~Garfield Pickling~, of late variety, of the conical class.
~Cardinal Red.~ A large, late variety of red; but on my grounds, it is
not equal to Red Drumhead.
~Vilmorin's Early Flat Dutch.~ Not quite as large as Early Summer,
though about as early and resembles it in shape of head.
~Royal German Drumhead.~ Reliable for heading.
~Large White Solid Magdeburg.~ A late Drumhead; short stumped; reliable
for heading. Medium late.
~Pak Choi.~ Evidently of the Kale class; no heads.
~Chou de Burghlez~ and ~Chou de Milan~. These are coarse, loose, small
heading varieties, allied to Kale. The latter is of the Savoy class.
~Earliest Erfurt Blood-Red.~ Decidedly the earliest of the red cabbages.
Very reliable for heading. A Drumhead; smaller than Red Drumhead. Very
dark red.
~Empress.~ Resembles Wyman in size and shape; but the heads are more
pointed, and it makes head earlier. Heads well.
~Schlitzer.~ This makes heads mostly shaped like the Winnigstadt, but a
third larger. Its mottling of green and purple gives it a striking
appearance. Early and very reliable for heading. Heads are not very
hard; but, when cooked, are just about as tender and rich-flavored as
the Savoy. Promises to be an excellent sort for family use.
~Rothelburg.~ An early sure heading variety of the Drumhead class. Heads
of medium size; resembling in shape Deep Head.
~Sure Head.~ A strain of Flat Dutch. A late variety; heads deeper than
Fottler, but with me not so reliable.
~Dark Red Pointed.~ Resembles Winnigstadt in shape. About as late as Red
Dutch, and not as desirable.
~Bacalan Late.~ In shape resembles Winnigstadt. Grow a little wild.
~Amack.~ A late variety. Heads generally nearly globular and quite hard.
Very reliable for heading.
~Bangholm.~ First of all. As early as the earliest, but very small,--not
as large as Little Pixie.
~Early Enfield Market.~
~Tourleville.~ Heads resemble Wakefield in form; but, with me, are
neither so large nor so large, and are more inclined to burst.
~Danish Round Winter.~ A late variety; bearing deep, hard heads on long
stumps.
~Dwarf Danish.~ Late. Reliable to head; uneven in time of heading. Worth
planting for market.
~Danish Ball Drumhead.~ Heads not characterized by globular shape, but
rather flattish. Irregular in length of stump.
~Early Paris.~ Closely resembles Wakefield.
~Very Early Etampes.~ Earlier than Wakefield. Shape partakes of both
Oxheart and Wakefield.
~Early Mohawk.~ Light green in color; a good header, but not so hard
heading as Fottler. Appears to have a little of the Savoy cross in it.
~Sure Head.~ A late variety of the Dutch class; reliable for heading;
stump rather long.
~Excelsior.~ A variety which is of the Fottler class, but makes smaller
sized heads.
~Louisville Drumhead.~ Of the flat Dutch type; nearly as early as Early
Summer.
~Early Advance.~ Of the Wakefield type. With me it is full as early as
Wakefield, and considerably larger. Rather coarser in structure.
~Market Garden.~ Of the Fottler class; very reliable for heading. Heads
of good size, but rather coarser than the Deep Head.
~Chase's Excelsior.~ A second early; much like Fottler; heads finely.
~Bloomsdale Early Market.~ With me this is not as good a variety as
Wakefield.
~Berkshire Beauty.~ There appear to be fine possibilities in this
cabbage, which have not yet been developed into uniformity.
~Landredth's Extra Early.~ With me it does not prove as early as
Wakefield, and does not head as well.
~Bridgeport Late Drumhead.~ A large Drumhead; in size, between Stone
Mason and Marblehead Mammoth. Reliable for heading, but does not head as
hard as either of these varieties. Not inclined to burst.
~Large French Oxheart~ closely resembles Early Oxheart, but grows to
double the size, and is about ten days later; quality usually good.
~Early Sugar Loaf.~ Heads shaped much like a loaf of sugar standing on
its smaller end, resembling, as Burr well says, a head of Cos lettuce in
its shape, and in the peculiar clasping of the leaves about the head.
Heads rather hard, medium size; early, and tender. It is said not to
stand the heat as well as most sorts.
~Large Brunswick Short-Stemmed.~ (English seed.) Late, long-stumped,
wild, plenty of leaves, almost no head; bears but a slight resemblance
to Fottler's Drumhead.
~Early Empress.~ Cabbages well; heads conical; early.
~Robinson's Champion Ox Drumhead.~ Stump long; heads soft and not very
large; wild.
~English Winnigstadt.~ Long-stumped; irregular; not to be compared with
French stock.
~Blenheim.~ Early; heads mostly conical; of good size.
~Shillings Queen.~ Early; heads conical; stumps long.
~Carter's Superfine Early Dwarf.~ Surpasses in earliness and hardness of
head. Closely allied to Little Pixie.
~Enfield Market Improved.~ Most of the heads were flat; rather wild; not
to be compared with Fottler.
~Kemp's Incomparable.~ Long-headed; heads, when mature, do not appear to
burst as readily as with most of the conical class.
~Fielderkraut.~ Closely resembles Winnigstadt, with larger and longer
heads and stump; requires more room than Winnigstadt.
~Ramsay's Winter Drumhead.~ Closely resembles St. Dennis. I think it is
the same.
~Pomeranian Cabbage.~ Heads very long; quite large for a conical heading
sort; very symmetrical and hard; color, yellowish-green. It handles
well, and I should think would prove a good keeper. Medium early.
~Alsacian Drumhead.~ Stump long; late; wild.
~Marbled Bourgogne.~ Stumps long; heads small and hard; color, a mixture
of green and red.
CABBAGE GREENS.
In the vicinity of our large cities, the market gardeners sow large
areas very thickly with cabbage seed, early in the spring, to raise
young plants to be sold as greens. The seed is sown broadcast at the
rate of ten pounds and upwards to the acre. Seed of the Savoy cabbage is
usually sown for this purpose, which may be sometimes purchased at a
discount, owing to some defect in quality or purity, that would render
it worthless for planting for a crop of heading cabbage.
The young plants are cut off about even with the ground, when four or
five inches high, washed, and carried to market in barrels or bushel
boxes. The price varies with the state of the market, from 12 cents to
$3 a barrel, the average price in Boston market being about a dollar.
With the return of spring most families have some cabbage stumps
remaining in the cellar; these can be planted about a foot apart in some
handy spot along the edge of the garden, where they will not interfere
with the general crop, setting them under ground from a quarter to a
half their length, depending on the length of the stumps. They will soon
be covered with green shoots, which should be used as greens before the
blossom buds show themselves, as they then become too strong to be
agreeable. If the spot is rich and has been well dug, the rapidity of
growth is surprising; and if the shoots are frequently gathered, many
nice messes of greens can be grown from a few stumps. Farmers in
Northern Vermont tell me, that if they break off each seed shoot as soon
as it shows itself, close home to the stump, nice little heads will push
out on almost every stump. In England, where the winter climate is much
milder than that of New England, it is the practice to raise a second
crop of heads in this way. In my own neighborhood I have seen an acre
from which a crop of drumhead cabbage had been cut off early in the
season, every stump on which had from three to six hard heads, varying
from the size of a hen's egg to that of a goose egg; but to get this
second growth of heads, as much of the stump and leaves should be left
as possible, when cutting out the original head. As in the cabbage
districts of the North little or no use is made of this prolific after
growth, it is worse than useless to suffer the ground to be exhausted by
it; the stump should be pulled by the potato hoe as soon as the heads
are marketed. When cabbages are planted out for seed, if, for any
reason, the seed shoot fails to push out, and at times when it does push
out, fine sprouts for greens will start below the head; when the stock
of these sprouts becomes too tough for use, the large leaves may be
stripped from them and cooked. I usually break off the tender tops of
large sprouts, and then strip off the tenderest of the large leaves
below.
CABBAGE FOR STOCK.
No vegetable raised in the temperate zone, Mangold Wurtzel alone
excepted, will produce as much food to the acre, both for man and beast,
as the cabbage. I have seen acres of the Marblehead Mammoth drumhead
which would average thirty pounds to each cabbage, some specimens
weighing over sixty pounds. The plants were four feet apart each way
which would give a product of over forty tons to the acre; and I have
tested a crop of Fottler's that yielded thirty tons of green food to the
half acre. Other vegetables are at times raised for cattle feed, such as
potatoes, carrots, ruta bagas, mangold wurtzels; a crop of potatoes
yielding four hundred bushels to the acre at sixty pounds the bushel
would weigh twelve tons; a crop of carrot yielding twelve hundred
bushels to the acre would weigh thirty tons; ruta bagas sometimes yield
thirty tons; and mangolds as high as seventy tons to the acre. I have
set all these crops at a high capacity for fodder purposes; the same
favoring conditions of soil, manure, and cultivation that would produce
four hundred bushels of potatoes, twelve hundred bushels of carrots, and
thirty-five tons of ruta baga turnips, would give a crop of forty tons
of the largest variety of drumhead cabbage. If we now consider the
comparative merits of these crops for nutriment, we find that the
cabbage excels them all in this department also. The potatoes abound in
starch, the mangold and carrot are largely composed of water, while the
cabbage abounds in rich, nitrogeneous food.
Prof. Stewart states that cabbage for milch cows has about the same
feeding value as sweet corn ensilage, and makes the value not over $3.40
per ton. Now it is admitted by general current that the value of common
ensilage, which is inferior to that made from sweet corn, is, when
compared with good English hay, as 3 to 1. This would make cabbages for
milch cows worth not far from $7.00 per ton.
When cabbage is kept for stock feed later than the first severe frost,
if the quantity is large there is considerable waste even with the best
of care. The loose leaves should be fed first, and the heads kept in a
cool place, not more than two or three deep, at as near the freezing
point as possible. If it has been necessary to cut the heads from the
stumps, they may be piled, after the weather has set in decidedly cold,
conveniently near the barn, and kept covered with a foot of straw or
old litter. As long as a cabbage is kept frozen there is no waste to it;
but if it be allowed to freeze and thaw two or three times, it will soon
rot with an awful stench. I suspect that it is this rotten portion of
the cabbage that often gives the bad flavor to milk. On the other hand,
if it is kept in too warm and dry a place, the outer leaves will dry,
turning yellow, and the whole head lose in weight,--if it be not very
hard, shrivelling, and, if hard, shrinking. If they are kept in too warm
and wet a place, the heads will decay fast, in a black, soft rot. The
best way to preserve cabbages for stock into the winter, is to place
them in trenches a few inches below the surface, and there cover with
from a foot to two feet of coarse hay or straw, the depth depending on
the coldness of the locality. When the ground has been frozen too hard
to open with a plough or spade, I have kept them until spring by piling
them loosely, hay-stack shape, about four feet high, letting the frost
strike through them, and afterwards covering with a couple of feet of
eel-grass; straw or coarse hay would doubtless do as well.
I have treated of cabbage thus far when grown specially for stock; in
every piece of cabbage handled for market purposes, there is a large
proportion of waste suitable for stock feed, which includes the outside
leaves and such heads as have not hardened up sufficiently for market.
On walking over a piece just after my cabbages for seed stock have been
taken off, I note that the refuse leaves that were stripped from the
heads before pulling are so abundant they nearly cover the ground. If
leaves so stripped remain exposed to frost, they soon spoil; or, if
earlier in the season they are exposed to the sun, they soon become
yellow, dry, and of but little value. They can be rapidly collected with
a hay fork and carted, if there be but a few, into the barn; should
there be a large quantity, dump them within a convenient distance of the
barn or feeding ground, but not where the cattle can trample them, and
spread them so that they will be but a few inches in depth. If piled in
heaps they will quickly heat; but even then, if not too much decayed,
cattle will eat them with avidity. Cabbages are hardy plants, and loose
heads will stand a good deal of freezing and thawing without serious
injury. They are not generally injured with the thermometer 16° below
freezing. The waste, after the seed and all market cabbage are removed,
brings me about $10 per acre on the ground, for cow feed.
If cabbage is fed to cows in milk without some care, it will be apt to
give the milk a strong cabbage flavor; all the feed for the day should
be given early in the morning. Beginning with a small quantity, and
gradually increasing it, the dairy man will soon learn his limits. The
effect of a liberal feed to milk stock is to largely increase the flow
of milk. Avoid feeding to any extent while the leaves are frozen.
An English writer says: "The cabbage comes into use when other things
begin to fail, and it is by far the best succulent vegetable for milking
cows,--keeping up the yield of milk, and preserving, better than any
other food, some portion of the quality which cheese loses when the cows
quit their natural pasturage. Cows fed on cabbages are always quiet and
satisfied, while on turnips they often scour and are restless. When
frosted, they are liable to produce hoven, unless kept in a warm shed to
thaw before being used; fifty-six pounds given, at two meals, are as
much as a large cow should have in a day. Frequent cases of abortion are
caused by an over-supply of green food. Cabbages are excellent for young
animals, keeping them in health, and preventing 'black leg.' A calf of
seven months may have twenty pounds a day."
RAISING CABBAGE SEED.
Cabbage seed in England, particularly of the drumhead sorts, is mostly
raised from stumps, or from the refuse that remains after all that is
salable has been disposed of. The agent of one of the largest English
seed houses, a few years since, laughed at my "wastefulness," as he
termed it, in raising seed from solid heads. In our country, cabbage
seed is mostly raised from soft, half-formed heads, which are grown as a
late crop, few, if any of them, being hard enough to be of any value in
the market. Seedsmen practise selecting a few fine, hard heads, from
which to raise their seed stock. It has been my practice to grow seed
from none but extra fine heads, better than the average of those carried
to market. I do this on the theory that no cabbage can be too good for a
seedhead, if the design is to keep the stock first-class. Perhaps such
strictness may not be necessary; but I had rather err in setting out too
good heads than too poor ones; besides, the great hardness obtained by
the heads of the Stone Mason, makes it possible, at least, that I am
right. Cabbage raised from seed grown from stumps are apt to be
unreliable for heading, and to grow long-stumped, though under
unfavorable conditions, long-stumped and poor-headed cabbage may grow
from the best of seed. To have the best of seed, all shoots that start
below the head should be broken off. To prevent the plants falling over
after the seed-stalks are grown, dig deep holes, and plant the entire
stump in the ground. Scarecrows should be set up, or some like
precaution be taken, to keep away the little seed-birds, that begin to
crack the pods as soon as they commence to ripen. A plaster cat is a
very good scarecrow to frighten away birds from seed and small fruits,
if its location is changed every few days.
I find that the pods of cabbage seed grown South are tough, and not
brittle, like those grown North, and hence that they are injured but
little, if any, by seed birds. When the seed-pods have passed what
seedsmen call their "red" stage, they begin to harden; as soon as a
third of them are brown, the entire stalk may be cut and hung up in a
dry, airy place, for a few days, when the seed will be ready for rubbing
or threshing out. Different varieties should be raised far apart to
insure purity; and cabbage seed had better not be raised in the vicinity
of turnip seed. There is some difference of opinion as to the effect of
growing these near each other; where the two vegetables blossom at the
same time, I should fear an admixture. When the care requisite to select
good seed stock, and the trouble, and, often, great loss, in keeping it
over winter, planting it in isolated locations, protecting it from wind
and weather, guarding it from injury from birds and other enemies,
gathering it, cleaning it, are all considered, few men will find that
they can afford to raise their own seed, provided they can buy it from
reliable seedsmen.
COOKING CABBAGE, SOUR-KROUT, ETC.
Cabbage when boiled with salt pork, as it is mostly used, is the food
for strong and healthy digestive powers; but when eaten in its raw
state, served with vinegar and pepper, it is considered one of the most
easily digested articles of diet. In the process of cooking, even with
the greatest care, a large portion of the sweetness is lost. The length
of time required to cook cabbage by boiling varies with the quality,
those of the best quality requiring about twenty minutes, while others
require an hour. In cooking put it into boiling water in which a little
salt and soda has been sprinkled, which will tend to preserve the
natural green color. It will be well to change the water once. The
peculiar aroma given out by cabbage when cooking is thought to depend
somewhat on the manner in which it is grown; those having been raised
with the least rank manure having the least. I think this is one of the
whims of the community. By using some varieties of boilers all steam is
carried into the fire, and there is no smell in the house.
To _Pickle_, select hard heads, quarter them, soak in salt and water
four or five days, then drain and treat as for other pickles, with
vinegar spiced to suit.
For _Cold Slaw_, select hard heads, halve and then slice up these halves
exceedingly fine. Lay these in a deep dish, and pour over vinegar that
has been raised to the boiling point in which has been mixed a little
pepper and salt.
_Sour-Krout._ Take large, hard-headed drumheads, halve, and cut very
fine; then pack in a clean, tight barrel, beginning with a sprinkling of
salt, and following with a layer of cabbage, and thus alternating until
the barrel is filled. Now compact the mass as much as possible by
pounding, after which put on a well-fitting cover resting on the
cabbage, and lay heavy weights or a stone on this. When fermented it is
ready for use. To prepare for the table fry in butter or fat.
The outer green leaves of cabbages are sometimes used to line a brass or
copper kettle in which pickles are made in the belief that the vinegar
extracts the coloring substance (chlorophyl) in the leaves, and the
cucumbers absorbing this acquire a rich green color. Be not deceived by
this transparent cheat, O simple housewife! the coloring matter comes
almost wholly from the copper or brass behind those leaves; and, instead
of an innocent vegetable pigment, your green cucumbers are dyed with the
poisonous carbonate of copper.
CABBAGES UNDER GLASS.
The very early cabbages usually bringing high prices, the enterprising
market gardener either winters the young plants under glass or starts
them there, planting the seed under its protecting shelter long before
the cold of winter is passed. When the design is to winter over fall
grown plants, the seed are planted in the open ground about the middle
of September, and at about the last of October they are ready to go into
the cold frames, as such are called that depend wholly on the sun for
heat. Select those having short stumps and transplant into the frames,
about an inch and a half by two inches apart, setting them deep in the
soil up to the lower leaves, shading them with a straw mat, or the like,
for a few days, after which let them remain without any glass over them
until the frost is severe enough to begin to freeze the ground, then
place over the sashes; but bear in mind that the object is not to
promote growth, but, as nearly as possible, to keep them in a dormant
state, to keep them so cold that they will not grow, and just
sufficiently protected to prevent injury from freezing. With this object
in view the sashes must be raised whenever the temperature is above
freezing, and this process will so harden the plants that they will
receive no serious injury though the ground under the sash should freeze
two inches deep; cabbage plants will stand a temperature of fifteen to
twenty degrees below the freezing point. A covering of snow on the sash
will do no harm, if it does not last longer than a week or ten days, in
which case it must be removed. There is some danger to be feared from
ground mice, who, when everything else is locked up by the frost, will
instinctively take to the sash, and there cause much destruction among
the plants unless these are occasionally examined. When March opens
remove the sash when the temperature will allow, replacing it when the
weather is unseasonably cold, particularly at night. The plants may be
brought still farther forward by transferring them from the hot-bed when
two or three inches high to cold frames, having first somewhat hardened
them. When so transferred plant them about an inch apart, and shield
from the sun for two or three days. After this they may be treated as in
cold frames. The transfer tends to keep them stocky, increases the
fibrous roots and makes the plants hardier. As the month advances it may
be left entirely off, and about the first of April the plants may be set
out in the open field, pressing fine earth firmly around the roots.
When cabbages are raised in hot-beds the seed, in the latitude of
Boston, should be planted on the first of March; in that of New York,
about a fortnight earlier. When two or three inches high, which will be
in three or four weeks, they should be thinned to about four or less to
an inch in the row. They should now be well hardened by partly drawing
off the sashes in the warm part of the day, and covering at night; as
the season advances remove the sashes entirely by day, covering only at
night. By about the middle of April the plants will be ready for the
open ground.
When raised in cold frames in the spring, the seed should be planted
about the first of April, mats being used to retain by night the solar
heat accumulated during the day. As the season advances the same process
of hardening will be necessary as with those raised in hot-beds.
COLD FRAME AND HOT-BED.
To carry on hot-beds on a large scale successfully is almost an art in
itself, and for fuller details I will refer my readers to works on
gardening. Early plants, in a small way, may be raised in flower pots or
boxes in a warm kitchen window. It is best, if practicable, to have but
one plant in each pot, that they may grow short and stocky. If the seed
are not planted earlier than April, for out-of-door cultivation, a cold
frame will answer.