Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them

Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How
to Grow Them, by

James John Howard Gregory This eBook is for the use of anyone
anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You
may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
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Title: Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them A Practical
Treatise, Giving Full Details On Every Point, Including Keeping And
Marketing The Crop
Author: James John Howard Gregory
Release Date: August 8, 2006 [EBook #19006]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS: ***

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New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N.
Y. Library
* * * * *

Cabbages
and
Cauliflowers:
HOW TO GROW THEM.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE, GIVING FULL DETAILS ON EVERY
POINT, INCLUDING KEEPING AND MARKETING THE CROP.
[Illustration: Cabbage Head]
BY
JAMES J. H. GREGORY,
ORIGINAL INTRODUCER OF THE MARBLEHEAD, DEEP HEAD,
WARREN, ALL SEASONS, HARD HEADING, AND REYNOLDS
CABBAGES.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by JAMES J.
H. GREGORY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.

CONTENTS.
PAGE OBJECT OF TREATISE 1
THE ORIGIN OF CABBAGE 1

WHAT A CABBAGE IS 2
SELECTING THE SOIL 4
PREPARING THE SOIL 5
THE MANURE 6
HOW TO APPLY THE MANURE 8
MAKING THE HILLS AND PLANTING THE SEED 11
CARE OF THE YOUNG PLANTS 16
PROTECTING THE PLANTS FROM THEIR ENEMIES 18
THE GREEN WORM 22
CLUB, OR STUMP ROOT, OR MAGGOT 24
CARE OF THE GROWING CROP 29
MARKETING THE CROP 30
KEEPING CABBAGE THROUGH THE WINTER 32
HAVING CABBAGE MAKE HEADS IN WINTER 39
FOREIGN VARIETIES OF CABBAGE 43-45
AMERICAN VARIETIES 46-60
SAVOY VARIETIES 60-63
OTHER VARIETIES 63-67
CABBAGE GREENS 67
CABBAGE FOR STOCK 69

RAISING CABBAGE SEED 73
COOKING CABBAGE, SOUR-KROUT, ETC. 75
CABBAGE UNDER GLASS 76
COLD FRAME AND HOT-BED 78
CAULIFLOWER, BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS-SPROUTS, KALE AND
SEA-KALE 81

CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS.

OBJECT OF THIS TREATISE.
As a general, yet very thorough, response to inquiries from many of my
customers about cabbage raising, I have aimed in this treatise to tell
them all about the subject. The different inquiries made from time to
time have given me a pretty clear idea of the many heads under which
information is wanted; and it has been my aim to give this with the
same thoroughness of detail as in my little work on Squashes. I have
endeavored to talk in a very practical way, drawing from a large
observation and experience, and receiving, in describing varieties, some
valuable information from McIntosh's work, "The Book of the Garden."

THE ORIGIN OF CABBAGE.
Botanists tell us that all of the Cabbage family, which includes not only
every variety of cabbage, Red, White, and Savoy, but all the
cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and brussels sprouts, had their origin in the
wild cabbage of Europe (Brassica oleracea), a plant with green, wavy
leaves, much resembling charlock, found growing wild at Dover in
England, and other parts of Europe. This plant, says McIntosh, is
mostly confined to the sea-shore, and grows only on chalky or

calcareous soils.
Thus through the wisdom of the Great Father of us all, who
occasionally in his great garden allows vegetables to sport into a higher
form of life, and grants to some of these sports sufficient strength of
individuality to enable them to perpetuate themselves, and, at times, to
blend their individuality with that of other sports, we have the heading
cabbage in its numerous varieties, the creamy cauliflower, the feathery
kale, the curled savoy. On my own grounds from a strain of seed that
had been grown isolated for years, there recently came a plant that in its
structure closely resembled Brussels Sprouts, growing about two feet in
height, with a small head under each leaf. The cultivated cabbage was
first introduced into England by the Romans, and from there nearly all
the kinds cultivated in this country were originally brought. Those
which we consider as peculiarly American varieties, have only been
made so by years of careful improvement on the original imported sorts.
The characteristics of these varieties will be given farther on.

WHAT A CABBAGE IS.
If we cut vertically through the middle of the head, we shall find it
made up of successive layers of leaves, which grow smaller and smaller,
almost ad infinitum. Now, if we take a fruit bud from an apple-tree and
make a similar section of it, we shall find the same structure. If we
observe the