Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 3

is well to have as stout a crop of clover or grass,
growing on this sod, when turned under, as possible, and I incline to the
belief that it would be a judicious investment to start a thick growth of
these by the application of guano to the surface sufficiently long before
turning the sod to get an extra growth of the clover or grass. If the soil
be very sandy in character, I would advise that the variety planted be
the Winnigstadt, which, in my experience, is unexcelled for making a
hard head under almost any conditions, however unpropitious. Should
the soil be naturally very wet it should be underdrained, or stump foot
will be very likely to appear, which is death to all success.

PREPARING THE SOIL.
Should the soil be a heavy clay, a deep fall ploughing is best, that the

frosts of winter may disintegrate it; and should the plan be to raise an
early crop, this end will be promoted by fall ploughing, on any soil, as
the land will thereby be made drier in early spring. In New England the
soil for cabbages should be ploughed as deep as the subsoil, and the
larger drumheads should be planted only on the deepest soil. If the
season should prove a favorable one, a good crop of cabbage may be
grown on sod broken up immediately after a crop of hay has been taken
from it, provided plenty of fine manure is harrowed in. One great risk
here is from the dry weather that usually prevails at that season,
preventing the prompt germination of the seed, or rooting of the plants.
It is prudent in such a case to have a good stock of plants, that such as
die may be promptly replaced. It is wise to plant the seed for these a
week earlier than the main crop, for when transplanted to fill the vacant
places it will take about a week for them to get well rooted.
The manure may be spread on the surface of either sod or stubble land
and ploughed under, or be spread on the surface after ploughing and
thoroughly worked into the soil by the wheel harrow or cultivator. On
ploughed sod I have found nothing so satisfactory as the class of wheel
harrows, which not only cut the manure up fine and work it well under,
but by the same operation cut and pulverize the turf until the sod may
be left not over an inch in thickness. To do the work thus thoroughly
requires a yoke of oxen or a pair of stout horses. All large stones and
large pieces of turf that are torn up and brought to the surface should be
carted off before making the hills.

THE MANURE.
Any manure but hog manure for cabbage,--barn manure, rotten kelp,
night-soil, guano, fertilizers, wood ashes, fish, salt, glue waste, hen
manure, slaughter-house manure. I have used all of these, and found
them all good when rightly applied. If pure hog manure is used it is apt
to produce that corpulent enlargement of the roots known in different
localities as "stump foot," "underground head," "finger and thumb;" but
I have found barn manure on which hogs have run, two hogs to each
animal, excellent. The cabbage is the rankest of feeders, and to perfect

the larger sort a most liberal allowance of the richest composts is
required. To grow the smaller varieties either barn-yard manure, guano,
fertilizers, or wood ashes, if the soil be in good condition, will answer;
though the richer and more abundant the manure the larger are the
cabbages, and the earlier the crop will mature.
To perfect the large varieties of drumhead,--by which I mean to make
them grow to the greatest size possible,--I want a strong compost of
barn-yard manure, with night-soil and muck or fish-waste, and, if
possible, rotten kelp. A compost into which night-soil enters as a
component is best made by first covering a plot of ground, of easy
access, with soil or muck that has been exposed to a winter's frost, to
the depth of about eighteen inches, and raising around this a rim about
three feet in height, and thickness. Into this the night-soil is poured
from carts built for the purpose, until the receptacle is about two-thirds
full. Barn manure is now added, being dropped around and covering the
outer rim, and, if the supply is sufficient, on the top of the heap also, on
which it can be carted after cold weather sets in. Early in spring, the
entire mass should be pitched over, thoroughly broken up with the bar
and pick where frozen, and the frozen masses thrown on the surface. In
pitching over the mass, work the rim in towards the middle of