sure to follow the use of pure hog manure, whether it be used broadcast
or in the hill. About ten years ago I ventured to use hog manure nearly
pure, spread broadcast and ploughed in. Stump foot soon showed itself. I
cultivated and hoed the cabbage thoroughly; then, as they still appeared
sickly, I had the entire piece thoroughly dug over with a six-tined
fork, pushing it as deep or deeper into the soil than the plough had
gone, to bring up the manure to the surface; but all was of no use; I
lost the entire crop. Yet, on another occasion, stable manure on which
hogs had been kept at the rate of two hogs to each animal, gave me one
of the finest lots of cabbage I ever raised.
CARE OF THE GROWING CROP.
As soon as the young plants are large enough to be seen with the naked
eye, in with the cultivator and go and return once in each row, being
careful not to have any lumps of earth cover the plants. Follow the
cultivator immediately with the hoe, loosening the soil about the hills.
The old rule with farmers is to cultivate and hoe cabbage three times
during their growth, and it is a rule that works very well where the
crop is in good growing condition; but if the manure is deficient, the
soil bakes, or the plants show signs of disease, then cultivate and hoe
once or twice extra. "Hoe cabbage when wet," is another farmer's axiom.
In a small garden patch the soil may be stirred among the plants as
often as may be convenient: it can do no harm; cabbages relish tending,
though it is not necessary to do this every day, as one enthusiastic
cultivator evidently thought, who declared that, by hoeing his cabbages
every morning, he had succeeded in raising capital heads.
If a season of drouth occurs when the cabbages have begun to head, the
heads will harden prematurely; and then should a heavy rain fall, they
will start to make a new growth, and the consequence will be many of
them will split. Split or bursted cabbage are a source of great loss to
the farmer, and this should be carefully guarded against by going
frequently over the piece when the heads are setting, and starting every
cabbage that appears to be about mature. A stout-pronged potato hoe
applied just under the leaves, and a pull given sufficient to start the
roots on one side, will accomplish what is needed. If cabbage that have
once been started seem still inclined to burst, start the roots on the
other side. Instead of a hoe they may be pushed over with the foot, or
with the hand. Frequently, heads that are thus started will grow to
double the size they had attained when about to burst. There is a marked
difference in this habit in different varieties of cabbage. I find that
the Hard-heading is less inclined to burst its head than any of the
kinds I raise.
MARKETING THE CROP.
When preparing for market cabbages that have been kept over winter,
particularly if they are marketed late in the season, the edges of the
leaves of some of the heads will be found to be more or less decayed; do
not strip such leaves off, but with a sharp knife cut clean off the
decayed edges. The earlier the variety the sooner it needs to be
marketed, for, as a rule, cabbages push their shoots in the spring in
the order of their earliness. If they have not been sufficiently
protected from the cold, the stumps will often rot off close to the
head, and sometimes the rot will include the part of the stump that
enters the head. If the watery-looking portion can be cut clean out, the
head is salable; otherwise it will be apt to have an unpleasant flavor
when cooked. As a rule, cabbages for marketing should be trimmed into as
compact a form as possible; the heads should be cut off close to the
stump, leaving two or three spare leaves to protect them. They may be
brought out of the piece in bushel baskets, and be piled on the wagon as
high as a hay stack, being kept in place by a stout canvas sheet tied
closely down. In the markets of Boston, in the fall of the year, they
are usually sold at a price agreed upon by the hundred head; this will
vary not only with the size and quality of the cabbage, but with the
season, the crop, and the quality in market on that particular day.
Within a few years I have known the range of price for the Stone Mason
or Fottler cabbage, equal in size and quality, to be from $3 to $17 per
hundred; for the Marblehead Mammoth from $6 to $25 per hundred. Cabbages
brought to market in the spring are usually sold by weight or by the
barrel, at from $1 to $4 per hundred pounds.
The earliest cabbages carried to market sometimes bring extraordinary
prices; and this has created a keen competition among market gardeners,
each striving to produce the earliest, a difference of a week in
marketing oftentimes making a difference of one half in the profits of
the crop. Capt. Wyman, who controlled the Early Wyman cabbage for
several years, sold some seasons thirty thousand heads if my memory
serves me, at pretty much his own price. As a rule, it is the very early
and the very late cabbages that sell most profitably. Should the market
for very late cabbages prove a poor one, the farmer is not compelled to
sell them, no matter at what sacrifice, as would be the case a month
earlier; he can pit them, and so keep them over to the early spring
market which is almost always a profitable one. In marketing in spring
it should be the aim to make sale before the crops of spring greens
become plenty, as these replace the cabbage on many tables. By starting
cabbage in hot beds a crop of celery or squashes may follow them the
same season.
KEEPING CABBAGES THROUGH THE WINTER.
In the comparatively mild climate of England, where there are but few
days in the winter months that the ground remains frozen to any depth,
the hardy cabbage grows all seasons of the year, and turnips left during
winter standing in the ground are fed to sheep by yarding them over the
different portions of the field. With the same impunity, in the southern
portion of our own country, the cabbages are left unprotected during the
winter months; and, in the warmer portions of the South they are
principally a winter crop. As we advance farther North, we find that the
degree of protection needed is afforded by running the plough along each
side of the rows, turning the earth against them, and dropping a little
litter on top of the heads. As we advance still farther northward, we
find sufficient protection given by but little more than a rough roof of
boards thrown over the heads, after removing the cabbages to a
sheltered spot and setting them in the ground as near together as they
will stand without being in contact, with the tops of the heads just
level with the surface.
In the latitude of central New England, cabbages are not secure from
injury from frost with less than a foot of earth thrown over the heads.
In mild winters a covering of half that depth will be sufficient; but as
we have no prophets to foretell our mild winters, a foot of earth is
safer than six inches. Where eel-grass can be procured along the sea
coast, or there is straw or coarse hay to spare, the better plan is to
cover with about six inches of earth, and when this is frozen
sufficiently hard to bear a man's weight (which is usually about
Thanksgiving time), to scatter over it the eel-grass, forest leaves,
straw, or coarse hay, to the depth of another six inches. Eel-grass,
which grows on the sandy flats under the ocean along the coast, is
preferred to any other covering as it lays light and keeps in dead air
which is a non-conductor of heat. Forest leaves are next in value; but
snow and water are apt to get among these and freezing solid destroy
most of their protecting value. When I use forest leaves, I cover them
with coarse hay, and add branches of trees to prevent its being blown
away. In keeping cabbages through the winter, three general facts should
be borne in mind, viz.: that repeated freezing and thawing will cause
them to rot; that excessive moisture or warmth will also cause rot;
while a dry air, such as is found in most cellars, will abstract
moisture from the leaves, injure the flavor of the cabbage, and cause
some of the heads to wilt, and the harder heads to waste. In the Middle
States we have mostly to fear the wet of winter, and the plan for
keeping for that section should, therefore, have particularly in view
protection from moisture, while in the Northern States we have to fear
the cold of winter, and, consequently, our plan must there have
specially in view protection from cold.
When storing for winter, select a dry day, if possible, sufficiently
long after rainy weather to have the leaves free of water,--otherwise
they will spout it on to you, and make you the wettest and muddiest
scarecrow ever seen off a farm,--then strip all the outer leaves from
the head but the two last rows, which are needed to protect it. This may
be readily done by drawing in these two rows toward the head with the
left hand, while a blow is struck against the remaining leaves with the
fist of the right hand. Next pull up the cabbages, which, if they are of
the largest varieties, may be expeditiously done by a potato hoe. If
they are not intended for seed purposes, stand the heads down and stumps
up until the earth on the roots is somewhat dry, when it can be mostly
removed by sharp blows against the stump given with a stout stick. In
loading do not bruise the heads. Select the place for keeping them in a
dry, level location, and, if in the North, a southern exposure, where no
water can stand and there can be no wash. To make the pit, run the
plough along from two to four furrows, and throw out the soil with the
shovel to the requisite depth, which may be from six to ten inches; now,
if the design is to roof over the pit, the cabbages may be put in as
thickly as they will stand; if the heads are solid they may be either
head up or stump up, and two layers deep; but if the heads are soft,
then heads up and one deep, and not crowded very close, that they may
have room to make heads during the winter. Having excavated an area
twelve by six feet, set a couple of posts in the ground midway at each
end, projecting about five feet above the surface; connect the two by a
joist secured firmly to the top of each, and against this, extending to
the ground just outside the pit, lay slabs, boards or poles, and cover
the roof that will be thus formed with six inches of straw or old hay,
and, if in the North, throw six or eight inches of earth over this.
Leave one end open for entrance and to air the pit, closing the other
end with straw or hay. In the North close both ends, opening one of them
occasionally in mild weather.
When cabbages are pitted on a large scale this system of roofing is too
costly and too cumbersome. A few thousand may be kept in a cool root
cellar, by putting one layer heads down, and standing another layer
heads up between these. Within a few years farmers in the vicinity of
Lowell, Mass., have preserved their cabbages over winter, on a large
scale, by a new method, with results that have been very satisfactory.
They cut off that portion of the stump which contains the root; strip
off most of the outer leaves, and then pile the cabbages in piles, six
or eight feet high, in double rows, with boards to keep them apart, in
cool cellars, which are built half out of ground. The temperature of
these, by the judicious opening and closing of windows, is kept as
nearly as possibly at the freezing point. The common practice in the
North, when many thousands are to be stored for winter and spring sales,
is to select a southern exposure having the protection of a fence or
wall, if practicable, and, turning furrows with the plough, throw out
the earth with shovels, to the depth of about six inches; the cabbages,
stripped as before described, are then stored closely together, and
straw or coarse hay is thrown over them to the depth of a foot or
eighteen inches. Protected thus they are accessible for market at any
time during the winter. If the design is to keep them over till spring,
the covering may be first six inches of earth, to be followed, as cold
increases, with six inches of straw, litter, or eel-grass. This latter
is my own practice, with the addition of leaving a ridge of earth
between every three or four rows, to act as a support and keep the
cabbages from falling over. I am, also, careful to bring the cabbages to
the pit as soon as pulled, with the earth among the roots as little
disturbed as possible; and, should the roots appear to be dry, to throw
a little earth over them after the cabbages are set in the trench. The
few loose leaves remaining will prevent the earth from sifting down
between the heads, and the air chambers thus made answer a capital
purpose in keeping out the cold, as air is one of the best
non-conductors of heat. It is said that muck-soil, when well drained, is
an excellent one to bury cabbage in, as its antiseptic properties
preserve them from decay. If the object is to preserve the cabbage for
market purposes only, the heads may be buried in the same position in
which they grew, or they may be inverted, the stump having no value in
itself; but if for seed purposes, they must be buried head up, as,
whatever injures the stump, spoils the whole cabbage for that object. I
store between ten and fifty thousand heads annually to raise seed from,
and carry them through till planting time with a degree of success
varying from a loss, for seed purposes, of from one-half to thirty-three
per cent. of the number buried; but, if handled early in spring, many
that would be worthless for seed purposes, could be profitably marketed.
A few years since, I buried a lot with a depth varying from one to four
feet, and found, on uncovering them in the spring, that all had kept,
and apparently equally well. In the winter of 1868, excessively cold
weather came very early and unexpectedly, before my cabbage plot had
received its full covering of litter. The consequence was, the frost
penetrated so deep that it froze through the heads into the stumps, and,
when spring came, a large portion of them came out spoiled for seed
purposes, though most of them sold readily in the market. A cabbage is
rendered worthless for seed when the frost strikes through the stump
where it joins the head; and though, to the unpractised eye, all may
appear right, yet, if the heart of the stump has a water-soaked
appearance on being cut into, it will almost uniformly decay just below
the head in the course of a few weeks after having been planted out. If
there is a probability that the stumps have been frozen through, examine
the plot early, and, if it proves so, sell the cabbages for eating
purposes, no matter how sound and handsome the heads look; if you delay
until time for planting out the cabbage for seed, meanwhile much waste
will occur. I once lost heavily in Marblehead Mammoth cabbage by having
them buried on a hill-side with a gentle slope. In the course of the
winter they fell over on their sides, which let down the soil from
above, and, closing the air-chambers between them, brought the huge
heads into a mass, and the result was, a large proportion of them rotted
badly. At another time, I lost a whole plot by burying them in soil
between ledges of rock, which kept the ground very wet when spring
opened; the consequence was, every cabbage rotted. If the heads are
frozen more than two or three leaves deep before they are pitted they
will not come out so handsome in the spring; but cabbages are very
hardy, and they readily rally from a little freezing, either in the open
ground or after they are buried, though it is best, when they are frozen
in the open ground, to let them remain there until the frost comes out
before removing them, if it can be done without too much risk of
freezing still deeper, as they handle better then, for, being tougher,
the leaves are not so easily broken. If the soil is frozen to any depth
before the cabbages are removed, the roots will be likely to be injured
in the pulling, a matter of no consequence if the cabbages are intended
for market, but of some importance if they are for seed raising. Large
cabbages are more easily pulled by giving them a little twist; if for
seed purposes, this should be avoided, as it injures the stump. A small
lot, that are to be used within a month, can be kept hung up by the
stump in the cellar of a dwelling-house; they will keep in this way
until spring; but the outer leaves will dry and turn yellow, the heads
shrink some in size, and be apt to lose in quality. Some practise
putting clean chopped straw in the bottom of a box or barrel, wetting
it, and covering with heads trimmed ready for cooking, adding again wet
straw and a layer of heads, so alternating until the barrel or box is
filled, after which it is headed up and kept in a cool place, at, or a
little below, the freezing point. No doubt this is an excellent way to
preserve a small lot, as it has the two essentials to success, keeping
them cool and moist.
Instead of burying them in an upright position, after a deep furrow has
been made the cabbages are sometimes laid on their sides two deep, with
their roots at the bottom of the furrow, and covered with earth in this
position. Where the winter climate is so mild that a shallow covering
will be sufficient protection, this method saves much labor.
HAVING CABBAGE MAKE HEADS IN WINTER.
When a piece of drumhead has been planted very late (sometimes they are
planted on ground broken up after a crop of hay has been taken from it
the same season), there will be a per cent. of the plants when the
growing season is over that have not headed. With care almost all of
these can be made to head during the winter. A few years ago I selected
my seed heads from a large piece and then sold the first "pick" of what
remained at ten cents a head, the second at eight cents, and so down
until all were taken for which purchasers were willing to give one cent
each. Of course, after such a thorough selling out as this, there was
not much in the shape of a head left. I now had what remained pulled up
and carted away, doubtful whether to feed them to the cows or to set
them out to head up during winter. As they were very healthy plants in
the full vigor of growth, having rudimentary heads just gathering in, I
determined to set them out. I had a pit dug deep enough to bring the
tops of the heads, when the plants were stood upright as they grew, just
above the surface of the ground; I then stood the cabbages in without
breaking off any of the leaves, keeping the roots well covered with
earth, having the plants far enough apart not to crowd each other very
much, though so near as to press somewhat together the two outer
circles of leaves. They were allowed to remain in this condition until
it was cold enough to freeze the ground an inch in thickness, when a
covering of coarse hay was thrown over them a couple of inches thick,
and, as the cold increased in intensity, this covering was increased to
ten or twelve inches in thickness, the additions being made at two or
three intervals. In the spring I uncovered the lot, and found that
nearly every plant had headed up. I sold the heads for four cents a
pound; and these refuse cabbages averaged me about ten cents a head,
which was the price my best heads brought me in the fall. I have seen
thousands of cabbages in one lot, the refuse of several acres that had
been planted on sod land broken up the same season a crop of hay had
been taken from it, made to head by this course, and sold in the spring
for $1.30 per barrel. When there is a large lot of such cabbages the
most economical way to plant them will be in furrows made by the plough.
Most of the bedding used in covering them, if it be as coarse as it
ought to be to admit as much air as possible while it should not mat
down on the cabbages, will, with care in drying, be again available for
covering another season, or remain suitable for bedding purposes. These
"winter-headed" cabbages, as they are called in the market, are not so
solid and have more shrinkage to them than those headed in the open
ground; hence they will not bear transportation as well, neither will
they keep as long when exposed to the air. The effect of wintering
cabbage by burying in the soil is to make them exceedingly tender for
table use.
VARIETIES OF CABBAGE.
If a piece of land is planted with seed grown from two heads of cabbage
the product will bear a striking resemblance to the two parent cabbages,
with a third variety which will combine the characteristics of these
two, yet the resemblance will be somewhat modified at times by a little
more manure, a little higher culture, a little better location, and the
addition of an individuality that particular vegetables occasionally
take upon themselves which we designate by the word "sport." The
"sports" when they occur are fixed and perpetuated with remarkable
readiness in the cabbage family, as is proved by a great number of
varieties in cultivation, which are the numerous progeny of one
ancestor. The catalogues of the English and French seedsmen contain long
lists of varieties, many of which (and this is especially true of the
early kinds) are either the same variety under a different name or are
different "strains" of the same variety produced by the careful
selections of prominent market gardeners through a series of years.
Every season I experiment with foreign and American varieties of cabbage
to learn the characteristics of the different kinds, their comparative
earliness, size, shape, and hardness of head, length of stump, and such
other facts as would prove of value to market gardeners. There is one
fact that every careful experimenter soon learns, that one season will
not teach all that can be known relative to a variety, and that a number
of specimens of each kind must be raised to enable one to make a fair
comparison. It is amusing to read the dicta which appear in the
agricultural press from those who have made but a single experiment with
some vegetable; they proclaim more after a single trial than a cautious
experimenter would dare to declare after years spent in careful
observation. The year 1869 I raised over sixty varieties of cabbage,
importing nearly complete suites of those advertised by the leading
English and French seed houses, and collecting the principal kinds
raised in this country. In the year 1888, I grew eighty-five different
varieties and strains of cabbages and cauliflowers. I do not propose
describing all these in this treatise or their comparative merits; of
some of them I have yet something to learn, but I will endeavor to
introduce with my description such notes as I think will prove of value
to my fellow farmers and market gardeners.
I will here say in general of the class of early cabbages, that most of
them have elongated heads between ovoid and conical in form. They appear
to lack in this country the sweetness and tenderness that characterize
some varieties of our drumhead, and, consequently, in the North when the
drumhead enters the market there is but a limited call for them.
It may be well here to note a fundamental distinction between the
drumhead cabbage of England and those of this country. In England the
drumhead class are almost wholly raised to feed to stock. I venture the
conjecture that owing in part, or principally, to the fact European
gardeners have never had the motive, and, consequently, have never
developed the full capacity of the drumhead as exampled by the fine
varieties raised in this country. The securing of sorts reliable for
heading being with them a matter of secondary consideration, seed is
raised from stumps or any refuse heads that may be standing when spring
comes round. For this reason English drumhead cabbage seed is better
suited to raise a mass of leaves than heads, and always disappoints our
American farmers who buy it because it is cheap with the expectation of
raising cabbage for market. English-grown drumhead cabbage seed is
utterly worthless for use in this country except to raise greens or
collards.
The following are foreign varieties that are accepted in this country as
standards, and for years have been more or less extensively cultivated:
EARLY YORK, EARLY OXHEART, EARLY WINNIGSTADT, RED DUTCH, RED DRUMHEAD.
In my experience as a seed dealer, the Sugar Loaf and Oxheart are losing
ground in the farming community, the Early Jersey Wakefield having, to a
large extent, replaced them.