CABBAGE. 
face. Another and more common method is to 
form dibble-holes of sufficient depth to let the 
whole root find place without being doubled up, 
and to make deep lateral pressures with the in- 
serted dibble at the depositing of each plant ; 
or—when the weather is dry—to fill every dib- 
ble-hole to the brim with soft water, and so to 
press the soil at the depositing of the plant as 
to puddle in and completely secure all the roots. 
In all instances in which the making of dibble- 
holes and the filling of them with water is not 
practised, much good is done by plunging the 
roots of each plant, immediately before deposit- 
ing it in the soil, ina thin paste of rich mould 
and ditch water or the drainings of the dung- 
hill. Ifthe season of transplanting be early, and 
the weather be warm and showery, the trans- 
planted cabbages may, in most parts of the south 
|| and centre of England, grow.so rapidily as to 
require the check of a second removal, or of 
| being raised up and reset; but almost always in 
| the north, and under all ordinary circumstances 
| in the south, they may be left undisturbed, and 
will be all the readier for culture at an early 
| period in spring. 
Two autumnal hoeings and a moderate earth- 
ing up must be given during the progress of the 
cabbages’ growth. If the winter prove mild, 
they will continue, though very slowly, to grow ; 
and if the winter. prove severe, they will be 
torpid during the prevalence of frost, and will 
start into somewhat sudden and rapid renewal 
of growth at the commencement of the genial 
influences of spring. At the close of winter, the 
spaces between the drills ought to be cleared 
from fallen and inert leaves, and once or twice 
digged or forked; and when the plants indicate 
their tendency to bolling, the spaces ought to be 
again well stirred. A few of the plants may run 
up to seed; but the great majority, if the rules 
of proper culture have been observed, will form 
regular heads, and afford a considerable succes- 
sional supply. The yellow and inert leaves will 
spontaneously fall, or will yield to the slightest 
jerk, and ought to be removed; but the firm, 
green, exterior leaves, which affect an open 
growth, or refuse to fold over the bolling, ought 
not, by any means, to be disturbed when the 
head is cut out, but should be left to perfect the 
axillary buds which produce young sprouts; and 
these sprouts or secondary cabbages may be used 
either as a delicious esculent of somewhat dif- 
ferent quality from the original cabbage-heads, 
or as cuttings for producing a supply of excellent 
cabbages, true to the original varieties, or un- 
deteriorated by the very common process of 
natural hybridizing. When the sprouts are de- 
signed to become esculent, one or at most two 
of the best must be selected, and all the rest be 
rubbed off; for if a considerable number are 
allowed to grow, all will be small and compara- 
tively worthless ; while if only one be allowed 
to grow, it will rush rapidly to maturity, and 
605 
will certainly equal, and not improbably excel, 
the original head in both appearance and flavour. 
When the sprouts are employed as cuttings, 
shoots of about five or six inches in length, are 
gently twisted from the stem; the lacerated heel 
of each is trimmed perfectly smooth and even 
with a very-sharp knife, but not shortened ; the 
cutting, thus prepared, is very carefully deposited 
in lightish, sandy fresh-moved loam, at such a 
depth as to inhume the greater part of its stem ; 
the dibble or setting-stick is, in three or four 
places, thrust diagonally into the ground in the 
direction of the heel, so as to fix it firmly in the 
soil; and a little water is then given to each 
plant, to settle the soil closely about its stem. 
The seed-bed of the August or July sowing, 
besides furnishing the seedlings for the crop 
which is transplanted in the latter part of au- 
tumn and used in spring and early summer, is 
itself an object of considerable care and value. 
In severe winters, sometimes a considerable part, 
and occasionally almost the whole of the trans- 
planted crop is destroyed by frost; and, in order 
to provide against this serious exigency, a propor- 
tion of the seedlings ought to be left in the seed- 
bed. These, however, should be raised up, their 
longest roots cut back nearly one-third, and the 
plants reset in regular order and at proper dis- 
tances. If two hundred seedlings remain, and be 
made to stand four inches apart in rows which 
are six inches asunder, a bed of little more than 
twelve feet in length and about three feet in 
width will contain the whole; and, in severe 
weather, this can be kept covered with three or 
four garden mats, so that it will suffer no injury 
while the transplanted crop is failing, and will 
afford a pretty ample supply of plants for spring. 
—One mode of protecting the transplanted crop 
is to form deep drills or grooves with the hoe or 
the spade, and to deposit the plants in these at 
such a depth that the lowest leaves may stand 
just above the soil; and another method is to set 
up the plots in ridges of nine inches in height, 
and to plant the seedlings in the bottom of the 
trenches between the ridges. But both methods 
retard the growth of the cabbages in spring ; and 
the latter has the additional disadvantage of pre- 
venting the free and necessary application of the 
hoe. 
The spring sowing, as already stated, ought to 
be made toward the close of March or in the early 
part of April. The seed-bed for it should be pre- 
pared and cultivated in the same manner as that 
for the sowing of July or August ; and if these 
two seed-beds be of due extent, and properly 
managed, they will yield seedlings and shoots for 
a succession of matured plants during nearly the 
whole of the year. About the first of June, most 
of the cabbages from the July or August sowing 
may be supposed to have yielded their heads for 
use, and to have been left to produce sprouts 
from their stems; and at this time, such of the 
seedlings of the March or April bed as are in a 
a 
