Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 2

development of the two, as spring advances, we shall find
another similarity (the looser the head the closer will be the
resemblance),--the outer leaves of each will unwrap and unfold, and a
flower stem will push out from each. Here we see that a cabbage is a
bud, a seed bud (as all fruit buds may be termed, the production of seed
being the primary object in nature, the fruit enclosing it playing but a
secondary part), the office of the leaves being to cover, protect, and
afterwards nourish the young seed shoot. The outer leaves which
surround the head appear to have the same office as the leaves which
surround the growing fruit bud, and that office closes with the first year,
as does that of the leaves surrounding fruit buds, when each die and
drop off. In my locality the public must have perceived more or less

clearly the analogy between the heads of cabbage and the buds of trees,
for when they speak of small heads they frequently call them "buds."
That the close wrapped leaves which make the cabbage head and
surround the seed germ, situated just in the middle of the head at the
termination of the stump, are necessary for its protection and nutrition
when young, is proved, I think, by the fact that those cabbages, the
heads of which are much decayed, when set out for seed, no matter how
sound the seed germ may be at the end of the stump, never make so
large or healthy a seed shoot as those do the heads of which are sound;
as a rule, after pushing a feeble growth, they die.
For this reason I believe that the office of the head is similar to and as
necessary as that of the leaves which unwrap from around the blossom
buds of our fruit trees. It is true that the parallel cannot be fully
maintained, as the leaves which make up the cabbage head do not to an
equal degree unfold (particularly is this true of hard heads); yet they
exhibit a vitality of their own, which is seen in the deeper green color
the outer leaves soon attain, and the change from tenderness to
toughness in their structure: I think, therefore, that the degree of failure
in the parallel may be measured by the difference between a higher and
a lower form of organic life.
Some advocate the economy of cutting off a large portion of the heads
when cabbages are set out for seed to use as food for stock. There is
certainly a great temptation, standing amid acres of large, solid, heads
in the early spring months, when green food of all kinds is scarce, to
cut and use such an immense amount of rich food, which, to the
inexperienced eye, appears to be utterly wasted if left to decay, dry, and
fall to the ground; but, for the reason given above, I have never done so.
It is possible that large heads may bear trimming to a degree without
injury to the seed crop; yet I should consider this an experiment, and
one to be tried with a good deal of caution.

SELECTING THE SOIL.
In some of the best cabbage-growing sections of the country, until

within a comparatively few years it was the very general belief that
cabbage would not do well on upland. Accordingly the cabbage patch
would be found on the lowest tillage land of the farm. No doubt, the
lowest soil being the richer from a gradual accumulation of the wash
from the upland, when manure was but sparingly used, cabbage would
thrive better there than elsewhere,--and not, as was generally held,
because that vegetable needed more moisture than any other crop.
Cabbage can be raised with success on any good corn land, provided
such land is well manured; and there is no more loss in seasons of
drouth on such land than there is in seasons of excessive moisture on
the lower tillage land of the farm. I wish I could preach a very loud
sermon to all my farmer friends on the great value of liberal manuring
to carry crops successfully through the effects of a severe drouth. Crops
on soil precisely alike, with but a wall to separate them, will, in a very
dry season, present a striking difference,--the one being in fine vigor,
and the other "suffering from drouth," as the owner will tell you; but, in
reality, from want of food.
The smaller varieties of cabbage will thrive well on either light or
strong soil, but the largest drumheads do best on strong soil. For the
Brassica family, including cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, etc., there is
no soil so suitable as freshly turned sod, provided the surface is well
fined by the harrow; it