Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 4

If the land is in good heart, by previous high cultivation, or the soil is naturally very strong, six cords will give a fair crop of the small varieties; while, with the same conditions, from nine to twelve cords to the acre will be required to perfect the largest variety grown, the Marblehead Mammoth Drumhead.
Of the other kinds of manure named above, I will treat farther under the head of:

HOW TO APPLY THE MANURE.
The manure is sometimes applied wholly in the hill, at other times partly broadcast and partly in the hill. If the farmer desires to make the utmost use of his manure for that season, it will be best to put most of it into the hill, particularly if his supply runs rather short; but if he desires to leave his land in good condition for next year's crop, he had better use part of it broadcast. My own practice is to use all my rich compost broadcast, and depend on guano, fertilizers, or hen manure in the hill. Let all guano, if at all lumpy, like the Peruvian, be sifted, and let all the hard lumps be reduced by pounding, until the largest pieces shall not be larger than half a pea, before it is brought upon the ground. My land being ready, the compost worked under and the rows marked out, I select three trusty hands who can be relied upon to follow faithfully my directions in applying so dangerous manure as guano is in careless or ignorant hands; one takes a bucket of it, and, if for large cabbage, drops as much as he can readily close in his shut hand, where each hill is to be; if for small sorts, then about half that quantity, spreading it over a circle about a foot in diameter; the second man follows with a pronged hoe, or better yet, a six-tined fork, with which he works the guano well into the soil, first turning it three or four inches under the surface, and then stirring the soil very thoroughly with the hoe or fork. Unless the guano (and this is also true of most fertilizers) is faithfully mixed up with the soil, the seed will not vegetate. Give the second man about an hour the start, and then let the third man follow with the seed. Of other fertilizers, I use about half as much again as of guano to each hill, and of hen manure a heaping handful, after it has been finely broken up, and, if moist, slightly mixed with dry earth. When salt is used, it should not be depended on exclusively, but be used in connection with other manures, at the rate of from ten to fifteen bushels to the acre, applied broadcast over the ground, or thoroughly mixed with the manure before that is applied; if dissolved in the manure, better yet. Salt itself is not a manure. Its principal office is to change other materials into plant food. Fish and glue waste are exceedingly powerful manures, very rich in ammonia, and, if used the first season, they should be in compost. It is best to handle fish waste, such as heads, entrails, backbones, and liver waste, precisely like night soil. "Porgy cheese," or "chum," the refuse, after pressing out the oil from menhaden and halibut heads, and sometimes sold extensively for manure, is best prepared for use by composting it with muck or loam, layer with layer, at the rate of a barrel to every foot and a half, cord measure, of soil. As soon as it shows some heat, turn it, and repeat the process, two or three times, until it is well decomposed, when apply. Another excellent way to use fish waste is to compost it with barn manure, in the open fields. It will be best to have six inches of soil under the heap, and not layer the fish with the lower half of the manure, for it strikes down. Glue waste is a very coarse, lumpy manure, and requires a great deal of severe manipulation, if it is to be applied the first season. A better way is to compost it with soil, layer with layer, having each layer about a foot in thickness, and so allow it to remain over until the next season, before using. This will decompose most of the straw, 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