Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 2

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 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