604 
be profusely enriched and thoroughly incorporated 
with spit dung or with some of the best kinds of 
composts, and will also yield a fair return for a 
subsequent dressing with the drainings of the 
stable or with other liquid manure. 
All the kinds of cabbage are sown in spring to 
boll and be used in the autumn and winter of 
the same year; and again in the end of summer 
or beginning of autumn, to boll and be used 
in the spring and early summer of next year. 
Most cabbage-growing farmers in the south 
and centre of England, plant a succession in 
April and May, and even till the end of June, 
so as to have a constant supply of fresh plants 
up to the time of their beginning to run to 
seed. The best time for sowing with a view 
to afford supplies in spring is from the 6th till 
the 12th of August in the southern and central 
counties of England, and from the 15th till the 
| 80th of July in the north of England and south 
of Scotland; and the best time for sowing witha 
view to afford supplies in autumn is toward the 
close of March, or in the early part of April. 
Plants from a sowing early in July are liable to 
run to seed in the spring; and plants from a 
sowing in the latter part or even middle of Au- 
gust seldom acquire sufficient strength to resist 
the rigours of winter. 
Cabbages, for growth in the garden, and even 
for growth in the field, are usually raised in seed- 
beds, and afterwards transplanted. The soil for 
a seed-bed ought to be moved to the depth of a 
few inches, and made very fine. The line for 
indicating the drill is strained tight; the drill is 
cut by drawing the angle of a hoe in the direc- 
tion of the line, with its edge resting against it; 
the depth of the drill is an inch or even less; 
the bottom of the drill is gently compressed into 
a smooth grooved surface, by means of the cylin- 
| drical back of a wooden rake, or of a long, smooth, 
slender pole such as the handle of a rake; the 
seeds are scattered, as regularly as possible, along 
the bottom ; a mixture of two pounds of powdered 
quicklime, one pound of coal-soot, and one ounce 
| of flowers of sulphur is dusted over the seeds, as 
a protection from the attacks of insects; and 
the drill is filled up with fine soil, and made firm 
and even by pressure with the flat of the spade. 
‘If the ground be in a somewhat moist condition, 
and the weather be somewhat showery, nothing 
more needs to be done; but when the soil, at the 
proper time for sowing, happens to be dusty or 
very dry, some artificial aids to germination must 
be brought into requisition both before'and after 
the sowing. The intended seed-bed, in this latter 
case, should be copiously watered on each of the 
three nights preceding the sowing; mats should 
be thrown over it during the intervening days: 
| and, if sunshine be clear and hot, the mats should 
be used till the seeds vegetate. The ordinary 
sprinklings which are usually termed waterings 
_ will be of little or no use to sowings in arid soil ; 
and the method of previous drenchings, and of 
CABBAGE. 
covering with mats, besides being quite effective, 
has the advantage of inducing very rapid ger- 
mination. The sowing ought to be thick, for the 
several purposes of a precaution against the 
inertness of a portion of the seeds, a provision 
against the accidents to which the young plants are 
liable, and a means of defeating slugs and other 
tiny foes by gorging them with food. Yet for 
the last of these purposes, the additional means 
may be used of sprinkling the young plants with 
the mixture recommended for dusting the seeds, 
or of covering the spaces of soil between the 
drills with dry saw-dust or chaff. When the 
first true leaves appear, and acquire a little 
strength, most of the danger from accidents 
and animal attacks is over, and the young plants 
ought to be so thinned out as to stand at dis- 
tances of an inch asunder; and as they advance 
in growth, they ought to be further thinned to 
distances of two inches asunder, and the spaces 
between the rows ought to be slightly hoed, in 
order to keep the whole bed free from weeds. 
The planting or transplanting of cabbage is an 
operation of prime importance to the culture, 
whether in the garden or in the field, and re- 
quires a little nicety in the performance. Cab- 
bage-plants grown to maturity on the ground on 
which they are sown, even in spite of the most 
careful culture, have long unbranching roots, and 
tall, naked, shanky stems; and they necessarily | 
occasion the preparations and processes of sowing 
and thinning to be dispersed over a compara- 
tively vast breadth of surface. 
occasions the roots to be “ stocky,” or to abound 
in short, bibulous, nutrient fibres; it dwarfs the 
plants, and both secures them to the soil, and 
renders them strong and compact ; and it enables 
the cultivator to keep a reserve of seedlings in 
the seed-bed, and, in the event of very severe 
Transplanting | 
weather, to protect them by coverings of mats | 
thrown over arches, formed of hoops or pliable | 
rods. The transplanting ought to be practised 
as soon as the young plants are about three or 
four inches high, or begin to be crowded. The | 
bed or plot for it in the garden ought to be in a 
free open situation, and thoroughly digged, well 
pulverized, and richly manured. Strong plants, 
as nearly as possible of uniform height and 
character, ought to be selected. Plants of any 
free-growing or large variety ought to be planted 
18 inches asunder from one another, in rows 18, 
21, or 24 inches asunder; but the small Yorks 
will do very well at distances of 12 inches from 
one another, in rows 16 or 18 inches asunder. 
The soil must be brought closely into contact 
with the whole of the roots, and made to take 
distinct hold of every part of each radical fibre. 
One method is to form a perpendicular drill 
breastwork, as in transplanting seedling trees, 
to place the young plants against the breastwork, 
with their lowest fibres spread upon the bottom, 
and to render them firm and complete the drill 
by shovelling up the soil to a level with the sur- 
