Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 5

and break down the hard,
tough lumps. In applying this to the crop, most of it had better be used
broadcast, as it is apt, at best, to be rather too coarse and concentrated
to be used liberally directly in the hill. Slaughter-house manure should
be treated much like glue manure.
Mr. Proctor, of Beverly, has raised cabbage successfully on strong clay
soil, by spreading a compost of muck containing fish waste, in which
the fish is well decomposed, at the rate of two tons of the fish to an acre
of land, after plowing, and then, having made his furrows at the right
distance apart, harrowing the land thoroughly crossways with the
furrows. The result was, besides mixing the manure thoroughly with
the soil, to land an extra proportion of it in the furrows, which was
equivalent to manuring in the drill.
Cabbage can be raised on fertilizers alone. I have raised some crops in
this way; but have been led to plow in from four to six cords of good
manure to the acre, and then use from five hundred to a thousand
pounds of some good fertilizer in the hill. The reason I prefer to use a
portion of the cabbage food in the form of manure, is, that I have
noticed that when the attempt is made to raise the larger drumhead
varieties on fertilizers only, the cabbages, just as the heads are well
formed, are apt to come nearly to a standstill. I explain this on the
supposition that they exhaust most of the fertilizer, or some one of the

ingredients that enter into it, during the earlier stage of growth; perhaps
from the fact that the food is in so easily digestible condition, they use
an over share of it, and the fact that those fed on fertilizers only, tend to
grow longer stumped than usual, appears to give weight to this opinion.
Though any good fertilizer is good for cabbage, yet I prefer those
compounded on the basis of an analysis of the composition of the
plants; they should contain the three ingredients, nitrogen, potash, and
phosphoric acid, in the proportion of six, seven, five, taking them in the
order in which I have written them.

MAKING THE HILLS AND PLANTING THE SEED.
The idea is quite prevalent that cabbages will not head up well except
the plants are started in beds, and then transplanted into the hills where
they are to mature. This is an error, so far as it applies to the Northern
States,--the largest and most experienced cultivators of cabbage in New
England usually dropping the seed directly where the plant is to stand,
unless they are first started under glass, or the piece of land to be
planted cannot be prepared in season to enable the farmer to put his
seed directly in the hill and yet give the cabbage time sufficient to
mature. Where the climate is unpropitious, or the quantity of manure
applied is insufficient, it is possible that transplanting may promote
heading. The advantages of planting directly in the hill, are a saving of
time, avoiding the risks incidental to transplanting, and having all the
piece start alike; for, when transplanted, many die and have to be
replaced, while some hesitate much longer than others before starting,
thus making a want of uniformity in the maturing of the crop. There is,
also, this advantage, there being several plants in each hill, the
cut-worm has to depredate pretty severely before he really injures the
piece; again, should the seed not vegetate in any of the hills, every
farmer will appreciate the advantage of having healthy plants growing
so near at hand that they can be transferred to the vacant spaces with
their roots so undisturbed that their growth is hardly checked. In
addition to the labor of transplanting saved by this plan, the great check
that plants always receive when so treated is prevented, and also the
extra risks that occur should a season of drouth follow. It is the belief

of some farmers, that plants growing where the seed was planted are
less liable to be destroyed by the cut-worm than those that have been
transplanted. When planning to raise late cabbage on upland, I sow a
portion of the seed on a moist spot, or, in case a portion of the land is
moist, I plant the hills on such land with an extra quantity of seed, that I
may have enough plants for the whole piece, should the weather prove
to be too dry for the seed to vegetate on the dryer portions of it. It is
wise to sow these extra plants about a week earlier, for they will be put
back about a week by transplanting them.
Some of our best farmers drill