far as evidence can be relied on to estab¬ 
lish an occurrence, the above must be accept¬ 
ed. Before this article was in type, we found in 
a foreign journal an observation bearing on this 
point by M. Carriere, the well-known horticul¬ 
turist, of the Jardin des Plantes^ Paris. “A 
Black Hamburgh was cut down, when it pro¬ 
duced three suckers, one of which was layered, 
and after a time produced much smaller berries, 
ripening at least a fortnight sooner than the 
others. This phenomenon occurs every year. 
Of the remaining two suckers from the same 
stock, one gives every year fine grapes, while 
the other, although it sets abundance of fruit, 
only ripens a few, and these of inferior quality.” 
These facts appear to us to show that in 
some cases, vines at least do sport to an extent 
that essentially modifies the quality of the fruit, 
and that this helps us to understand how thei-e 
may be so many vines with fruit, differing much 
in quality, all called Isabella. The subject is 
an interesting one, and one that has a practical 
bearing. It should induce propagators, at least 
those who grow vines, to be careful as to the 
sources whence they obtain the wood, from 
which they propagate stock for sale. 
•---^ 9^ I m -- 
■Western Apples—Grimes’ Golden Pippin. 
The number of new, or rather unpublished 
apples that turn up every year, is something 
alarming to one who tries to keep the run of 
such matters. The Western States give us an¬ 
nually a batch of new sorts, that are slow in 
making their way eastward; indeed, there are 
so many peculiarly western varieties, that a 
large orchard might be stocked with a good as¬ 
sortment of choice kinds, not one of which a Hew 
England orchardist ever saw, if he ever heard 
of them. Of good apples, we have a sufficient 
number of varieties, and probably some of these 
Fig. 6.—KOHLEABI. 
