Setting out Plants. 
 
CABBAGE 
 
 AND 
 
 CAULIFLOWER 
 
 FOR PROFIT. 
 
 BY J. M. LUPTON. 
 
 WITH FIFTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 1905. 
 
Copyright, 1894, by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 
 
 WM. F. FELL & CO., 
 ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS 
 1220-24 SANSOM STREET, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Men’s ideas change. The farmer who a few years ago was 
 disposed to sneer contemptuously at farmers’ books and 
 “ book farmers ” now turns for information to the printed 
 page. Gradually we have learned that intelligence, science, 
 and study are no mean factors in the successful cultivation of 
 the soil, and that the labor of the hands is most prolific when 
 backed by the careful study of the brain. 
 
 It may De true that much has been written which has little 
 or no practical value to the agriculturist, but the fact remains 
 that the research of scientific men, given to the agricultural 
 people through the medium of the printing press, has fre- 
 quently turned a losing business into a paying one, while 
 through the same medium the interchange of thought and 
 experience of those who, like the writer of this book, have 
 gained their education in the fields has been by no means 
 without beneficial results. 
 
 How easy it is to tell in a few short sentences that which 
 we have been years in finding out ! Knowledge comes slowly 
 and laboriously from the fields, and yet the closest observa- 
 tion of the character of a plant, its habits, likes and dislikes, 
 and the habits of its enemies seldom goes unrewarded, and 
 such knowledge as we gain, given to the public, may be the 
 means of helping many a cultivator. 
 
 The work of the enterprising publishers of this book cannot 
 fail to be appreciated. Already we have from their hands a 
 
 v 
 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 number of little volumes, each one treating of some special 
 subject, which are supplied to the gardening public at merely 
 nominal cost. We regard this method as most commendable, 
 because it concentrates the thought and experience of the 
 writer upon some particular plant and disseminates a more 
 complete knowledge of the character and habits of that plant 
 than would be possible were the author’s effort made to cover 
 more ground. 
 
 Much has been written of Cabbages and Cauliflowers, and 
 yet they are strangers to many a garden. The Cauliflower 
 especially has by no means received that share of attention to 
 which it is entitled, being almost unknown in some markets. 
 This book will reach the hands of many a man who is strug- 
 gling along to make both ends meet raising hay and wheat 
 and corn. Possibly his difficulties might find solution in the 
 adoption of a different line. Is there a market gardening 
 section anywhere in your neighborhood ! If so, do you not find 
 that one acre there is worth three of yours ; that three times 
 the labor is employed to till it ; three times the fertilizer is 
 expended on it ; it produces three times the crop ; brings the 
 owner three times the profit, and finally the market value of 
 the land itself is three times as great ? 
 
 We do not wish to be understood as advocating any general 
 change on the part of farmers from an agricultural to a hor- 
 ticultural business. That such a change is desirable in thou- 
 sands of instances I have no doubt, but the conditions which 
 surround you and the results of your own experience are the 
 best guides ; they alone can tell whether the ideas set forth 
 in the following pages contain suggestions for the field or the 
 kitchen -garden. 
 
 If there is one general idea more than another which is 
 detrimental in its operation to the welfare of our agricultural 
 classes it is the old notion that we must continue to plant the 
 same things which our fathers planted before us. Many a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 farmer is to-day growing wheat at a loss for no better reason 
 than that his father grew wheat before him. Wheat has always 
 been grown on the farm, and although it don’t pay he still con- 
 tinues to plant it. These methods are ruinous. To him who 
 can grow wheat at a profit we must yield the palm. To many 
 of us the secret of success lies in boldly stepping out of the 
 old tracks to look for the reward which is found in keeping 
 abreast of the times. 
 
 A hope comes to me as I write, a hope that somewhere 
 within the pages of this book there may be found a suggestion, 
 an idea, a thought, which, taken into the fields, may prove of 
 practical value to some one who will read this book. This 
 must be the author’s apology for his work. 
 
 J. M. L. 
 
 Mattituck, Long Island, N. Y. 
 
 January , 1895. 
 
CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Before proceeding to any consideration of the cultivation 
 of cabbages and cauliflowers, it may be well to look briefly 
 into those conditions which render the crop profitable and 
 its planting desirable. • 
 
 Thousands of farmers to-day are turning over in their 
 minds the desirable features of this or that special crop. 
 Many of them are puzzled for a satisfactory solution of that 
 ever-recurring question, “ What shall we plant ? ” I am a be- 
 liever in specialties, both for the farmer and the gardener. 
 While it is not advisable to depend too fully on any one thing, 
 it is always a good plan to have some leading crop which 
 should receive a good share of our attention. In this way we 
 may become more than usually proficient in the cultivation 
 and production of this particular crop, and, what is more to 
 the point, our name becomes known in the markets for the 
 excellence of the goods. In this way a trade is established. 
 The produce which is known to be good is always in demand. 
 It is singled out by the grower’s name on the package and 
 finds ready sale at remunerative prices, while an unknown 
 brand is neglected or sold for a song. 
 
 In considering the advisability of planting cabbages or 
 cauliflowers, the market we have at hand and our facilities for 
 
 9 
 
IO 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 reaching it should receive careful attention. These crops are 
 both bulky and perishable ; they may both be carried long 
 distances, but in warm or wet weather are likely to reach the 
 market in unsatisfactory condition unless promptly handled. 
 This is especially true of cauliflowers. The early crop of this 
 vegetable, marketed in the months of June, July, or August, 
 ought to reach the consumer in twenty-four hours after being 
 cut in the fields. The late crop, however, marketed in the 
 months of October and November, will stand carriage of three, 
 days if proper care is taken to put them up in good condi- 
 tion. 
 
 Our situation should be such that we can handle the crop 
 promptly at maturity and at no excessive cost for transporta- 
 tion. If a man is located eight or ten miles from the rail- 
 way station he will find that the item of cartage is so great 
 as to l£ave but small margin of profit in the close competition 
 of the present time. If he is located on a railway line where 
 freights are so slow and unsatisfactory as to make his ship- 
 ments uncertain, and express charges are so high as to make 
 shipping by express too costly, he should first secure the 
 proper transportation facilities, or the planting of these crops 
 may result in disappointment. 
 
 The gardener who is situated within driving distance 
 of a large market is always at an advantage over his more 
 distant competitor ; not only can he make considerable 
 savings in the matter of commissions on sales and transporta- 
 tion, but, being in constant communication with the 
 market, he is always in a position to take advantage of its 
 fluctuations. This is well worthy of the attention of intend- 
 ing purchasers. The land for gardening purposes within ten 
 miles of a great city may cost five times the price of equally 
 suitable land one hundred miles away, but it is well worth the 
 difference. The better opportunities offered by its position 
 will always enable a man who is wide awake and alive to his 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 II 
 
 opportunities to realize enough more to pay the additional 
 interest on his investment, and the natural expansion of any 
 large town ought to insure him against pecuniary loss in the 
 event of a desire to sell. 
 
 But these facts need not deter a man from planting cab- 
 bages or cauliflower provided he has or can secure the proper 
 facilities for reaching market. What is to-day the greatest 
 cauliflower-producing section of the country is located seventy 
 to ninety miles from New York city. 
 
 In summing up this question of profit and loss on such 
 crops, I cannot do better than to relate briefly the effect of 
 the development of this and similar productions upon a sec- 
 tion which has, during the period of this development, been 
 fully under the observation of the writer. 
 
 At the present time perhaps a fair market value for good 
 farming land here, favorably situated, might be placed at $150 
 per acre. This is probably double the value of the same land 
 fifteen years ago, and cannot be laid to any influence outside 
 the gradual development of the agricultural and horticultural 
 interest. Within the same period the money-producing 
 power of our farms has probably increased threefold, — in 
 many instances much more. I have seen the farm of one gen- 
 eration divided into three parts by the next and each part 
 made to produce three times the value of the original whole. 
 At the same time there may be found, at one-half the distance 
 from our great markets of New York city and Brooklyn, just 
 as good land which has not gained a dollar in its marketable 
 value during the same period. There we find farmers who 
 continue to follow the old ruts and, throwing away the oppor- 
 tunity which is within their reach, insist on keeping up the 
 hopeless competition with the great West in the production of 
 hay, corn, and wheat. 
 
 Thus we find under our own eyes two sections, one practi- 
 cally at a standstill, farmers discouraged, struggling along to 
 
12 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 make both ends meet, and making really no headway. The 
 other, under conditions precisely the same, goes forward with 
 the rest of the world, — farmers doing more business, meeting 
 with more success, living in greater comfort, — and why? 
 Well, back of it all I can see the introduction of two plants 
 which has led to a narrowing down of the farm crops in favor 
 of the greater opportunities to be found in the cultivation of 
 some specialties of the garden, the same two plants which 
 form the subject of the writer’s work, and are worthy of the 
 reader’s most careful consideration. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SEED. 
 
 A QUESTION OF THE FIRST IMPORTANCE. 
 
 I feel constrained to enter into this question more in detail 
 than usual with a book of this character. Seed does not 
 enter largely into the cost of producing a crop ; for this rea- 
 son its importance is frequently overlooked, and yet we must 
 have good seed or every expenditure and every effort is at a 
 discount. This is particularly true of the two plants we have 
 under consideration, and for this reason, and because we 
 think it well for every cultivator to become well-acquainted 
 with the plant he grows, I shall give expression to a few 
 thoughts on seed breeding. 
 
 Size, appearance, and germ i native power have nothing to 
 do with the actual quality of seed. Though these char- 
 acteristics are valuable in themselves, they are fully as good 
 and frequently better in seed of poor quality than in the best. 
 
 The peculiarities and valuable traits of character are no 
 more surely transmitted from one generation to another in 
 the animal kingdom than they are in the vegetable world, 
 and the character of the parent stock is, above all other con- 
 siderations, that which determines the quality of the seed. 
 
 The only part of the cabbage plant which we now regard as 
 valuable, i. e., the head, was not a natural product of the 
 plant, which, when first discovered, produced simply a cluster 
 of leaves. The head is a result of cultivation and breeding 
 with the purpose of its establishment. The development of 
 the heading capacity of the plant has been going on for years, 
 
 *3 
 
14 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 and is still going on, probably no similar period in its history 
 showing more improvement in this respect and in the quality 
 of the seed sold by seedsmen than the last ten years. 
 
 The means adopted to secure this end are principally a con- 
 stant series of selections for seeding purposes. 
 
 While it is impossible here, and perhaps undesirable, to 
 enter into any consideration of the multitudinous features of 
 different varieties, we may look briefly into some of the gen- 
 eral characteristics which run in greater or less degree through 
 the cabbage family generally. 
 
 Let us look at the leaves. Here we see a decided difference 
 
 Fig. i. — Leaf of Good Type. Fig. 2.— Leaf of Poor Type. 
 
 between what we would consider a good type and a poor one. 
 We find in the good types that the leaves are broad, nearly 
 round in form, the leaf extending to the juncture with the 
 stalk, the smaller veins running well down and joining the 
 mid-rib at the base where it joins the stalk. In the poor type 
 it is different. Here a stem, sometimes as much as six or eight 
 inches long, intervenes between the leaf proper and the stalk ; 
 as the botanist would say, it is petioled. The leaf itself is 
 comparatively narrow, while its general character is different, 
 as shown in Figs, i and 2. 
 
 The leaf of a good type is of a spoon-like form, following 
 
SEED. 15 
 
 in shape the contour of the head, the upper edge turn- 
 ing up. 
 
 On the other hand, the leaf of a poor type stands out nearly 
 straight from the stalk, the outer edge usually turning down. 
 This feature will be observed in greater or less degree accord- 
 ing as the plant is more or less faulty. 
 
 Next let us look at the stalk, and we find that the two evils 
 frequently go together, the faulty leaves usually being affixed 
 to a poor stalk. In the good type the stalk is short but strong, 
 quite large immediately under the head where the outer leaves 
 join it closely one upon another; it tapers sharply to its 
 
 Fig. 3.— Showing Char- Fig. 4.— Character of Fig. 5. — Showing Stem 
 
 acter of Stem in Good Stem in Poor Type. Long from Over-crowd- 
 
 Type. ing. 
 
 junction with the ground, at which point it is comparatively 
 small. In the poor type almost the reverse will be observed. 
 The stalk is larger at the ground, much longer, and the leaves, 
 usually of the petioled form, join the stalk more loosely. It 
 is true that the stalk of a plant may be made long by over- 
 crowding, in which case the fault is not, of course, with the 
 plant ; but the difference resulting from such cause is readily 
 detected by the expert and ought not to be misunderstood. 
 To make the different features more clear, we invite a study 
 of the accompanying illustrations. 
 
 Let us now look at the head, which we have referred to as 
 
i6 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 being an unnatural production of the original plant. We 
 find here a constant tendency to revert to the original type, 
 and the defects which we have previously noted in the leaves 
 and stalk appear to have little to do with a faulty construction 
 of the head — that is, we frequently find the faulty construc- 
 tion in the plant where the head appears all right, though 
 small, and, on the other hand, it is no uncommon thing to find 
 a very poor head on a good plant. 
 
 Aside from any consideration of form, which differs in dif- 
 ferent varieties and cannot be entered into here in detail, the 
 point most to be sought for in cabbages of all classes is 
 
 Fig. 6.— Showing Cabbage Solid at 
 Base of Head. 
 
 solidity. If faulty in construction, the head will lack 
 solidity, either directly on top and at the center or upon the 
 under side near the stalk. This defect may be understood by 
 a study of the accompanying figures. 
 
 A lack of solidity at the base of the head may readily be 
 determined by placing our hands under the base of the head, 
 between it and the outside leaves, when we can tell by press- 
 ing upward against the head if its formation at the base is 
 close and compact insuring solidity, or if it be loose, and for 
 this reason likely to deteriorate in successive generations. 
 Cabbages of loose formation at the base of the head, even 
 
SEED. 
 
 17 
 
 though they may be perfect specimens in other respects, are 
 much lighter in weight than where the formation is solid, and 
 should be avoided so far as possible. 
 
 This point is well worthy the consideration of the seed 
 breeder, but it is by no means a matter of so much import- 
 ance as a lack of solidity at the top and center of the head, 
 for in this we find that tendency to revert to the original type 
 which produces no head at all and is worthless (Fig. n). 
 
 In the consideration of this feature, we find that the leaves 
 which go to make up and form the head must, in all instances, 
 
 Fig. 8. — Head of Perfect Specimen. Solidity Insured by Leaves Growing across 
 
 the Top. 
 
 lap over and across the center (Fig. 8), and the farther we 
 can go in this direction the better will be our cabbage. 
 
 On the other hand, if the leaves forming the head do not 
 lap across the center (Figs. 9, 10), but leave a triangular 
 space at the center of the head not covered by the outer leaves 
 which form it, even though in this instance the head may 
 appear fairly solid, successive generations will rapidly deterio- 
 rate, and if used continuously for producing seed might result 
 in great depreciation of the heading capacity of the plant, 
 
 2 
 
1 8 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 The health and vigor of a plant is a feature which neither 
 
 Fig. 9. — Head of Imperfect Specimen Lacking Solidity, from Failure of Leaves 
 to Lap across the Center. 
 
 Fig. 10. — Showing Deterioration of the Plant in Succeeding Generations, when 
 Bred from Imperfect Types, as shown by Fig. 9, and Reversion toward the 
 Original Type of Cabbage as illustrated by Fig. 11. 
 
 a seed-grower nor a gardener can afford to disregard. A 
 strong constitution is plainly discernible in the color and 
 
SEED. 
 
 !9 
 
 robust habit of growth of the plant, while impaired vitality is 
 easily detected by a peculiar glassy appearance, and pale, sickly 
 coloring of the leaves. It is a disregard of the importance 
 of this feature which causes a variety to “run out.” The 
 constitution of the plant has become so enfeebled that it fails 
 to produce seed of good germinative power, and the plant so 
 readily succumbs to the attacks of its natural enemies as to 
 render its cultivation unprofitable. 
 
 The principal faults which we have noted in the construc- 
 tion of the cabbage plant, those of the leaves and stalks, may 
 
 Fig. ii.— Illustrating Wild or Original Type of Cabbage. 
 
 apply with some modifications to the cauliflower plant also. 
 The leaves are, of course, long by comparison, but in the 
 good type will stand closely up to and around the head, while 
 in those of faulty construction they stand out almost horizon- 
 tally from the stalk, which presents the faults we have noted 
 in the cabbage. 
 
 Loss to the gardener from poor cauliflower seed usually re- 
 sults either in the entire failure of the plants to produce heads 
 or in the inferior character of the heads when produced. 
 
20 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 We have seen whole acres which produced enormous heads 
 of utterly worthless trash, as well as acres which pro- 
 duced no heads at all, and our experience leads us to believe 
 that the fault lies in each instance with the seed, and with 
 the seed alone. The failure to head seems to be largely the 
 result of planting seed grown in a southern country. We 
 have been utterly unable to secure a crop of cauliflower from 
 seed grown in Italy, while the same variety from seed grown 
 in Denmark would produce finely, and it is quite probable 
 that the length of the season in which the seed is produced 
 is a potent factor in determining the length of season re- 
 quired to mature the product of that seed. Be that as it may, 
 it is a fact that while the plants from seed grown in southern 
 countries grow vigorously, and apparently mature, it is only 
 in isolated cases that they will produce heads in this latitude. 
 
 The other source of failure is clearly the result of bad seed- 
 growing. We have seen fields where nearly every plant pro- 
 duced a beautiful head, clear, white, and perfect, while but a 
 few rods distant another sample of seed grown under the 
 same conditions, upon the same soil, and with the same care 
 and attention, produced heads so covered with leaves as to be 
 worthless. For this we can see but one cause : those plants 
 which have given us good heads and profitable returns were 
 produced from seed of equally good plants, while those which 
 have produced nothing worth marketing, and entailed upon 
 us a loss of money and labor, were the product of seed grown 
 from impure and worthless stocks. This is nature’s law, and 
 the responsibility for our loss belongs to the seed-grower who 
 has produced the seed and the dealer who has sold it. 
 
 But where shall we get good seed ? Ten years ago a gar- 
 dener would have told you that you must grow it yourself. It 
 was the custom a few years ago, and to some extent the cus- 
 tom prevails to-day, for gardeners to grow their own seeds 
 and a small supply for the requirements of their neighbors, 
 
SEED. 
 
 21 
 
 which they retailed to them at a rather extravagant price. 
 This is not practiced so much as formerly. The gardening 
 public are looking more and more to the seedsmen for their 
 supplies, and on inquiring among our more progressive gar- 
 deners I am gratified to find a growing belief that they can 
 secure even better seeds from the seed store than they can 
 grow themselves. I say gratified, because this is right. The 
 professional seedsman and seed grower brings more study and 
 thought, more knowledge, experience, and intelligent effort 
 into the development of a plant than is possible to the gar- 
 dener with the multitudinous duties of the market garden on 
 his hands, and it is to them we must turn for the greatest 
 advancement toward better things. But what we want above 
 all things is to know that this professional knowledge has 
 been applied to the particular lot of seed we are about to 
 plant. This we can only know by our faith in the man of 
 whom we purchase. 
 
 Above all other considerations I am impressed by the fact 
 that safety to the agricultural and horticultural world lies in 
 the creation of a demand for the very best, and that only. 
 Cheap seed is dearly bought. Low prices force the grower to 
 adopt the cheapest means of production, with inferior quality 
 as a sure result. 
 
 He who would succeed in the growing of these vegetables 
 must pay little attention to the price at which the seed is 
 offered, but make sure that it comes from a source where 
 quality is made the first requisite, and that it has had in its 
 production the benefit of that knowledge and intelligent 
 work so necessary to success. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 
 
 While it is true, as we have often seen it stated, that cab- 
 bage or cauliflower will thrive on a great variety of soil and 
 grow to some extent on almost any soil, the choice of loca- 
 tion has always an important bearing on future success. Con- 
 tinued planting upon the same piece of ground is usually 
 attended with disastrous results, and it is very unwise to fol- 
 low such crops as turnips, Brussels sprouts, or plants of similar 
 character. Experience leads us to believe that the ideal con- 
 dition of soil for the late or fall crop of cabbage or cauli- 
 flower is found in an old pasture lot of rich land, which has 
 been plowed early in the spring and kept harrowed and cul- 
 tivated during the summer until its use is required in July, 
 when it can again be plowed, the sod by this time being 
 well decomposed. It is upon such land, prepared in such 
 manner, that we have seen these plants attain their highest 
 state of development, and, where the land is not too valuable 
 and a considerable portion of the farm is kept in grass, this 
 method of preparation is advisable for a late crop. The 
 extra expense of summer cultivation will be amply repaid by 
 the increased value of the fall crop grown under such favor- 
 able circumstances. 
 
 With the average market gardener, however, this plan is 
 next to impossible ; his land is valuable from its location in 
 close proximity to a large town, and he finds it necessary to 
 keep every available acre filled with a growing crop during 
 
 22 
 
THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 
 
 2 3 
 
 the entire season, while but little, and in many instances no 
 land at all, is devoted to grass. 
 
 Here the most popular method seems to be that of follow- 
 ing the potato crop, the late planting of cabbage or cauli- 
 flower being made upon land from which a crop of early 
 potatoes has been taken off, and the spring planting being 
 made most frequently upon ground where late potatoes were 
 harvested the previous fall. 
 
 Every practical market gardener knows, however, that the 
 continued cropping of the land induces a mechanical con- 
 dition unfavorable to the growing crop ; the constant tramp- 
 ing over the fields incident to cultivating and harvesting the 
 crop so packs the soil that something in the nature of loosen- 
 ing material must be plowed under in order to secure that 
 condition conducive to rapid growth and healthy develop- 
 ment. Where horse manure can be readily secured and forms 
 the main reliance for fertilizing material the danger from this 
 source is reduced to a minimum, but outside the radius of a 
 few miles from the large towns this article is usually hard to 
 ^obtain, as well as expensive. In such instances it becomes 
 necessary to supply in some other way the loosening element 
 so absolutely necessary to continued success. A fairly satis- 
 factory condition may be obtained by plowing under some 
 green crop, and the benefits arising therefrom will be noted 
 for several years. Clover is unquestionably one of the very 
 best plants for the purpose, and its character is such that, 
 with liberal supplies of potash, it can always be grown upon 
 good land. 
 
 The fall crop can be planted upon a clover sod from which 
 a crop of hay has been removed earlier in the season and the 
 second growth plowed under with excellent results, the change 
 from those crops requiring continuous cultivation to those of 
 the character of clover seeming to have the effect of renovat- 
 ing the soil and leaving it in healthy condition. Millet is 
 
24 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 also an excellent plant for this purpose, and the various grains 
 are used to some extent, oats proving most satisfactory in 
 the experience of the writer.* 
 
 The one thing which is essential to continued success is 
 the keeping of the ground in good mechanical condition, 
 which gives the air free access to the roots of the plants 
 and enables the delicate fibers to reach out with the utmost 
 freedom. 
 
 Good, rich land in which we find a strong suggestion of 
 sand, which renders it free and loose, is unquestionably the 
 best soil for such crops. Of course, the cultivator, being com- 
 pelled to take things as he finds them, may not always have 
 at hand just such a piece of ground as he would like, and the 
 question he has to decide is, if with the soil that is available 
 he can ' expect satisfactory results. A stiff clay soil which 
 breaks up in lumps and clods in the spring and is liable to 
 crack and bake as the season advances is not a good place for 
 such crops, and such soils should be previously prepared by 
 underdraining and liberally supplied with organic matter before 
 we can hope for success. At the same time the soil should be 
 of a retentive character, as the plants require a great deal of 
 moisture for their most perfect development. We would, 
 therefore, caution our readers against planting upon too sandy 
 a soil, or one which will not withstand a reasonable amount of 
 dry weather ; gravelly hillsides should be avoided if possible, 
 and a location secured where the crop may be kept in growing 
 
 * Wherever crimson clover can be grown it ought to prove a most valu- 
 able green manure for these crops. Not only does it improve the mechanical, 
 condition of soils, but being one of our best gatherers of atmospheric 
 nitrogen, supplies at minimum cost the most expensive element of a 
 complete manure. The quick growth of the plant, thn rapidity of 
 decomposition when turned under, and its activity in reducing to soluble 
 forms inert soil constituents renders crimson clover one of the most import- 
 ant plants of the great order of Leguminosse. 
 
THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 
 
 2 5 
 
 condition during hot, dry weather. Excessive rainfall does 
 not, as a rule, cause much damage to such crops, especially 
 those grown in the fall when the weather is cool, but constant 
 stirring of the soil is as undesirable at such times as it is 
 absolutely necessary in dry seasons. In wet times it is best 
 to keep off the land, except so far as may be necessary to keep 
 the crop free from weeds, while in dry weather the more we 
 stir and cultivate the soil the better the crop will grow. 
 
 The previous history of the piece of ground should always 
 enter into our choice of location. An interval of two or three 
 years should, if possible, elapse between successive plantings, 
 and such a rotation as will admit of this is desirable. We 
 should recall, also, our success with the previous crop, which, 
 if attacked by any disease liable to be perpetuated in the soil, 
 will render planting for several years unprofitable. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FERTILIZERS. 
 
 Soil fertility is now one of the most important questions 
 with which we have to deal. This is particularly true in 
 regard to the lands of the Atlantic States, where the fertility 
 of the soil has been depreciated by failure to restore the plant 
 food taken from the land in crops. These methods are 
 extending further and further to the west, and the same 
 impoverishing influence is at work upon the newly cultivated 
 lands but recently brought under the plow. 
 
 It is fortunate for the agriculturist that the study and 
 research of scientific men have made more real practical pro- 
 gress in this direction than in most lines where science has 
 been applied to agriculture. Farmers and gardeners have, 
 as a rule, been slow to believe in those elements of fertility 
 which the chemist told them contained all the needed plant- 
 food for a given crop. They sneered at the chemist’s analysis 
 and shook their heads doubtfully at the scientist’s conclusion. 
 The supplies furnished by the barnyard were exhausted and 
 the balance of the farm planted on faith; but faith didn’t 
 work; gradually the farm grew poorer and the farmer’s con- 
 dition reflected that of his farm. Finally, although the les- 
 son has cost him much, he has learned that the scientist was 
 right, that the three elements of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
 and potash were what was needed to make the crop grow, and 
 that these three elements were found in various substances and 
 in various forms, and obtainable in the open markets. 
 
 This being conceded, the question, therefore, at this time 
 
 26 
 
FERTILIZERS. 
 
 27 
 
 is pretty well narrowed down to a consideration of the proper 
 proportions of each of these elements which our crops require, 
 and the same consideration of cost which enters into all our 
 business transactions. 
 
 Both cabbage and cauliflower crops are gross feeders ; to 
 plant them on poor land poorly manured is to invite failure. 
 Every authority on the fertilizing material required by such 
 plants agrees in this, that an unusual amount of nitrogen is 
 necessary to secure the most perfect development of the plant. 
 This is, without doubt, supplied by horse manure, but we are 
 now considering other forms of fertilizing material — in fact, 
 the instances where farms or gardens are so situated as to be 
 able to obtain a supply of horse manure at a reasonable cost 
 are becoming so rare, that the fertilizer question as applied 
 to the chemical or commercial fertilizers is much the more 
 important one. 
 
 First, of a ll, we should be sure that we secure a sufficient 
 amount of nitrogen. This, if in the form of ammonia, should 
 never be less than six per cent, of the whole, and it is rarely 
 that a fertilizer is made which contains more than six per 
 cent. It is probable, therefore, that from five to six per cent, 
 of nitrogen is about the proper proportion, and to our mind 
 it is equally important that a portion of this nitrogen be 
 derived from animal matter, while the balance be obtained 
 from some chemical source. The growth which follows an 
 application of some of our high-grade agricultural chemicals, 
 such as nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, is always very 
 strong and vigorous ; but we have secured the most satisfactory 
 results when the quick action of these materials is supplemented 
 by the slower but more lasting influence of such materials as 
 dried blood, fish scrap, tankage, or some of the prepared forms 
 of animal matter which any fertilizer dealer is glad to sell you. 
 
 Phosphoric acid, which is usually secured from ground or 
 dissolved bone, bone-black, or the so-called “Rock” phos- 
 
2 8 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 phates of the South, should be supplied to the extent of from 
 six to eight per cent. Of the forms of phosphoric acid which 
 have come under our observation, we think the best source 
 from which it can be obtained is some form of raw bone, 
 which also contains a small percentage of nitrogen. As 
 between the bone-black — or the bone which has been burned 
 in the process of sugar refining and then treated with acid — 
 and the rock phosphates, we have been unable to detect any 
 practical difference. Bone-black, in most markets, will usually 
 cost about 20 cents per unit of phosphoric acid more than the 
 rock phosphates, and therefore a fertilizer containing seven 
 per cent, of phosphoric acid would cost $1.40 more per ton if 
 that phosphoric acid were derived from bone-black than if we 
 secured the same percentage from South Carolina rock. The 
 wisdom of this increased expenditure is extremely doubtful — 
 in fact, so far as experiment or practical experience has ever 
 shown, one article has no advantage over the other. I am 
 fully aware that there has always existed a prejudice against 
 the rock phosphate in the minds of many farmers and gar- 
 deners, and this prejudice is, without doubt, fostered by the 
 bone-black dealer, and probably has as much to do with that 
 increased cost of 20 cents per unit as any consideration of 
 actual value. We regard this prejudice as due mainly to 
 ignorance of the actual composition of the rock phosphates 
 and a feeling on the part of some purchasers that in buying 
 them they are merely buying stone. To our mind the best 
 material from which to secure phosphoric acid in a fertilizer 
 is raw bone ground finely or dissolved in sulphuric acid to 
 render it the more available, provided it can be obtained at 
 a reasonable cost ; but if the purchase of this material 
 increases the cost of our fertilizer to any very considerable 
 degree, we should use the rock phosphate for our phosphoric 
 acid rather than pay the increased cost of bone-black. 
 
 Potash must of necessity be supplied from high-grade 
 
FERTILIZERS. 
 
 2 9 
 
 muriate or sulphate, as in none of the low grades of potash 
 salts can we secure the required percentage of actual potash 
 in a fertilizer which must also contain five to six per cent, of 
 nitrogen and six to eight per cent, of phosphoric acid. The 
 percentage of actual potash required to grow a crop of cab- 
 bage is not fixed with the same degree of certainty which we feel 
 in regard to the other ingredients composing a high-grade 
 fertilizer. We feel sure that less than two per cent, is almost 
 useless in any fertilizer, and the quantity fixed for a cabbage 
 fertilizer of high grade is usually from seven to ten per cent. 
 We believe that the first figure is sufficient and represents as 
 large an amount of actual potash as the crop can use to ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Our conclusions are, then, that a complete high-grade fertil- 
 izer, capable of growing and fully maturing the most profit- 
 able crops of cabbage or cauliflower, should be made up, as 
 near as possible, as follows : — 
 
 Seven to nine per cent, of r To be derived from sulphate 
 actual potash. \ or muriate of potash, or both. 
 
 The goods at the present day being sold almost entirely 
 under a guaranteed analysis, it is comparatively easy for any 
 one to figure out a formula suited to his purpose. For in- 
 stance, we can secure 2 per cent, of nitrogen from sulphate 
 of, ammonia analyzing 20.50 per cent, by the use of 250 
 pounds per ton ; 2 x / 2 per cent, from animal matter containing 
 
 Five to six per cent, nitrogen. 
 
 ' 2 *^ per cent, to be derived from 
 sulphate of ammonia or ni- 
 trate of soda. 
 
 2 l /2. per cent, from dried blood, 
 fish scraps, or some other 
 form of animal matter. 
 
 To be derived from dissolved 
 bone, bone-black, or rock 
 phosphate. 
 
30 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 ten per cent, nitrogen we can secure from 500 pounds of 
 ground fish scrap, which would give us also about 1 per 
 cent, of the required quantity of phosphoric acid. From five 
 to six per cent, more can be obtained by the use of about 850 
 pounds of dissolved South Carolina phosphate, while the re- 
 quired potash can be found in 200 pounds of 80 per cent, 
 muriate and 200 pounds of 80 per cent, sulphate of potash, 
 thus making the 2000 pounds and analyzing as above stated. 
 
 This example is not given with the idea that it should in all 
 cases be followed. The important point is this : that every 
 one should understand the comparative value and the practi- 
 cal fertilizing value of the various materials ; then his own 
 position and the facilities for securing certain ingredients 
 must have its influence on his purchases. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should enter extensively into the 
 question of cost here. Almost all such goods are now re- 
 quired by law to be sold under a stated chemical analysis, 
 which the dealer must guarantee. Such a fertilizer as that 
 of which we have spoken would be known among dealers as 
 a high-grade complete fertilizer, and should cost the farmer 
 from $33 to $35 per ton, according to his position and facili- 
 ties for securing such goods.* But, while we do not intend 
 to enter into the cost of the various items in detail, there are 
 certain elements of cost to which we shall call your attention, 
 because of a prevailing tendency on the part of all cultivators 
 of the soil to consider the lowest priced article the cheapest. 
 
 There is the cost of transportation. It matters not whether 
 the goods are delivered at vour station, freight prepaid, or 
 otherwise, the cost of transportation is certainly and in all 
 cases taken from the consumer, and if it be $2 per ton on 
 fertilizers having a manurial value of $20 per ton it is no 
 greater on fertilizers having a manurial value of $40 per ton. 
 
 * See note on Commercial Fertilizers at end of chapter. 
 
FERTILIZERS. 
 
 3 1 
 
 The percentage which the cost of transportation bears to the 
 actual value of the goods would therefore be double on the 
 low grade to that on the high grade. This is equally true in 
 regard to various other items of expense which the purchaser 
 is compelled to pay, but which add nothing to the actual value 
 of the goods. Bags cost as much per ton on low-grade as on 
 high-grade goods ; the cost of manufacture does not materi- 
 ally differ ; the cost of handling is the same, and a dealer’s 
 profits, while they may not amount to quite as much per ton, 
 bear the highest percentage on the lowest-priced articles. A 
 little reflection will convince any one of these facts, and they 
 are well worthy of your consideration. The question you are 
 to decide is not how much stuff you can buy for a given 
 sum, but how you can invest that sum to secure the greatest 
 possible return. 
 
 Another thought comes to our mind just here, and, while 
 we may digress somewhat from our subject in giving expres- 
 sion to it, we feel that its importance warrants the digres- 
 sion. Wherever we go among the cultivators of the soil we 
 find a credit system in practice, which is a sad reflection on 
 the intelligence and business capacity of our agriculturists. 
 With money nominally at six per cent., in some sections per- 
 haps at seven per cent., the agriculturist class usually pay 
 from io to 15 per cent, for their accommodations. But the 
 farmer will say, “I haven’t the money to pay in advance, 
 but must wait till the crop comes in.” Neither has the 
 dealer the money. He can secure it at the legal rate and is 
 willing to advance it to you in the shape of supplies at 
 double the rate, plus a profit on the supplies. The influence 
 of such a credit system, which is in common practice in 
 many sections, is wholly bad and much to the disadvantage of 
 ’the producer. If he enters into an agreement with a party to 
 secure his supplies from him and pay for them with his pro- 
 duce he can but expect to pay to the handler three profits : 
 
3 2 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 first, a profit on the supplies purchased ; second, a profit on 
 the credit secured, and, third, a profit on the sale of his pro- 
 duce. Both the profit on the purchase of supplies and on the 
 sale of the produce are perfectly legitimate and, of course, to 
 be expected, but the profit on the credit can hardly be con- 
 sidered so, and yet, in some shape, it is probably paid by 
 three-fourths of our agricultural people. The influence of the 
 system tends to loose business methods on their part, and in 
 many instances really places the management of their finan- 
 cial affairs in the hands of third parties. 
 
 In some instances it is true that it may be to our advan- 
 tage to buy from and sell to the same parties, — such is the case 
 wherever we can secure a narrowing of margins by so doing, — 
 but mortgaging our crops or agreeing to deliver them to cer- 
 tain parties at any cost in payment of advances cannot fail 
 to have a tendency to destroy our independence and debar us 
 from securing the benefits of that competition which alone 
 can secure us justice in the open market. 
 
 Note on Commercial Fertilizers. — The present high price of 
 sulphate of ammonia, due to the decline in production and increased 
 consumption in the manufacture of artificial ice, has practically placed this 
 salt, at least for a time, beyond the reach of farmers. 
 
 There have been other sources of nitrogen, such as dried blood, fine 
 ground dried meat, fish, etc., which could be bought much cheaper. By 
 using some such animal matter in connection with nitrate of soda a very 
 considerable saving has been possible. 
 
 Experience shows that crops requiring a moderately long season to com- 
 plete their development thrive best when nitrogen is supplied in a variety 
 of forms varying in solubility and availability. Theoretically, a complete, 
 well-balanced fertilizer for cabbage, or, in fact, any crop requiring a consid- 
 erable part of the season to complete its growth, should contain nitrogen 
 in the three forms of nitric acid, ammonia, and organic nitrogen. And in 
 practice we find this to be true. Nitric acid or its compounds are very 
 soluble in soil water and are not only at once available for the young 
 plants, but are liable to be washed away in case of prolonged periods of 
 
FERTILIZERS. 
 
 33 
 
 rain. Ammonia salts and organic nitrogen are less soluble and, being more 
 slowly and regularly made available for the crop, keep it supplied with 
 nitrogenous food until maturity. 
 
 If, by reason of scarcity or high price, we cannot so balance our fertil- 
 izer as to use each of these three forms of nitrogen, we may generally 
 dispense with one or substitute some form of organic nitrogen in its place. 
 Suppose we want a mixture with the same content of nitrogen, phos- 
 phoric acid, and potash as given in the formula on page 29, but we wish 
 to substitute for the expensive sulphate of ammonia some fertilizer stock 
 that will supply the required nitrogen in desirable form : — 
 
 We find that nitrogen in dried fish, dried blood, meat scrap, etc. , can 
 be bought at a difference that warrants us in making the change. 
 
 Dried ground meat contains from 10.50 to 11.50 per cent, of nitrogen, 
 and about three per cent, of phosphoric acid. 
 
 We want — 
 
 2^ per cent, nitrogen from dried meat = 50 lbs. 
 
 2^ per cent, nitrogen from nitrate of soda = 50 lbs. 
 
 Our ground meat contains 11.25 per cent, nitrogen. 
 
 To obtain the requisite number of pounds of nitrogen, we must, there- 
 fore, take as many hundred pounds of dried meat as 11.25 is contained in 
 50, and as many hundred pounds of nitrate of soda as 15.75 1S contained 
 in 50, or we have — 
 
 1. 50 -4- o. 1125 = 444 lbs. of meat scrap. 
 
 2. 50-f-o. 1575 = 316 lbs. of nitrate soda. 
 
 Instead of taking phosphoric acid from the more expensive bone-black, 
 we will use dissolved S. C. Rock, which contains say 12 per cent, of 
 available phosphoric acid, of which we want 5 per cent., or 100 lbs. 
 
 100 -4- 0.12 = 833 lbs. of dissolved S. C. Rock. 
 
 Our potash (nine per cent., or 1 80 lbs.) is taken from 80 per cent, 
 muriate, which contains 50.51 per cent, of actual potash — 
 
 180 -4- 0.5051 =356 lbs. of potash. 
 
 We now know what quantities of materials are needed to furnish the 
 requisite percentages of fertilizing constituents, but on adding the quanti- 
 ties together, find the total sum to be i960 pounds. We may add 40 
 pounds of land plaster or dissolved S. C. Rock, or slightly alter the 
 3 
 
34 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 weights without materially changing the relations of fertilizing constituents. 
 Suppose we make our formula to stand thus : — 
 
 Nitrate of Soda, 320 lbs. 
 
 Ground Meat, 450 “ 
 
 Dissolved S. C. Rock, 870 “ 
 
 Muriate of Potash, 360 “ 
 
 2000 “ 
 
 We now have the requisite number of pounds ; let us see how the 
 composition of our mixture stands : — 
 
 Pounds. 
 
 Material. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 Phosphoric . 
 
 Acid. 
 
 Potash. 
 
 Avail- 
 
 able. 
 
 Insolu- 
 
 ble. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 320 
 
 Nitrate Soda (15.75 per cent. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 N.). 
 
 50.40 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 ° 
 
 Fine Dry Ground Meat. 
 
 50.62 
 
 
 
 1543 
 
 
 870 
 
 Dissolved S. C. Rock. 
 
 
 104.40 
 
 27.84 
 
 132.24 
 
 
 360 
 
 Muriate Potash (80 per cent.). 
 
 
 
 
 
 181.83 
 
 2000 
 
 Total quantities in one ton. 
 
 101.02 
 
 104.40 
 
 
 147.67 
 
 181.83 
 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 5-05 
 
 5.22 
 
 
 7.38 
 
 9.09 
 
 The above tabulation is by no means the complicated affair that it may 
 seem to be at first sight ; the farmer can very readily verify the several 
 calculations with no more knowledge of mathematics than is required in 
 disposing of his crops, thus : We have 320 lbs. of nitrate of soda, in each 
 100 lbs. of which there are 15.75 lbs. of nitrogen. Therefore, * 
 
 3.20 X 15.75 = 50.40 lbs. of nitrogen. 
 
 The ground meat contains 1 1. 25 per cent, of nitrogen, and 3.43 per 
 cent, of phosphoric acid. 
 
 4.50 X 11.25 = 50.60 lbs. of nitrogen, and 
 4.50 X 3*43 = 15 43 lbs. of phosphoric acid. 
 
 The S. C. Rock contains 12 per cent, of available and 3.20 per cent, 
 of insoluble phosphoric acid. 
 
 8.70 X 12 = 104.40 lbs. available phosphoric acid. 
 
 8.70 X 3-20 = 27^4 lbs. of insoluble phosphoric acid. 
 
FERTILIZERS. 35 
 
 In the 360 pounds of 80 per cent, muriate we have 3.60 X 50.51 = 
 181.83 lbs. of actual potash. 
 
 Then add up the several columns, divide by 20, which is the number 
 of hundred pounds in one ton, and the quotient will be the per cent, of 
 each fertilizing constituent. Thus, the nitrogen column will add up 
 101.02 lbs. Divided by 20, it gives 5.05. 
 
 (101.02 -r- 20 = 5.05 percent, nitrogen.) 
 
 The percentages of available and total phosphoric acid and of potash 
 are found in the same way. 
 
 In this formula we have used dissolved S. C. Rock, because it is 
 usually the cheapest form in which to buy soluble phosphates. 
 
 The difference between the cost of phosphoric acid derived from dis- 
 solved bone and bone-black on the one hand, and from .dissolved rock 
 phosphate on the other, has never been warranted in comparative trials 
 by us. 
 
 In the foregoing mixture we might have taken phosphoric acid from 
 870 lbs. dissolved bone meal, which would have given the formula 6. 1 8 
 per cent, of nitrogen and 8.43 per cent, of total phosphoric acid, or we 
 might have divided the phosphoric acid between dissolved bone and rock 
 phosphate, in which case the content of nitrogen and of phosphoric acid 
 would have been slightly increased over that of the first mixture. — Pub- 
 lishers. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 It is perfectly fair to assume that the nearest neighbor to 
 every tiller of the soil is either a bug, a worm, or a louse, who 
 is trying for dear life to eat him out of house and home. 
 
 It is with anything but a feeling of confidence that we 
 approach this subject, for the insect enemies of the particular 
 plants which we have under consideration, at the present time, 
 have the best of the battle. The most prominent which we 
 have to contend with are the Flea Beetle, which must be 
 fought as soon as the germ appears above ground, the Green 
 Cabbage Worm, the Cabbage Aphis (those villainous little 
 blue lice which destroy whole fields and completely change 
 the character of the plant), and the Cabbage Maggot, which 
 works at the root or stem of the plant below the surface of the 
 ground. In other parts of the country the Cabbage Plusia, 
 Cabbage Mamestra, Zebra Caterpillar, and Harlequin Cab- 
 bage-bug are common and quite destructive. 
 
 The Wavy-striped Fie a- Beetle ( Phyllotreta vittata ) 
 is comparatively easy to dispose of, as its attacks are serious 
 only to the plants in their earliest stages of growth. With us 
 nothing is so effective as tobacco dust, which is always liber- 
 ally sprinkled over the plants as soon as they are seen breaking 
 through the ground. If the work is not neglected at this 
 time, it is comparatively easy to get the best of the fleas, and 
 as the plants become stronger they are largely able to resist 
 these attacks themselves, but for the first ten days of their 
 existence they must have constant attention, the secret of 
 
 36 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 37 
 
 success being, in this instance, for the grower to be on the 
 ground before the beetle. It is best to do the work early 
 in the morning when the plants are wet with dew, but if the 
 fleas are thick the work should never be delayed until a favor- 
 able time. After this an occasional dusting will keep them free. 
 
 The Green Cabbage Worms have not been so troublesome 
 i n cabbage-growing sections for the last few years as formerly. 
 Their attacks are serious when they are very numerous at the 
 time of transplanting. At this stage, when the plants are 
 just recovering from the shock of being torn from the seed- 
 
 Fig. 12. — Imported Cabbage Worm. a. Larva, b. Chrysalis, c. Male butterfly. 
 
 (Riley.) 
 
 bed, and growth is necessarily slow, these worms will some- 
 times eat the leaves fast enough to destroy the plant. The 
 life of the worm appears to be a short one, however, and if 
 they do not appear until the plant has secured a good root- 
 hold, the danger is not, as a rule, serious. 
 
 We have both a native and European species which attack 
 cabbage and cauliflower. The butterflies are much alike in 
 appearance, the wings are generally white or yellowish with 
 indefinite black marks above and with yellow or green mark- 
 ings on the underside. The worms differ in color, the im- 
 
38 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 ported species being green while our native one is pale blue 
 with yellow stripes. The young caterpillars of the im- 
 ported cabbage worms are pale yellow, but as they grow older, 
 change to green with a faint yellow line down the back and 
 a row of yellow spots on each side. The full-grown cater- 
 pillars are from an inch to an inch and a quarter long. 
 
 of combating them is with poison, and find that Paris Green 
 will kill them as effectually as it will 'the Colorado Potato 
 Beetle, and if applied intelligently it can be used with perfect 
 safety. When the plants are just beginning to grow in the 
 field after transplanting, these worms may sometimes be found 
 very numerous about the center of the plant, seeming to 
 prefer the young and tender leaves as they are developed 
 from the center of the plant. At this stage of growth Paris 
 Green can be used without danger of poisoning the cabbage 
 head, because these leaves do not form a part of the future 
 head, and even if the poison were not washed to the ground 
 by subsequent rains, as it undoubtedly would be, the devel- 
 opment of the plant, coming from the center, these leaves 
 soon become the outer leaves of the plant and are finally 
 dropped to the ground as the plant approaches maturity. 
 
 We cannot, of course, use poison of any kind upon the 
 fully matured heads which we are to send to market (and 
 should not use it even when the plant is . half grown), but 
 later attacks of the worms, when the plant is growing vigor- 
 
 The adult butterfly 
 emerges in the spring 
 and lays eggs from which 
 the first generation of 
 worms is produced. 
 S everal broods develop 
 during the season. 
 
 Fig. 13. — Female. {Riley.) 
 
 Remedies . — We think 
 the only successful means 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 39 
 
 ously, are not much to be feared ; they may eat the leaves 
 to some extent, but growth is now so rapid and strong that 
 the actual damage is usually slight. 
 
 Pyrethruip powder and buhach, kerosene emulsion, or hot 
 water may be used. Dr. Riley gives preference to hot water 
 at a temperature of 130° Fahr. The water may be boiling 
 hot when put into the watering can, but it will not be too hot 
 when it reaches the cabbage-leaves. This treatment is prac- 
 ticable in the small garden only. One ounce of pyrethrum 
 stirred into one gallon of boiling water and when cool diluted 
 
 Fig. 14.— Cabbage Aphis. Male, magnified. ( Weed.) 
 
 to three or four gallons with cold water, makes an effective 
 insecticide for these worms. 
 
 Professor James Fletcher suggests pyrethrum diluted with 
 four times its weight of common flour. This mixture should 
 be kept tightly closed in a bottle or tin can for twenty-four 
 hours before dusting on plants. 
 
 The Cabbage Aphis (. Aphis brassicce ). — This is one 
 of the most troublesome insect enemies which the grower of 
 late cabbage has to encounter. They do not appear until 
 warm weather, and the early crop is well advanced before they 
 become very troublesome. Throughout the summer and early 
 
40 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 fall this pest is frequently very abundant, and we occasionally 
 see whole fields destroyed, while damage to the extent of one- 
 half or two-thirds of the crop is frequently sustained. These 
 insects have a peculiar way of congregating on certain plants 
 and leaving others in the same field entirely unmolested. It 
 is not unusual in badly infested fields to see two or three 
 plants entirely destroyed, while the next one to them may 
 show no sign of damage whatever. The first frosts and the 
 cold fall rains usually rid the plants of this insect, though 
 some of them, in the inner folds of the leaves, which afford 
 them protection, may be found until quite late in the season. 
 The damage caused by the aphis must amount to thousands 
 of dollars yearly, and it has been the subject of investigation 
 at our various experiment stations and by our scientific men. 
 Its history and a minute description of it may be found in 
 many of the reports of our entomologists and in various books 
 upon the subject, but scientific research has, as yet, failed to 
 place in the hands of the gardener any weapon with which he 
 can go into the fields and save his crop when it is badly in- 
 fested, at a cost in time and labor which makes it worth saving. 
 
 In our experience we have never seen the plants troubled 
 with these insects during the first two weeks of growth from 
 the seed. It frequently happens, however, that at the time 
 of transplanting, when the plants are about five weeks old, 
 the lice ' become very abundant, and we have tried with suc^ 
 cess the following method, which we have never seen in print, 
 but would recommend as likely to completely remove the 
 insects for the time being. When all is ready to set out the 
 plants, we take to the seed-bed a tub of strong tobacco water, 
 using probably one pound to one and one-half pounds of 
 tobacco to each gallon of water, and as the plants are taken 
 from the bed each handful is immersed in the tub of tobacco 
 water, and held under for a moment to allow the water to 
 reach every portion of the plant. This will rid the plants 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 41 
 
 entirely of lice for the time being, and will not injure the 
 plants in any way. 
 
 We have seen a number of remedies recommended in vari- 
 ous writings upon the subject. Lime, plaster, and pyrethrum 
 powder are advised for dusting the plants ; soapsuds or kero- 
 sene emulsion for spraying (see page 39). 
 
 No doubt all these things would be good provided we could 
 reach the insect with them by an ordinary application, but we 
 have found great difficulty in dusting or spraying anything over 
 the plants in the field which would prove effectual, because 
 the insects are so completely sheltered by the leaves. It is 
 the habit of the insect to congregate in great numbers on the 
 lower part of the inner leaves of the plant. The leaf when 
 so attacked does not grow much larger, but the outer edge 
 curls up, largely covering the insects which are sapping the 
 life out of it and affording quite effectual protection from 
 dusting or spraying. 
 
 When completely infested the plant either dies outright or 
 its character changes, from the fact that all subsequent growth 
 appears to be in the stalk, which continues to grow, while the 
 leaves show no further development. We have frequently 
 seen the plants grow to a height of eighteen inches from the 
 ground apparently from no other cause than a severe attack 
 of the cabbage aphis, and as soon as it assumes this form it 
 is useless to the gardener, as, even if the aphis could be en- 
 tirely removed, it is too far gone to produce a good head. 
 
 It is quite possible that spraying might be employed with 
 good results if the work could be done just at the proper 
 moment, when the plants are pretty well covered with the 
 aphis, but before the leaves have begun to curl up. To my 
 miijd the kerosene emulsion is most likely to produce the best 
 results. 
 
 There seems to be quite a difference in the power of differ- 
 ent varieties to withstand the attacks of the aphis, and our 
 
42 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 observation leads us to these conclusions, which may be of 
 some value to the reader. 
 
 The red cabbages seem most sensitive and succumb most 
 easily; the Savoy varieties seem to be least troubled with 
 them; the Late Flat Dutch, Drumhead, and similar strong 
 growing varieties seem next best able to withstand their at- 
 tacks ; the intermediate or second early sorts come next in 
 point of ability to resist attack, while the very early sorts are 
 most liable to be seriously injured, of all green varieties. 
 These conclusions have been confirmed by the observations 
 of a number of years in which the aphis has been unusually 
 abundant, both in the fields and among the trials of different 
 varieties, and will, we think, be found substantially correct. 
 
 The Cabbage Maggot ( Anthomyia brassicce) is without 
 question the greatest enemy we have to encounter in the 
 growing of early cabbage and cauliflower. We will usually 
 notice on bright, sunny days during the early part of May a 
 small insect in size between a mosquito and common house- 
 fly. An abundance of these insects is a sure indication that 
 we shall be favored with plenty of maggots later on. 
 
 The egg is laid at that point where the stem of the plant 
 breaks through the surface of the ground, and upon hatching 
 the maggots at once find their way below the surface and 
 attack the roots and stalk of the plant. 
 
 The first effect of these attacks is a loss of vitality, which 
 will be quickly observed from their loss of color and sickly 
 appearance. If the weather be dry, the damage may be lim- 
 ited to the loss of a small number of plants upon which the mag- 
 gots have been especially numerous, and a somewhat decreased 
 product from the balance of the field, but if we have wet 
 weather at the time when the maggot is most numerous, their 
 work seems to induce rotting of the stem, and the result is 
 likely to be serious loss. 
 
 In all sections where the growing of cabbages has assumed 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 43 
 
 considerable proportions as a business or extended over any 
 considerable period of time, the cabbage maggots are likely to 
 prove very troublesome. They usually appear upon the young 
 plants about the middle of May, the time of their first appear- 
 ance being largely regulated by the condition of the season, 
 and are very troublesome during the latter part of May and 
 through almost the entire month of June, diminishing in 
 number gradually toward the latter part of the month, and 
 finally vanishing altogether, leaving only the evidence of their 
 work behind them. 
 
 It should always be borne in mind that the decaying leaves 
 left around the trenches where our cabbages have been win- 
 tered over, and all refuse of a similar character, forms an excel- 
 lent breeding place for the maggots. It is important that all 
 such refuse should be completely destroyed or buried by the 
 plow entirely out of sight in early spring, before the 
 appearance of the fly. Such precaution has a tendency to 
 keep the farm free from maggots, and alternating the crops, 
 giving as wide a berth as possible to all fields which have pre- 
 viously been infested, is the best means of securing exemption 
 from the ravages of the pest. 
 
 Lime, plaster, potash salts, etc., have been recommended 
 by various writers as likely to prove effective, but we are unable 
 to indorse any such recommendation, as practical experience 
 has demonstrated the uselessness of any such materials for the 
 purpose. It may be possible that such substances would kill 
 the maggot if we could use them in sufficient quantities, but 
 as we have seen the maggots thrive wonderfully on ground 
 where potash salts was used in such quantities as to kill grass 
 and weeds, we think the cabbages would be the first to 
 succumb. 
 
 After experimenting with everything which has given the 
 slightest promise of relief, we have settled upon two methods 
 which have proved most effectual in meeting the ravages of 
 
44 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 this insect. A piece of tarred paper placed around the stem 
 of the young plant is fairly effective in preventing the maggots 
 from reaching the roots of the plant, and unless the maggot is 
 unusually abundant may be relied upon to save the crop. 
 
 This piece of paper should be three or four inches in dia- 
 meter, cut in octagonal shape, with a slit in one side to the 
 center where there is a slight opening 
 just large enough to fit closely around 
 the stem of the plant, as shown in Fig. 
 15. Any blacksmith can readily make 
 a sharp instrument of steel which will 
 cut this paper in the desired shape with 
 one blow from the hammer, and with 
 such an instrument these papers can 
 be prepared very rapidly and cheaply. 
 Where these papers are to be applied, 
 the ground after the usual plowing and harrowing should be 
 rolled and made as smooth and level as possible. As soon as 
 the plants recover from the effects of transplanting, the papers 
 should be applied by slipping them around the stem of each 
 plant and pressing them closely to the level ground. A work- 
 man will do this quite rapidly as soon as he becomes accus- 
 tomed to the work, and the actual expense will not be found 
 as great as may at first appear. The work must, however, be 
 done before the eggs are laid upon the stem or it is useless, as 
 its effectiveness is found only in preventing the maggot from 
 reaching the root. 
 
 The maggots in the ground may be killed by the applica- 
 tion of Bisulphide of Carbon. Make a small hole in the 
 ground near the plant, and drop about a teaspoonful of the 
 liquid into it, covering quickly with the earth to the depth of 
 about two inches ; this will evaporate quickly through the soil, 
 and its poisonous vapor will kill the maggots for a space of 
 a few inches around the place where it is deposited; but the 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 45 
 
 application is laborious and slow, and therefore attended with 
 considerable expense. The experience of each reader in his 
 own locality and with his own markets can alone determine 
 the practical value of this remedy, but somewhat extended 
 experiments conducted on Long Island the past summer, 
 seem to show it the best means of killing the maggot in the 
 ground. 
 
 The Cabbage Borer. — Until recently the ordinary ob- 
 server has supposed this to be the same as the maggot, as to 
 the naked eye it shows no great difference in appearance, but 
 when closely examined by entomologists this has been shown 
 to be the larva of a beetle quite different in character. The 
 grub first appears upon the lower leaves of the plant and 
 rapidly bores its way into the veins of the leaf and stalk of 
 the plant, inducing what is commonly called “stem rot.” 
 The only time when the insect can be successfully killed is at 
 that brief period when it is found upon the outside of the 
 leaf at its juncture with the stalk, at which time spraying 
 with Paris green will be found reasonably effectual. Poisons 
 must not be applied, of course, when the plants are heading, 
 but the damage from borers at that season is not serious, as 
 the plant has then practically attained its growth. It is dur- 
 ing the earlier period of its life that the damage from this in- 
 sect is most to be feared ; and at that time the plant should 
 be closely watched for the borers, and the spraying may be 
 done with perfect safety. 
 
 Red Spider, or Thrip ( Tetranychus telarius ), is a little 
 insect but little larger than the point of a pin, which is fre- 
 quently found in myriads on the outer leaves of the young 
 plant, in the seed bed or in the fields, where they are suck- 
 ing its life out in a manner somewhat similar to the Cabbage 
 Aphis. For this, as for the Aphis, we can recommend spray- 
 ing with kerosene emulsion as the most effectual remedy. 
 
 A kerosene emulsion is made by dissolving 2^ pounds of 
 
4 6 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 hard soap in three gallons of water, which should be heated 
 until the soap is thoroughly dissolved ; then add six gallons 
 of kerosene oil, which should be churned thoroughly together 
 with the solution of soap, and will then have about the con- 
 sistency of thick cream. For use, dilute this with from 9 to 
 15 parts of water, according to the strength desired. 
 
 The Cabbage Plusia ( Plusia brassictz ). — The parent 
 insect is a handsome night-flying moth of a dark, smoky-gray 
 color, with a small, silvery white spot and V-shaped mark near 
 
 Fig. 16.— Cabbage Plusia. a. Larva, b. Pupa in cocoon, c. Moth. {Riley.) 
 
 the middle of each front wing. The eggs are deposited singly 
 or in clusters, generally on the upper surface of the leaves. 
 The larvae soon hatch into pale-green, translucent worms, 
 marked with paler longitudinal stripes on the sides and back. 
 They gnaw irregular holes in the leaves and burrow into the 
 heads of cabbage. When full-grown the caterpillars are 
 about two inches long. They are true span-worms, and in 
 traveling the body assumes the looping position seen in Fig. 
 
 16, 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 47 
 
 The full-grown caterpillar spins a very thin, white, or semi- 
 transparent cocoon, generally on the under surface of the 
 cabbage-leaf, and transforms to pupa, shortly afterward emerg- 
 ing as the adult moth. In the Southern States there are several 
 broods each season. 
 
 This pest is destroyed in vast numbers by toads and birds, 
 and the larvae are subject to the attacks of parasitic insects ; 
 it is also the victim of fungous disease, more especially in wet 
 seasons. 
 
 Remedies . — The worms are very soft and tender and readily 
 succumb to treatment with kerosene emulsions. Pyrethrum 
 powder also kills them. It is most effectual used alone in 
 powder or mixed with flour. (See Cabbage Worm, page 39.) 
 
 The Zebra Caterpillar (. Mamestra picta ). — In the 
 mature stage this insect is a handsome moth with rich pur- 
 plish-brown front wings. The hind legs are white, and 
 faintly edged with brown on the upper and outer borders. 
 The body is grayish, the head and thorax purple-brown. 
 
 The eggs are spherical and are laid in clusters on the cab- 
 bage, cauliflower, and other food plants early in summer. 
 The larvae when young are blackish, soon changing to light 
 green. The young worms are gregarious, feeding together 
 near the places where the eggs were clustered, but as they 
 grow older disperse over the plants. When full-grown the 
 larvae are about two inches long, marked by broad, longitudi- 
 nal, velvety-black stripes on the back, and brilliant yellow 
 stripes upon each side, connected by fine, transverse, zebra- 
 like lines, as seen in Fig. 17. When disturbed the worm curls 
 up and drops to the ground. 
 
 The full-grown caterpillar forms a rude cocoon of silk and 
 earth in the ground and changes to pupa, emerging a fort- 
 night later as the perfect moth. Two broods are developed 
 yearly, the second hibernating through the winter and emerg- 
 ing as moths in the following spring. The spring brood attacks 
 
48 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 cabbage, cauliflower, beets, spinach, etc., and the autumn 
 brood is often found on asters, asparagus, clover, honeysuckle, 
 and mignonette. 
 
 Remedies . — The larvae when young cluster together upon 
 the leaves and are easily disposed of by hand-picking. When 
 the caterpillars have scattered over the plants they may be 
 destroyed by spraying with kerosene emulsion, with decoction 
 of pyrethrum, or by dusting the plants with the powder by 
 
 Fig. 17.— Zebra Caterpillar, a. Larva, b. Moth. (Riley.) 
 
 means of a powder gun. Spraying with hot water also kills 
 the worms without injury to the plants. 
 
 The Harlequin Cabbage-Bug ( Murgantia histrio- 
 nica ). — This is a tropical species, said to have been introduced 
 from Mexico into Texas, from which State it has spread over 
 the South and as far north along the Atlantic seaboard as 
 Delaware. It increases with extreme rapidity and is now 
 the worst insect enemy of cruciferous plants in the Southern 
 States. This insect derives its name from the gaudy colors 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 49 
 
 and “harlequin-like manner in which the black and orange- 
 yellow are arranged upon the body.” In the Southern States 
 the insects live through the winter hidden under leaves and 
 rubbish. 
 
 Dr. G. Lincecum, writing of the life history of the insect 
 in Texas, says: “The perfect insect lives through the win- 
 
 ter, and is ready to deposit its eggs as early as the 15th of 
 March, or sooner, if it finds any cruciform plant large enough. 
 They set their eggs on end in two rows, cemented together 
 mostly on the under side of the leaf, and generally from eleven 
 to twelve in number. In about six days in April (four days in 
 July) there hatch out from these eggs a brood of larvae, 
 resembling the perfect insects, except in having no wings. 
 This brood immediately begins the work of destruction by 
 piercing and sucking the life- 
 sap from the leaves, and in 
 twelve days they have ma- 
 tured. They are timid and 
 run off and hide behind the 
 first leaf-stem, or any part of 
 the plant that will answer the 
 purpose. The leaf that they 
 puncture soon wilts. * * * 
 
 a cabbage in a day.” 
 
 Remedies . — Infested fields should have clean culture, and all 
 rubbish liable to furnish a refuge for the bugs during the 
 winter should be burned. 
 
 Hand-picking into pans or cans containing water or kero- 
 sene oil is resorted to in the South. Pyrethrum in powder or 
 decoction and strong kerosene emulsion may prove effectual 
 when the bugs are young. By far the most promising method 
 of dealing with the pest is that of Professor H. E. Weed, of 
 the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station. Wild mus- 
 tard, when young and tender, is preferred by the bugs even to 
 4 
 
 Fig. 18.— Harlequin Cabbage-Bug. f. 
 Adult, g. Adult with wings extended. 
 All natural size. {Riley.) 
 
 Half a dozen insects will kill 
 
CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 5 ° 
 
 cabbage, and this is one of the earliest cruciferous plants to 
 appear in spring. In 1891 Professor Weed killed the bugs 
 
 upon the mustard plants 
 with pure kerosene, but 
 in 1892 he decided to 
 sow mustard between 
 the rows to be planted 
 in cabbage. The ma- 
 jority of the hibernat- 
 ing bugs clustered upon 
 the early mustard plants 
 and were killed with pure kerosene; the cabbage escaped 
 almost entirely from the depredations of the insects. We 
 recommend this course to cabbage growers wherever the pest 
 is troublesome. Where mustard has not been provided, try 
 spraying with a pretty strong pyrethro-kerosene emulsion. 
 
 To make pyrethro-kerosene emulsion take of — 
 
 Fig. 19. — Harlequin Cabbage-Bug. a, 
 Nymphs, c. Eggs. d. Eggs, side view. e. 
 Eggs, view from above, d, e. Enlarged. 
 {Riley.) 
 
 Kerosene oil, I gallon. 
 
 Hard soap, 1 pound. 
 
 Pyrethrum powder, 1 pound. 
 
 Water, I gallon. 
 
 Dissolve the soap as directed on p. 45. 
 
 When the soap is dissolved add the pyrethrum to the boil- 
 ing solution, stir thoroughly for one or two minutes, and allow 
 the materials to boil for about three minutes. Remove from 
 the fire, add the kerosene, and churn until a thick emulsion 
 is obtained. By this method a very firm pyrethro-kerosene 
 emulsion is obtained, which, in dilution, works admirably 
 with a force-pump and nozzle. 
 
 The Cabbage Mamestra (. Mamestra trifolii '). — The 
 moth ranges in color from a pale yellowish-gray to a dark 
 brownish, mottled gray. It is variable in size, resembling 
 the Plusia moth, from which it is readily distinguished by the 
 absence of the bright, silvery spot on the front wings. The 
 
INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 5 1 
 
 caterpillars vary from bright green to a brownish-green above, 
 and are marked by a broad pink stripe on each side. Pupa- 
 tion takes place in an oval cavity underground. 
 
 Remedies . — Treatment the same as for the Cabbage Plusia. 
 
 Club Root ( Plasmodiophora bras sic ce ). — A chapter on in- 
 sect enemies is not, perhaps, precisely the place to consider a 
 fungoid disease such as club root, but it is no part of my pur- 
 pose to enter into an elaborate description of it, and I shall 
 probably have no better opportunity to offer a few thoughts 
 on the subject. 
 
 Every gardener knows, from his own experience, that the 
 continued planting of all plants of the Brassica family upon 
 the same piece of ground renders them extremely liable to 
 this disease. Sometimes we find only small evidence of it in 
 the enlargement of a few of the small roots at the end or some 
 distance from the main stalk; in this event it does not affect 
 the growth of the plant for that season, but should serve as a 
 warning to us, for if the same ground be again planted with 
 a similar crop failure will probably result. Occasionally we 
 have seen the first evidence of it in the seed-bed, some of the 
 roots showing enlargement, and have found that, by breaking 
 off the enlarged part and removing the plants to new ground, 
 they have suffered no damage. The theory which we have 
 heard advanced, at times, by gardeners who seem disposed to 
 lay most of their troubles at the seedsman’s door, that this 
 disease was due to bad seed, was disproved to our own satis- 
 faction some years ago, when we found that the seed from 
 cabbages badly affected when planted showed no signs of it in 
 their product, and we believe it impossible that such a dis- 
 ease should be perpetuated in the seed and so handed down 
 from one generation to another. The disease is evidently 
 something which is first communicated to the soil from the 
 plant, remains in the soil, and by it is communicated to the 
 succeeding crop. We have noticed that in fields planted 
 
52 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 upon slopes with intervening hollows, the first evidence of 
 club-root was to be found in the low places, plants in such 
 a position sometimes being badly affected, while those upon 
 the higher ground were entirely free. This would appear to 
 show that the germs of this disease were near the surface, 
 and were washed down from the higher ground to the low 
 places by the winter rains ; it leads also to the conclusion 
 that if the stalk and outer leaves could be promptly removed 
 and burned as soon as the crop is harvested, we should be 
 much less liable to damage from this disease, although the 
 danger might not be entirely obviated. To our mind it is 
 much more probable that the germs are communicated to the 
 soil through the decaying of this old refuse than from the 
 plants in a growing condition, and if this be true it is a great 
 mistake to plow it under or allow it to remain on the surface, 
 as it usually does. No great amount of labor is required for 
 its removal, and the advantage of having the land entirely 
 free from the stumps in the spring will almost compensate us 
 for the extra work. 
 
 As in the case of the maggot, alternating the crops is the 
 best means of avoiding club-root. When the land has become 
 seriously affected an interval of three years will be found 
 necessary before these crops can again be planted there with 
 safety, and it is better to lay the land down to grass during the 
 interval. If only slightly affected, so that we find but slight 
 traces of the disease in the last crop, a period of two years 
 will usually suffice. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EARLY CABBAGES. 
 
 Cabbage, to-day, may be found in all prominent markets 
 the year round. The fall crop of the Northern gardener has 
 hardly been exhausted when our cities receive the first ship- 
 ments from the South, where, without danger from frost and 
 cheap labor at hand, the industry of growing vegetables is 
 rapidly developing. This leads to a cheapening of the vege- 
 tables to the consumer, and a shortening of the season in 
 which the Northern gardener can command the market ; and 
 yet each section has its turn. From the extreme southern 
 limits of the country come the first consignments, and while 
 it is yet winter, they drive the stock carried over from the fall 
 before to a second place in the market. But their season is a 
 short one, for the produce of the next port to the north soon 
 comes in in better order and secures the first choice. • So it is 
 that, as the season advances up the Atlantic coast, each section 
 has its turn, and the most remunerative returns go to him who 
 is first in his own particular section. 
 
 It is interesting to note the peculiar climatic influence upon 
 different varieties, which we see illustrated among the gar- 
 deners’ fields in various sections. In the extreme South the 
 popular cabbage seems to be a late, strong-growing variety, 
 because in a section of perpetual growth earliness of maturity 
 does not enter into the calculation, and the vigorous growth 
 and hardiness of the Late Flat Dutch and Drumhead sorts 
 appear best able to withstand the intense heat. A little far- 
 ther north, through Northern Florida and the cabbage-growing 
 
 53 
 
54 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 sections of Georgia, we find the intermediate sorts taking the 
 lead. These varieties are intermediate both in season of 
 maturity and size, and, being flat, pack to better advantage 
 than those of conical shape, such as the earliest sorts assume; 
 but as soon as we reach a line where frost must be taken into 
 consideration, the earliest sorts in existence are the main reli- 
 ance for an early crop. 
 
 We are well up into Virginia before we see much winter 
 protection given to the cabbage. Without doubt the system 
 of planting in the fall and allowing the plants to stand in the 
 field during the winter months is a good one wherever the 
 winters are mild enough to insure success by this method. We 
 believe, however, that this system is practiced a little farther 
 north than is really profitable, and in many instances after a 
 rigorous winter the plants are so badly winter killed that 
 their growth is much retarded. Without doubt the cabbage 
 plant will stand a good deal of frost, but continued freezing 
 and thawing is very injurious, and we believe the cold-frame 
 or hot-bed could be used to good advantage further south than 
 we usually find them. 
 
 Throughout the North and Middle States the early crop 
 is grown from seed sown in hot -beds from early in February 
 to the middle of March, according to the location, or from 
 seed sown usually in September and carried through the 
 winter in cold-frames. 
 
 We think that directions for making hot-beds and cold- 
 frames have been so frequently printed, and are so well 
 understood by the gardening fraternity, that full descriptions 
 here are unnecessary. A greenhouse now forms part of the 
 equipment of many well appointed market gardens, and en- 
 ables the gardener to grow his plants at any time to suit his 
 own convenience, and under ideal conditions, as between a 
 cold-frame and hot-bed. If we were planting one of the 
 extra early varieties, as Early Jersey Wakefield, we should 
 
EARLY CABBAGES. 
 
 55 
 
 think the cold-frame most desirable, as we find that hardier, 
 better, and more stocky plants can be secured by this method. 
 If planting one of the second early varieties, as Early Summer 
 or All Head Early, however, the hot*bed is preferable, since 
 the tendency to run to seed, which is much greater in the 
 second early varieties, is enhanced by the long period when 
 the plant makes little or no growth in the cold-frame. (See 
 Notes on Varieties.) Earliness being the first consideration, 
 they should be transplanted in the field as early as possible in 
 the spring, and yet it is important to secure as favorable con- 
 ditions of weather as we can. A strong, dry, cold, northwest 
 wind is always to be avoided — better wait a few days until 
 the wind changes, and under the influence of the soft, moist 
 air from the south or east our plants will start off much more 
 rapidly. The field should be selected the previous fall and 
 turned over with the plow just before cold weather sets in. 
 This is an important matter. The operation of frost seems 
 to make such work doubly valuable, as we are enabled to work 
 the ground earlier in the spring, and it works up in much 
 better shape. It is always moist enough early in the spring 
 for the plant to live provided the ground be properly pre- 
 pared. After a thorough plowing and harrowing the land 
 should be marked out thirty inches one way, to admit of 
 horse cultivation, and eighteen inches in the row. This is a 
 sufficient distance to secure the most perfect development of 
 the earliest varieties, which do not make a large outside 
 growth of leaves. If, however, the intermediate sorts be 
 planted, the distance should be thirty-two by twenty inches, 
 on account of their increased outside growth. 
 
 In setting the plants a good deal of care will be well re- 
 paid by after growth. It is very important that the roots of 
 the plant should not be turned up toward the surface of the 
 ground. The workman makes a hole with a dibber in his 
 right hand, thrusts the roots of the plant, which he holds in 
 
56 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 his left hand, into it, then presses the dirt firmly against the 
 roots with the dibber. In order to secure the best results 
 from his labor, be sure the tool you give him to work with 
 is such that he can be expected to do the work well. The 
 dibber which we usually see for sale is seldom large enough 
 for good work ; it should be about one and three-quarter 
 inches in diameter at the widest part and sharp at the point, 
 so that there may be no difficulty in making the hole for the 
 plant wide enough and deep enough for proper setting. 
 
 We must always insist on the dirt being firmly pressed to 
 the roots of the plant. A good rule to make with the work- 
 
 man is that he shall so fasten the roots that the plant cannot 
 be pulled from the ground by taking hold of the edge of the 
 leaf, the leaf tearing away instead. A good boy can drop 
 plants fast enough, for two men to set ; he should be taught to 
 drop them convenient to the left hand of the workman, to 
 save all unnecessary reaching on his part. It is a good plan 
 to start the workman on a row with one extra plant in his 
 hand, which he sets first, and, while firming the earth around 
 this plant with his right hand, he picks up the plant which 
 the boy has dropped at this place, which he has in his hand 
 
 Fig. 20. — Good Dibber. 
 
 Fig. 2i. — Poor Dibber. 
 
EARLY CABBAGES. 
 
 57 
 
 ready to set at the next place. By doing this way a man can 
 set plants a trifle faster and easier, and the extra plant is 
 always at hand when he finds one broken or missing. 
 
 Work, from the time the plants are set in the field until 
 they are harvested, is the essential element of success. Cul- 
 tivation is not only necessary to keep the weeds down, but 
 to secure the growth of the plant. It is only upon wet soils 
 in excessively wet weather that there is any likelihood of our 
 cultivating the soil too much. It is true that to secure the 
 best results from cultivation the soil should be reasonably dry, 
 but there are, after all, but few times when we cannot culti- 
 vate to advantage, except immediately after a rain, and we 
 are much more liable to encounter a season when dry weather 
 demands constant cultivation as the price of growth, than one 
 in which excessive moisture compels us to refrain. The cul- 
 tivation should be as complete and constant as possible, and, 
 in the earlier stages of growth, the horse cultivator can be 
 run closely to the plant without injury, but it cannot entirely 
 take the place of hand hoeing, as some implement dealers 
 would have us believe, as that also is necessary to loosen the 
 soil in close proximity to the growing plant. It is advantage- 
 ous to cultivate deeply early in the season, but during the 
 later stage of growth, when the plants are large and the roots 
 reach out in every direction, the cultivation should be com- 
 paratively shallow. 
 
 The amount of fertilizing material used on an acre of early 
 cabbages by some of our best gardeners would astonish many 
 of the readers of this book. One hundred dollars is fre- 
 quently spread over an acre of ground before the plants are 
 set. At the present prices it is doubtful if so great an amount 
 of fertilizing material can be absorbed by the crop, and yet 
 there is no danger of the average cultivator using too much. 
 To our mind, one and one-half tons of a high-grade fertilizer 
 is as much as the crop can make use of to advantage. This 
 
58 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 would or should cost a little more than $50. If horse manure 
 be used, the expenditure would probably have to be somewhat 
 greater, varying with the facilities of the gardener for obtain- 
 ing it. This article differs greatly, also, as to its manurial 
 value, and, therefore, it is impossible to fix upon any compara- 
 tive value between this and the fertilizer which we buy on an 
 analysis. 
 
 So liberal an application as this should be made broadcast 
 over the entire surface of the ground. I know that it is 
 quite a common practice with many very successful gardeners 
 to apply a part in the drill, opening a drill quite deeply, then 
 putting in the fertilizer, and then covering the drill and setting 
 the plants on top of the row. We have failed to note any 
 advantage in this method, provided the application made 
 broadcast be liberal enough. The labor of preparation is 
 somewhat increased by it, and it is of the utmost importance 
 that the crop be started as soon as possible. At the same 
 time, if we were to apply but one-half a ton of fertilizer to the 
 acre, we should put it in the drill after the manner indicated, 
 but the best plan is to be liberal in the first investment — put it 
 on in the most liberal way, and then we may reasonably 
 expect a liberal return. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LATE CABBAGES. 
 
 The great increase made in the acreage devoted to early 
 cabbages in the Southern States during recent years has, with- 
 out doubt, shortened the area planted by our Northern 
 gardeners. At this time the main reliance with them is the 
 late or fall crop. From the fact that we still find a large 
 quantity of cabbage, both in the green state and in brine, 
 imported into this country from the old world, it would 
 appear that the cultivation of late cabbage might still be much 
 further extended here with profit to the American cultivator. 
 Certain it is, that if the American farmer can profitably raise 
 wheat, corn, and oats at the ruling prices of late years, he 
 can well afford to raise all the cabbages which the home 
 market demands. 
 
 Growing the plants during the hot, dry summer months is 
 one of the first problems we have to solve ; and it is often 
 attended with so much difficulty, and failure is so frequent, 
 that we feel inclined to devote some space to its discussion. 
 
 Anyone can grow plants under favorable conditions. All 
 we have to do is to prepare the seed-bed, sow the seed, and 
 keep the weeds out. But what we want to know is, how to 
 secure a plentiful supply of plants under unfavorable con 
 ditions, when the weather is so hot and dry that seed of the 
 strongest vitality fails to germinate and all things combine to 
 render the work difficult and uncertain. In all our experience 
 we have found that the principal secret of success lies in being 
 prepared, at the outset, for the worst. Any one who desires to 
 
 59 
 
6o 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 22.— Watering the Rows for Seed Planting. 
 
LATE CABBAGES. 
 
 61 
 
 grow a supply of plants, either of cabbage or cauliflower, 
 during the usual season, from May 15th to July 15th, is foolish 
 to wait until planting time before choosing his location for a 
 seed-bed, and then, finding his land pretty well occupied, sow 
 his seed in some out-of-the-way corner where the chances of 
 success are largely against him ; but, foolish as such a practice 
 is, it is very frequent. 
 
 The choice of location for a seed-bed should be made early 
 in the spring. A small piece of ground, which has had 
 nothing of a similar character grown upon it for several years, 
 should be set apart. Club-root frequently appears in the 
 seed-beds in cabbage-growing districts and renders thousands 
 of plants unfit for transplanting; its effects, in many instances, 
 being more disastrous in the seed-beds than in the open fields 
 where it appears at a more advanced stage of growth. Care 
 should, therefore, be exercised to secure a piece of ground 
 where we are most likely to be free from such disease. We 
 must be sure that there has been no indication of this disease 
 in the crop which was grown on the land selected for our 
 purpose the year previous. If we can secure a piece of ground 
 which has been in grass for a number of years, and the year 
 before planted with corn or some similar crop, we have all 
 that could be desired. Where this is impossible we have 
 simply to use our best judgment to secure immunity from the 
 disease which usually follows continued planting of turnips, 
 Brussel sprouts, cabbage, and plants of similar character. 
 Our location, also, should never be upon a hillside, where 
 heavy rains are likely to wash the soil away, nor in a narrow 
 valley where, from the same cause, the bed is liable to be 
 covered by the wash from neighboring slopes. The selection 
 being made, the ground should be plowed as early in the 
 spring as the season will permit, and finely harrowed, the 
 harrowing to be repeated as frequently as is necessary to keep 
 the land clean until the time we desire to employ it as a seed- 
 
62 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 bed. Where such preparation has been made we shall find 
 that, if we are compelled to sow seed in dry weather, we have 
 retained all the moisture which is possible in our seed-bed, 
 and if the weather is wet, we have at hand a piece of ground 
 which works up freely and in good condition. 
 
 Where this method is followed there are few occasions when 
 
 the seed on such a 
 piece of ground will 
 not germinate freely, 
 provided the soil be 
 properly firmed on the 
 seed when planted in 
 dry weather. The late 
 Peter Henderson wrote 
 an article, years ago, 
 upon “ The Use of the 
 Feet in Seed-Sowing,” 
 which was widely pub- 
 lished at the time and 
 contained a valuable 
 suggestion. His rec- 
 ommendation was sim- 
 ply to pass over the 
 row, after sowing the 
 seed, with your full 
 weight resting on the 
 ball of your foot, thus 
 giving the full weight 
 of a man on every inch of the row and firmly pressing the soil 
 upon the seed. Where the ground is dry, or very liable to 
 become so, it seems impossible for a man to press the soil so 
 firmly on the seed as to do injury ; but such a method is both 
 unnecessary and unwise when the ground is wet. The ques- 
 tion of its advisability under all cases is one which the judg- 
 
 wWgHTEO 1894. 
 
 Fig. 23. — Planting the Seed Bed. 
 
LATE CABBAGES. 
 
 6 3 
 
 ment and experience of the gardener should be competent to 
 decide. 
 
 There are times, however, when the ground becomes so hot 
 and dry that the requisite moisture for the germination of the 
 seed must be supplied by artificial means, and it is important 
 that the work be done in a manner to secure success. It is 
 almost useless to undertake to sprinkle water over a seed-bed 
 of any considerable size, and we have found the following 
 method best suited to the purpose. As soon as the ground is 
 prepared, rows fourteen inches apart and about two inches 
 deep are marked in the 
 soft, fine earth (Fig. 
 
 22) ; then, with the 
 ordinary watering-pot, 
 from which the sprink- 
 ler has been removed, 
 a man walks slowly 
 along, filling the rows 
 with water, which is 
 allowed to settle away 
 and will wet the dirt 
 thoroughly for three 
 inches below the bot- 
 tom of the row (Fig. 
 
 22). The seed may then be planted in the rows so watered 
 and covered by raking the drier earth over it. Press the 
 earth gently upon the seed, and we shall have moisture 
 enough not only to insure germination but to provide also 
 for the early growth of the plant (Fig. 23). 
 
 In the event of a hard shower soon after the seed .is sowed 
 it is best to rake the top of the ground as lightly as it can be 
 done and still make the work effectual, in order to break the 
 hard crust which would otherwise form and possibly make it 
 difficult for the plant germ to break through. This work can 
 
 Fig. 24. — Marker. 
 
6 4 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 be done at any time until the plants are beginning to prick 
 through the ground, after which it is liable to injure them. 
 Where these directions are followed it should be easy to se- 
 cure the required number of plants. We have not found it 
 necessary to water the bed after the seed is up, even in our 
 driest seasons, but frequent stirring of the soil between the 
 rows promotes growth. 
 
 Late cabbages, in most of our market gardens, are planted 
 as a second crop. They can, with advantage, be made to 
 follow early potatoes, peas, etc., — in fact, anything which can 
 be marketed by the fifteenth of July will give time for a crop 
 of late cabbage in the latitude of New York City. Many 
 acres are planted on farms which are not yet given over en- 
 tirely to market gardening, upon grass land which has pro- 
 duced a crop of hay, and such a piece of ground is an excel- 
 lent location in a season when we have an abundance of rain. 
 In a dry summer, however, it is not advisable, as the 
 growing grass has already absorbed what little moisture the 
 soil possessed, and sod turned over in a dry summer is the 
 driest of all dry places. In such a season the best results 
 will be obtained by following one of the spring crops, or, if 
 we have an abundance of land, select the proper field in the 
 spring and allow it to remain unoccupied during the early 
 season. Such a piece of ground should be plowed early in 
 the spring and harrowed at intervals until required for plant- 
 ing, and where so treated is, without doubt, the best place 
 obtainable for planting late cabbages. 
 
 It is not necessary to force the growth of late cabbages to 
 the same extent that we do the early crop, and therefore the 
 amount of fertilizer required is not usually as large, an appli- 
 cation of from 1500 to 2000 pounds of a complete high-grade 
 fertilizer being sufficient, on reasonably good soil, to secure 
 excellent crops. To our mind, about 2000 pounds should be 
 spread broadcast over an acre, as evenly as possible, as soon 
 as the ground is plowed, and harrowed in. 
 
LATE CABBAGES. 
 
 6 5 
 
 The season for planting depends almost entirely upon the 
 variety and the conditions of the season in the locality of the 
 grower. Upon Long Island we find that we can secure fall 
 crops of the late, large-growing varieties, such as the various 
 strains of Late Flat Dutch and Drumhead, by planting about 
 July 15th ; of such sorts as All Seasons, Fottler’s Brunswick, 
 Louisville Drumhead, etc., by planting about July 25th; 
 while Henderson’s Succession, Early Flat Dutch, Burpee’s 
 Allhead Early, Early Summer, etc., may be planted as late 
 as August 1 st. The experience of the grower in his own 
 locality with different varieties will readily show him what to 
 plant and when to plant it. 
 
 As the season approaches for setting out the crop we should 
 have our ground plowed, fertilized, and thoroughly harrowed, 
 ready to take advantage of the first shower; but at the same 
 time we think that one of the best rules a man can make, both 
 in regard to cabbages and cauliflowers, is never to wait for 
 rain. It is true that the extra labor of setting the plants with 
 water means extra expense, but, in most instances, it proves 
 a valuable investment. It is always best to choose a time 
 when southerly breezes and a moist atmosphere will enable 
 the plant to rally during the night from the trying effects of 
 necessary exposure to the sun. 
 
 A good rule to adopt in regard to setting plants is this : 
 Whenever the ground is moist enough to enable a man to 
 thrust a dibber into the earth and withdraw it, leaving a hole 
 which is not filled at once with dry dirt, there is sufficient 
 moisture for setting plants in reasonably favorable weather 
 without the use of water. It is best, however, in setting 
 plants at any time, except immediately after a rain, to loosen 
 them in the seed-bed with a pitchfork before pulling them, 
 and, when pulled, take them in large handfuls and dip the 
 roots in a pail of water, thoroughly wetting the earth which 
 clings to the roots. We have found this of great advantage, 
 5 
 
66 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 and the extra work is so trifling that we think it best to do 
 this under all circumstances. Whenever there is so little 
 moisture in the earth that it will not pack sufficiently, but 
 fills the hole left by the dibber at once with dry dirt, a plant 
 cannot be expected to live, and we must resort to the use of 
 water. 
 
 As soon as the ground is prepared and marked out, a man, 
 with a heavy stick about four or five feet long, 2^ inches in 
 diameter, makes a hole in each planting place. He is fol- 
 lowed by another man who fills each hole with water, usually 
 putting about half a pint at each place, which is sufficient ; 
 this is allowed to settle away, which it does rapidly in the dry 
 earth, and then the plants can be set in their proper place 
 with every prospect of success. This gives them all the ad- 
 vantages of a good rain, and as we can usually pick out such 
 weather as we want for setting them, we have found a great 
 advantage in this method over setting after a rain which 
 cleared off with high northwesterly winds or a burning sun. 
 
 To those who have never tried it the extra work may seem 
 a serious hindrance, but two or three men will make rapid 
 progress, and we do not think that the labor of transplanting 
 is increased by this means more than one-third. We will find 
 the employment of this extra labor much better than to allow 
 the proper planting season to slip by while waiting for rain. 
 
 The same thorough cultivation required by early cabbages 
 is necessary to the late crop also, although it is hardly neces- 
 sary to carry it so far toward maturity in the fall of the year 
 as in the summer months. 
 
 It is a busy time on the farm or market garden when we are 
 called upon to harvest the crop. Shortening days and frosty 
 mornings advise us of a fast approaching winter, and all our 
 energies are directed to securing the season’s crops. We are 
 not compelled to market our crop of late cabbages immedi- 
 ately at maturity, as is the case with the early crop. During 
 
LATE CABBAGES. 
 
 67 
 
 the cool weather of the fall they can be held for a favorable 
 turn in the market, and, if necessary, even carried over the 
 winter. It is, however, advisable, with this crop, as with 
 every other, to market direct from the field whenever it can 
 be done at remunerative prices. 
 
 Barrels are principally used for transportation and should 
 be packed as closely as possible ; loose packing, for the sake of 
 increasing the number of barrels, is very expensive, as all pro- 
 duce so packed arrives in poor shape and sells at lower prices. 
 Equally expensive, in the long run, is a somewhat common 
 practice of putting poor truck in the bottom of the barrel 
 and only good heads on top. The mark of a man who adopts 
 such tactics soon becomes known to intending purchasers, and 
 his goods are either avoided or heavily discounted. 
 
 If the goods are consigned for sale to some commission 
 dealer — the common practice with all growers living at a dis- 
 tance from the market, — it is best that you should become 
 pretty well acquainted with your man ; investigate his facili- 
 ties for disposing of your crops ; satisfy yourself, so far as 
 possible, of his financial responsibility and business integrity; 
 then see that he has the goods in the best possible condition, 
 and you may expect the best prices which the market affords. 
 
 A man’s name on a barrel usually indicates the quality of 
 the goods it contains. If a man has been in the habit of 
 putting up good stock in good shape and culling out the poor 
 truck to be sold as such, his name on the package is a guaran- 
 tee of quality and his goods find ready sale, while those of 
 doubtful character go begging. 
 
 These facts must be apparent to every one who takes the 
 trouble to think it over, and have been preached by writers on 
 the subject for years, and yet it still seems that a large portion 
 of the produce sent to our markets must be put up with the 
 idea that some one is going to be fooled into buying poor 
 stuff for good. 
 
68 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 When they are grown in large quantities, cabbages may, by 
 special arrangement, be sent loose in car-load lots, and such 
 transportation brings them to market in good shape at much 
 less cost for freight, which is no inconsiderable item on pro- 
 duce so bulky. When so carried, however, it is necessary that 
 the weather be cool, the transportation company reasonably 
 prompt, and the cabbages dry when loaded ; otherwise they 
 may be liable to heat and reach the dealer in bad shape. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STORING FOR WINTER. 
 
 For early winter sales they may be taken up with the roots 
 on and stored in well-ventilated cellars, where they will keep 
 till midwinter, or they may be stacked in some sheltered posi- 
 tion about the barn, placing one above another in tiers, with 
 the roots inside, and covering them deeply with sea-weed, or, 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 if this cannot be procured, something like corn stalks (Fig. 25) 
 may be used to keep them from the weather as much as pos- 
 sible. When so stored they may be obtained at any time 
 during the early winter when the market is favorable. 
 
 When it is desired to keep them until spring, we must bury 
 
 69 
 
7o 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 them in the ground, and two methods are in common use. 
 Our market gardeners very largely stick to the old way of 
 turning them over and setting them flat on the ground in 
 long rows with the roots up, and then, with plow and shovel, 
 covering the heads with earth to a depth of three or four 
 inches, leaving the root exposed at the top of the ridge. In 
 this way they usually keep fairly well (Fig. 26), but we have 
 frequently found considerable rot at the juncture of the stalk 
 with the head, and we think that the root protruding through 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 the top of the ridge allows the water from our winter rains to 
 enter and settle around this point, which leads to decay. 
 Certain it is that they will not keep as well until late in the 
 spring, and do not, as a rule, come out as fresh as when 
 buried after the method of seed growers, which will probably 
 be new to most of our readers. 
 
 A cabbage plow is first used to lift them, running close to 
 the side and under the plant. This merely loosens them and 
 admits of our taking them up with a good ball of earth, with- 
 
STORING FOR WINTER. 7 1 
 
 out tearing the roots. One row in every five (if the cabbage 
 be large), is now taken up and laid one side, and in the 
 space so made clear, with a large plow, we make a trench as 
 deep as possible, going and returning in the same furrow. 
 The cabbages are then placed along each side, and one man 
 standing in the trench packs them as closely as possible with 
 the roots down in the bottom. He moves slowly backward as 
 the work progresses, and, by packing at a slight angle, is able 
 to make better work than by trying to put them in perpen- 
 dicularly. Where the heads are large, two heads are placed 
 abreast in the trench, and, if closely stowed, one trench will 
 hold five rows of the same length. 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 After stowing them away in this manner, a little straw or 
 similar material (Fig. 27) may be used directly over the 
 heads to keep them clean, but should not be put on deeply 
 with the idea of protection, and the trench then covered by 
 plowing three heavy furrows upon it from each side and com- 
 pleting the ridge so made with a shovel, the whole being 
 covered to a depth of six to eight inches. 
 
 This method affords the most complete protection of any 
 of which we have knowledge. It is not only a good way 
 to bury large, full-grown heads for the winter, but smaller, 
 immature heads, not sufficiently developed to be saleable in 
 
72 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 the fall, will grow and mature in the trenches and come out 
 in the spring in condition for the market. The labor of 
 burying in this way is not greater than by the method first 
 described, and we know of but one disadvantage which would 
 attend its general use ; on account of the deeper covering of 
 earth we could not as readily break into the trenches in early 
 spring, as we sometimes do, when considerable frost is en- 
 countered. For- this reason it might be well to use both 
 methods to some extent, burying the most mature stock for 
 earliest sales by that first described, and using the second for 
 the more immature stock. This would, of course, increase 
 the labor of burying to some extent, but might enable us to 
 catch a favorable turn in the early spring market. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EARLY CAULIFLOWERS. 
 
 Having given in detail our ideas on the cultivation of early 
 cabbages, it is not necessary that we should enter so min- 
 utely into the cultivation of early cauliflowers, as the methods 
 applying to the former crop may largely be made applicable to 
 the latter. The cauliflower plant, however, is not as hardy as 
 the cabbage ; the extremes of heat and cold work more to its 
 injury ; it is rather more sensitive to excessively dry weather, 
 and excessively wet weather at the season of maturity, if tjje 
 temperature is high, will often result in the destruction of 
 the entire crop. 
 
 There is probably no crop pertaining to the market garden 
 where the road to success leads over so many obstacles as in 
 the cultivation of early cauliflowers, and yet, where a fine 
 crop is secured, the profits are usually very satisfactory. 
 
 In growing the plants and in the general cultivation of the 
 crop the methods given for early cabbages will be found to 
 apply to early cauliflowers, but the plants will not bear as 
 close planting ; two by three feet gives none too much space 
 for the earliest varieties. Overcrowding is not profitable in 
 growing this crop, as it decreases the size of the heads, and we 
 have found it much better to allow the plant plenty of room 
 to reach the highest stage of development. 
 
 In regard to the fertilizing of early cauliflowers we certainly 
 should not plant them unless our ground has been first highly 
 manured. All our experience shows that it is extremely 
 difficult to secure the finest heads of cauliflowers during the 
 
 73 
 
74 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 warm weather of early summer, when we are to market the 
 crop, and success is hardly to be expected unless we can secure 
 a strong, vigorous growth of plant. In this respect we think 
 it differs somewhat from early cabbage. The cabbage plant 
 will stand some neglect, and while, like everything else, it 
 rewards the best treatment with the best returns, it usually 
 returns something even where indifferently treated, but early 
 cauliflowers require both liberal manuring and thorough 
 cultivation to promote growth and secure satisfactory results, 
 and unless these essentials are supplied, the result is pretty 
 likely to be complete failure and consequent loss of time and 
 money. 
 
 In considering the advisability of planting early cauli- 
 flowers, we must look first at our facilities for marketing the 
 crop. As the harvesting season is in warm weather it will not 
 stand long carriage in close freight cars and arrive in market 
 in the best of shape. If our situation is such that the crop 
 cannot be driven direct to the market from the field, it is best 
 to make arrangements with some express company to secure 
 the prompt delivery of the goods. By combining together, a 
 number of truckers ought to be able to secure satisfactory 
 rates by express as well as good and prompt service. It is 
 quite necessary that produce of this character should be on 
 sale early in the morning of the day following that on which 
 it is taken from the growing field. If we can secure such 
 arrangements as will enable us to cut our cauliflowers in the 
 afternoon and have them reach market the following morning 
 in time for the earliest sales, we need nothing better so far as 
 transportation is concerned. Full directions for harvesting by 
 the most convenient method, as well as preparing and pack- 
 ing for market, will be found in the chapter on Late Cauli- 
 flower, and are therefore unnecessary here. 
 
 A number of writers have advised cutting cauliflowers while 
 wet with dew in the morning, but we think such a plan is en- 
 
EARLY CAULIFLOWERS. 
 
 75 
 
 tirely wrong. As is well known, all such produce is placed 
 on sale in all our large markets very early in the morning, 
 usually from two to four o’clock, and to make these sales our 
 produce must of necessity be cut the day before. Cutting in 
 the morning, therefore, simply lengthens the time between the 
 field and the market. We have also noted very injurious 
 effects from packing cauliflowers when wet, as they are very 
 liable to heat and rot, particularly in warm weather, and, we 
 believe, should be as dry as possible when packed for trans- 
 portation. 
 
 It is quite true that the growing of this crop is attended 
 with considerable risk, and yet we believe that the business 
 is capable of great development. 
 
 We have not noted the difficulties which stand in the way 
 of success with any idea of discouraging the prospective cul- 
 tivator, but because we believe that by looking intelligently 
 at these obstacles we may become fully prepared for them and 
 the more likely to achieve success. 
 
 At the ruling prices of the present time early cauliflowers 
 should be one of the most profitable crops of the market gar- 
 den. Increased supply would, without doubt, lead to increased 
 consumption, and greater experience under our own local con- 
 ditions should lead to a lessening of the cost of production 
 and the attainment of the most satisfactory results. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 Upon Eastern Long Island, where this plant is cultivated 
 more extensively than upon any similar area in the United 
 States, the cauliflower season is a long one, and sowing the 
 seed begins about as early as it can safely be put in the ground 
 in the spring and continues at intervals until the latter part 
 of June. 
 
 We use the term “late cauliflower,*’ not because the crop 
 of which we are speaking is necessarily planted late, but to 
 distinguish the main crop, where the seed is planted in the 
 open ground during spring or early summer, from the 
 early crop, where it is sowed the fall previous or under glass 
 in the winter time. 
 
 Continued plantings are advisable, as they extend the time 
 of transplanting and enable us to avoid a rush of work at this 
 season, and also, by lengthening the time in which the crop 
 must be marketed, we are enabled to take care of the crop 
 properly and avoid, so far as possible, the glutting of the 
 market which always attends the heaviest shipments. 
 
 Having entered pretty fully on the growing of plants in the 
 chapter on Late Cabbages, further detail here would be super- 
 fluous. We have only to bear in mind the fact that we rarely 
 obtain seed of cauliflower which has as strong germinative 
 power as that of cabbage, and that the plant when young is 
 more sensitive to unfavorable conditions, and, therefore, must 
 not be neglected in the slightest degree during the early stage 
 of growth. 
 
 76 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 77 
 
 Late cauliflowers are frequently grown as a second crop in 
 the same manner as late cabbages, but, unless our operations 
 are confined to a very limited area, we do not consider it 
 advisable. The latter plantings could be made to advantage 
 after such a crop as early peas, where we would be enabled to 
 give the land two plowings in the interval between harvesting 
 the first crop and planting the second ; but, as a rule, the best 
 results are obtained by those who save the ground for this 
 crop early in the spring, plowing it at that time and harrow- 
 ing at intervals until required. 
 
 The season for transplanting in the field begins in this sec- 
 tion (Eastern Long Island) about June 15th and continues 
 until the early part of August. To secure plants for setting 
 as early as June 15 th the seed must be planted by May 
 1 st, as fully six weeks are required to bring them to the proper 
 size at this season of the year. Later on, when the weather 
 and ground have become warmer, we find they reach the proper 
 stage more quickly, and for seed sown in the month of June a 
 period of five weeks is probably a sufficient length of time to 
 allow. 
 
 Right here let me say that it is never good policy to set the 
 plants too small. They should have a good, strong, stocky 
 growth, and will be more hardy and live better in an unfavor- 
 able time if the growth has been moderately slow in the seed- 
 bed than if it has been rapid. They should not, however, be 
 allowed to remain too long in the seed-bed, as, unless they are 
 very thin, the stem will become long and crooked. As soon 
 as the largest of them has attained a height of about six 
 inches, they should be taken out, leaving all the smaller ones 
 for a later setting. We find that removing the largest plants 
 from the bed gives more room to those remaining and dis- 
 turbs their growth somewhat, so that it is not so rapid from 
 this time forward ; but on this account it is hardier, and many 
 market gardeners prefer the second pulling. The apparent 
 
78 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 stunting of the plants from pulling out a part of them, and so 
 disturbing their roots, seems to have no effect upon their future 
 growth in the field ; they do not scald as badly when first set 
 out, and as soon as they recover from the first effects of trans- 
 planting will appear to go forward just as well. I think, 
 however, that it would be easy to carry this line of reasoning 
 too far. I certainly should not care to set plants which had 
 been standing still for four or five weeks in the bed, although 
 I believe that within reasonable bounds the reasoning is good. 
 
 It is never best to crowd cauliflowers in the field. Give 
 them plenty of room, and you may expect a full development. 
 The Dwarf Erfurt varieties are frequently planted about two 
 feet apart in the row, and the space between rows is usually 
 three feet. To my mind it would be better to plant them 
 2)4 X 3 feet, which will admit of horse cultivation each way 
 when the plants are small, and, with most of us, the saving of 
 labor on a field of any considerable size will compensate for 
 the use of a little more ground, and we may, with reason, 
 expect the plants to do better at this distance. The larger 
 strains of Erfurt should be planted 3 X 3 feet, and the Large 
 Algiers and similar strong-growing sorts should be planted 3 
 feet each way. 
 
 Cauliflowers require fully as much fertilizer and fully as 
 much cultivation as cabbages. We have already gone as fully 
 into these questions as seems necessary, and only pause here to 
 say that wherever we go we notice that the best success attends 
 the efforts of him who treats his crop the best. 
 
 The main crop of cauliflowers fully supplies our markets 
 from August to January. In about eight weeks, if the season 
 has been favorable and growth rapid, we shall find our early 
 June setting beginning to make heads, and the long season of 
 harvesting is at hand. Much depends upon the weather for 
 the earliest plantings; if we can have it reasonably cool in 
 the month of August we may expect good heads, but if hot, 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 79 
 
 the heads are very likely to grow leafy — that is, with small 
 leaves protruding from each intersection — or develop some of 
 the other peculiarities which frequently lead old growers to 
 say that “you never know what they are going to do until 
 you see them head.” 
 
 Excessive humidity in the atmosphere frequently develops 
 a disease of the stalk called “stem-rot,” which sometimes 
 destroys whole fields and for which we have no known remedy ; 
 but if the weather be cool during August, with occasionally a 
 cool rain to keep them coming along, we may expect to see 
 the care and labor which have been given to these plants 
 rewarded, and well rewarded, too, for one good barrel now 
 will be worth as much as two or three later on when we’re 
 crowding every market to get them out of the way. 
 
 As soon as the heads attain a size of about five inches in 
 diameter, they must be covered in such a manner as to shade 
 them from the sun and protect them, as much as possible, 
 from all wind and rain. This is work which requires care, 
 judgment, and experience, but when fully understood is ac- 
 complished rapidly. It is the usual custom, especially among 
 large growers, to cut the cauliflowers by a certain mark made 
 when the head is so covered, and it is necessary, therefore, 
 that in covering the heads the work be done intelligently, so 
 that they may reach the proper stage of maturity for market 
 at a given time. 
 
 The work is usually accomplished after the following man- 
 ner : As soon as the plants begin to head, a man, carrying in 
 his left hand a small bundle of rye straw, will pass down be- 
 tween two rows, closely observing the plants on each side of 
 him ; presently he sees one which, in his judgment, can no 
 longer be left exposed to the elements without injury, when, 
 taking a few straws in his right hand, he doubles them, mak- 
 ing a short band, then, passing both arms completely around 
 the outer leaves, he draws them together to the center above 
 
8o 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 the head and ties them securely around the top. This process 
 is called tying up. 
 
 Two or three days later, according to the weather and 
 the rapidity with which the plants are heading, they will 
 again require attention. This time we pass over the field as 
 before, taking two rows at a time, but using small wooden 
 pins. We lap the leaves loosely one over the other all around 
 the head and fasten the upper ones securely with the pin. 
 This is calling pinning up. 
 
 Again, in two or three days we shall find the number of 
 
 Fig. 28.— Cauliflower Plant Tied Up. Fig. 29.— Cauliflower Plant Pinned Up. 
 
 heading plants increasing, and this time we pass over the field 
 with nothing in our hands. When we find a head of the 
 proper size we simply lap one leaf over another, until we have 
 secured the required protection, then tuck the end of the 
 upper leaf under the one below it, forming, with these outer 
 leaves^ half of a knot. This is called tucking. 
 
 We now have in the field three distinct marks upon the 
 plants which are heading ; our first mark, those covered by 
 means of straw bands, is a week old, and those heads are 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 Si 
 
 ready to cut. This is done at that stage of growth when the 
 head has attained its full size but still retains its solidity. If 
 allowed to remain longer, growth continues, but the head, 
 instead of remaining solid, “bursts,” or branches out into 
 the next stage of development, which, fully carried out, 
 would produce first the blossom, then the seed. By looking 
 closely at the outer edge of the fully matured head, we shall 
 see the first indication of this condition ; the head is begin- 
 ning to burst and all further growth in size will be at the 
 expense of its solidity. It is now in the best condition for 
 market and should at once be 
 cut. Had it not been for the 
 different methods we have 
 adopted in covering the 
 heads, we should now be 
 compelled to part the leaves 
 and look closely at each one 
 which has been covered, but 
 if the work of covering has 
 been properly done, all this 
 extra labor is obviated ; we 
 simply cut the first mark, 
 those tied up with straw, and 
 leave all others for future cut- 
 ting ; then, having removed the first lot tied with straw, we 
 use this mark again for covering the heads, cutting next time 
 those which are pinned up, and so the work continues. 
 
 If inexperienced men are intrusted with the work of cov- 
 ering the heads, loss is likely to result from its being im- 
 properly done unless they are thoroughly instructed. The 
 leaves must not be bound tightly across it when half grown, 
 as it usually is at this time that the head requires room for 
 further development, and there must be some air space above 
 it to prevent rotting in hot, moist weather. It is, therefore, 
 6 
 
 Fig. 30.— Cauliflower Plant Tucked Up. 
 
Fig. 31. — Harvesting Cauliflower. 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 83 
 
 necessary in covering that as much space as possible be left 
 for the head, but at the same time the leaves should be 
 securely fastened so that there be no danger of the wind blow- 
 ing them apart. 
 
 In harvesting the crop two methods are in common use : In 
 some instances the heads are cut off below the lower leaf, 
 loaded upon a wagon, and taken to the farm buildings, where 
 they are trimmed and packed in barrels for the market. In 
 others, the barrels are taken to the field and placed along each 
 end of the lot at convenient distances, the workman carrying 
 a large basket, cutting and trimming the heads as he goes 
 along, and packing in the barrels in the field. This latter 
 method has the advantage of saving labor, as there is less 
 handling and the useless leaves are left in the field, where 
 they can be plowed under as soon as the crop is removed. It 
 is not advisable, however, to pack them for any length of time 
 before shipping, or when they are wet, and this method cannot, 
 therefore, be practiced except in dry weather or when imme- 
 diate shipment from the field is to be made. 
 
 A little practice renders a man quite expert in cutting and 
 trimming and capable of accomplishing a great deal of work. 
 With a heavy knife in his right hand he severs the stalk at 
 one blow just above the ground ; then, lifting the head with 
 his left hand, another blow cuts closer to the head at the 
 proper place to leave a few outer leaves encircling the head ; 
 he now holds the head upright upon his left hand and cuts the 
 leaves off neatly at a level with the head all round (Fig. 31). 
 The next operation consists of picking out the few short 
 leaves which grow close to the head and cannot well be 
 reached by the knife, and, as is usually the case, covering the 
 head with white tea paper, or “papering,” as it is called. 
 
 When there is such a rush of cauliflower in the market 
 that every commission merchant’s stand overflows and covers 
 half the street, papering rarely pays. We then get but little for 
 
8 4 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 the goods, and extra work in putting them up seemingly goes 
 for nothing ; but whenever there is a good or even a fair mar- 
 ket, it is best to paper the good heads, which simply consists 
 of covering them with a sheet of paper, the edges of which 
 are tucked in between the head and outer leaves. When put 
 up in this way they will usually arrive at the market in bet- 
 ter shape and present a better appearance on the stand, which 
 ought to result in an increased price. Whether papered or 
 not, the poor heads should be culled out from the good ones, 
 which should be put up separately and marked, the usual cus- 
 
 good trade on your particular brand. The culls should be 
 put up separately, marked as such, and sold for what they will 
 bring. 
 
 There can be no question but that a great deal of money is 
 lost by improper packing ; in the first place, it is never good 
 policy to pack good cauliflowers in poor barrels which will 
 hardly hold together to reach market. Good cauliflowers are 
 always worthy of a good barrel, and will command a better 
 price from one end of the season to the other, if well put up. 
 
 Beginning at the bottom, the heads are packed in layers one 
 
 Fig. 32. — “ Papered ” Head of Cauliflower. 
 
 tom being to mark XX 
 across the top of all 
 good barrels, and in 
 case they are papered 
 the letter P is fre- 
 quently put on. A 
 salesman soon learns 
 what to expect from 
 these marks, and, if 
 the work be honestly 
 done and the grade 
 kept up to a high 
 standard, will soon be 
 able to establish a 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 85 
 
 above the other, until the barrel is filled to the top (Fig. 33), 
 then rounded up by placing a few heads- face downward upon 
 the top. They should be packed, so far as possible, upon the 
 side, care being taken to so place them in the barrel that the 
 stump of the head cannot crush into and bruise the head 
 below through the necessary jar incidental to transportation. 
 
 Fig. 33. — Packing for Market. 
 
 They should be packed as closely as possible in the barrel, and 
 the cover, which is of burlap or any kind of bagging, is drawn 
 tightly over the heads in the following manner : Remove first 
 the top hoop, spread the cover over the head of the barrel, 
 place the hoop over it, and fasten it in place on one side ; 
 then the workman, leaning his chest directly upon the top of 
 
86 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 the heads, allows a good share of his weight to rest upon them, 
 pressing them down closely, and, drawing the cover as tightly 
 as possible upon the opposite side of the barrel, drives the 
 hoop in place and nails it fast. At first thought, some of my 
 readers may imagine that the weight of the man will crush the 
 heads, but, if properly packed, this is just the means to pre- 
 vent it. (Fig. 34.) 
 
 The barrels are usually loaded in freight . cars, one above 
 another, and unless packed so closely that each head will keep 
 
 Improperly Put Up. Properly Put Up. 
 
 Fig. 34. — Ready for Market. 
 
 its place throughout the journey, the jar and the rough hand- 
 ling always to be expected from the employees of transporta- 
 tion companies will bring it into market in bad shape. 
 
 In hot weather the barrels should be ventilated by cutting 
 holes in the staves ; but when the weather grows cool we pre- 
 fer tight barrels, a sufficient circulation of air being provided 
 for by the covers. Experience shows that nothing will cause 
 them to wilt so badly as a cold, dry wind, which can be pre- 
 vented from reaching them by the tight barrels. 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 87 
 
 In times when the market is overloaded by an excessive 
 supply, and prices are forced down to a point which leaves 
 very little margin over transportation and selling charges, 
 cauliflowers are sold largely to pickling concerns, who purchase 
 the heads by weight, and load them in freight cars or store 
 them in salting-houses, which are established at convenient 
 points. For this purpose the heads are not trimmed as for 
 market, but cut out entirely from the plant, with no outside 
 leaves attached. 
 
 The prices paid by pickling men are always very low, but 
 disposing of a considerable portion of the crop in this way 
 affords relief to the over-stocked market, and secures better 
 prices for those marketed, while at the same time it demands 
 much less work in harvesting, all the labor of trimming and 
 packing being unnecessary. 
 
 In the village from which we write, a salting-house has been 
 established by the efforts of the farmers themselves, they own- 
 ing the building jointly and leasing it to a pickling company. 
 Into this building hundreds of tons of cauliflowers are 
 rushed every year at a time when the market is so glutted 
 that remunerative prices are an impossibility, and some such 
 outlet as this forms the only means of disposing of the surplus 
 stock. 
 
 As the pickling companies always take advantage of the 
 condition of the market in making their purchases, it would 
 appear to us that the co-operative idea might be carried still 
 further in any community where the industry of growing 
 cauliflowers had assumed such proportions as to make it desir- 
 able; the growers not only building and owning the salting- 
 house and its equipment, as in the present case, but owning and 
 putting in the stock upon some equitable plan to be agreed 
 upon among themselves. In the following winter or spring 
 this stock could, without doubt, be marketed at a price much 
 more in keeping with its actual value, and the grower would 
 
88 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 not be forced to the unfortunate position in which we very 
 frequently find him, that of being, from stress of circumstances, 
 compelled to accept whatever price the buyer is pleased to 
 offer. 
 
 Canning cauliflowers cannot, as yet, be said to have passed 
 beyond the experimental stage. For several years past a lim- 
 ited quantity has been put up by Long Island canners, who 
 say that they find no difficulty in canning the goods, which is 
 not attended with excessive cost, but that the article is not 
 yet known in our markets and has not established a reputa- 
 tion which would lead to extended sales. As this vegetable 
 can be produced and put up in cans at a price which will 
 place it on a level with tomatoes, green corn, and other vege- 
 tables which are now canned in immense quantities, it is 
 quite probable that the business may assume much greater pro- 
 portions in the near future, thereby enabling the consumer to 
 secure a supply of this most excellent vegetable at all seasons 
 and providing for the grower another outlet for his product in 
 times of overstocked markets. 
 
 Whenever the approach of cold weather finds us with any 
 considerable quantity of cauliflowers in the field not yet 
 mature enough for market, we find that we can save them by 
 taking them up with as much earth attached to the roots as 
 possible and storing them in some place where hard frosts 
 will not be felt, and they will have a chance to grow and 
 develop during the warm days of early winter. Where a well- 
 ventilated cellar is at hand it makes an excellent place for the 
 purpose. It is never best to wait too long and allow the plants 
 to be injured by freezing, but, as the season becomes so far 
 advanced that severe weather may be daily expected, it is best 
 to bring all those having small heads formed, but which in the 
 natural course of growth could not become mature for two 
 weeks or more at this late season, to the cellar where they are to 
 be stored, standing each plant upon its roots and placing them 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 89 
 
 as closely together as they can be packed ; cutting off the 
 tops of the leaves makes closer storage possible and lessens 
 the liability to heat. They cannot be placed in heaps or one 
 above another without injury. If given plenty of air on 
 warm days they will keep for several weeks and the small 
 heads will grow to a good size. 
 
 If we have no cellar room for this purpose a place for storage 
 can be improvised on the southern exposure of some hillside, 
 which may be dug away sufficiently to afford good protection, 
 and covered with a temporary roof made by placing corn- 
 stalks or other coarse litter upon poles, the ends and sides 
 being covered in the same way where necessary. Cauli- 
 flowers stored in such places, and when protected in sheds or 
 other out-buildings, may be kept well into the winter until 
 the fields are covered with ice and snow and the market 
 relieved of the excessive supplies of the fall months; then, 
 during the holiday season, very satisfactory prices may be 
 realized. 
 
 In the open field cauliflowers will stand a temperature of 
 24 0 F. without injury, and even 20° F. will do little damage if 
 it be not long continued. Full-grown heads are much more 
 liable to be damaged by frost than the small ones, and it is best 
 to keep the field cut closely and the small heads well tied up 
 when hard frosts are to be expected. If they become severely 
 frozen in the field and we have reason to believe that warm 
 weather is soon to follow, it is best to allow them to remain in 
 the field until thawed out, as injury is much more likely to 
 result if cut when frozen. 
 
 Extended experience in the cultivation of any given crop 
 should always lead to the most advanced methods. Necessity 
 has in many instances led to the adoption of devices, simple 
 in themselves, but -of great value in the cultivation of the 
 soil. One of the best markers (Fig. 35) I ever saw is in com- 
 mon use in this section, but as we have not seen it in other 
 
9 o 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 places and have no knowledge of a printed description of it, we 
 will describe it briefly. 
 
 The frame consists merely of two two by four inch yellow 
 pine timbers, eight feet four inches in length ; these timbers 
 pass through three runners, through which mortises have been 
 made, the central one being fastened firmly in its place, 
 exactly in the center of the timbers. Holes are bored in the 
 
 timbers at the outer ends, and the outside runners are moved 
 to any desired distance from the center and held in place by 
 wooden pins. A pole is fastened at one end to the central 
 runner, but so arranged that it can be swung from one side to 
 the other ; to this a chain is attached at the proper distance 
 from the row to serve as a guide for our driving on the return. 
 
LATE CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 9 1 
 
 The pole by which the marker is drawn is fastened firmly to 
 one of the timbers, which are braced from the central run- 
 ner. The runners are made of two by eight-inch timber and 
 will last longer if shod with iron. If a deep mark is re- 
 quired, the driver rides, but for setting plants the mark will 
 be deep enough without his weight. In driving, the pole 
 between the horses is each time kept directly over the guide 
 mark made by the chain. Three rows are marked each time, 
 
 Fig. 36. 
 
 and the distance between the rows is varied, as required, from 
 2 y? to 4 feet. 
 
 A very convenient arrangement for carrying barrels of 
 garden truck upon the ordinary farm wagon is made by tak- 
 ing off the box, lengthening the reach, using long planks for 
 the bottom, and fastening a long 1 y 2 inch plank, about five 
 inches wide, on each side outside the stud-staffs, by means of 
 heavy staples. This secures both greater width and length, 
 and will double the carrying capacity of the wagon. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PROFIT AND LOSS. 
 
 I should be stepping far out of the path which writers upon 
 similar subjects have chosen if I did not close with an elab- 
 orate showing of the profits to be expected in dollars and 
 cents. I approach this subject with a full realization ofi the 
 fact that the value of any previous calculation of profits upon 
 the crops of farm or garden is exceedingly problematical. 
 To all of us it must be apparent that the merchant or manu- 
 facturer can calculate the cost of his goods with a certainty 
 which is an impossibility to the cultivator of the soil. Who 
 can tell the cost of cultivating a crop when so much depends 
 upon the effect of rain or sunshine ? Who can discount, in 
 proper measure, the ravages of insect enemies, which we are 
 powerless to resist ? Who can foretell the condition of the 
 market at that particular time when our goods must be 
 marketed ? 
 
 But notwithstanding the element of uncertainty which en- 
 ters into every calculation of the tiller of the soil, we believe 
 that some estimate of the cost of growing every crop should 
 first be made before we actually begin the work of growing 
 it ; then, knowing the probable cost of our produce, and 
 knowing as well the probabilities and possibilities of the 
 market in which we are to sell the goods, we should be able 
 to judge intelligently of the advisability of their cultivation. 
 
 9 2 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS. 
 
 93 
 
 ESTIMATED COST PER ACRE OF A CROP OF EARLY CAB- 
 BAGE. 
 
 Growing and wintering 11,500 plants, $22 
 
 Rent of land, 10 
 
 Manure or fertilizer, including application, 50 
 
 Plowing, harrowing, and marking, 8 
 
 Setting plants, 4 
 
 Cultivating, hoeing, etc., 12 
 
 Harvesting and preparing for market, 15 
 
 Total expense, #121 
 
 To enable us to understand this estimate more fully we 
 might look at it a little more in detail. The first item, plac- 
 ing the cost of 11,500 plants at $ 22 , should be sufficient to 
 cover the cost of seed, growing and wintering the plants, 
 which, with most gardeners, should range from #1.50 to $2 
 per thousand. Our liberality in the next estimate, of $10 for 
 the use of one acre, would depend upon the situation of the 
 grower ; if located where land is very valuable this estimate 
 is not high enough, but it should be borne in mind that this 
 land is not occupied during the entire season, the cabbage 
 being removed in ample time to admit of the planting of 
 some fall crop ; this estimate is, therefore, more liberal than 
 would at first appear. The estimate for fertilizers will admit 
 of liberal treatment, and so will the items following, which 
 cover the labor of securing the crop. Our estimate for har- 
 vesting and preparing for market does not include the ex- 
 pense of transportation and making sales, but is intended only 
 to cover the cost of harvesting and preparing for market upon 
 the farm. 
 
 If the estimates be correct, we find that we can grow an 
 acre of early cabbages for $121. It is but fair to allow 10 per 
 cent, or more for loss from various causes, but under reason- 
 ably favorable conditions we ought to secure 10,000 heads 
 from the 11,500 plants set; the cost of 10,000 heads being 
 $121, would be 1. 2 1, or, to make still further allowance for 
 
94 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 possibilities, say i^, cents each. By adding an allowance for 
 freight and commission and crediting our crop with 10,000 
 heads, at such prices as we frequently find in market quota- 
 tions, we might be able to figure out a very handsome profit 
 on the acre ; but we think best to leave this part of the calcu- 
 lation to each individual reader. Knowing that he can 
 reasonably expect to grow early cabbages at about 1 % cents 
 a head, and knowing his own transportation facilities and the 
 possibilities of his own market, he should be able to figure 
 for himself, much better than any one can figure for him, the 
 profit he could reasonably expect. 
 
 rv/ 
 
 ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF AN ACRE OF EARLY 
 CAULIFLOWERS. 
 
 Growing and wintering 7300 plants, #15 
 
 Manure or fertilizer, including application, 60 
 
 Rent of land, 10 
 
 Plowing, harrowing, and marking, 8 
 
 Setting plants, 3 
 
 Cultivating, hoeing, etc., 10 
 
 Harvesting and preparing for market, . % 25 
 
 Total expense, . $131 
 
 Estimated product of I acre of early cauliflowers, . . no barrels 
 Cost, per barrel, on farm ready for shipment, #1.19 
 
 ESTIMATED COST OF GROWING ONE ACRE OF LATE 
 CABBAGES. 
 
 Rent of land, 
 
 Fertilizer, 
 
 Plowing, harrowing, etc., 
 
 Growing 8000 plants, including seed, 
 
 Setting plants, 
 
 Cultivating, hoeing, etc., 
 
 Harvesting and preparing for market, 
 
 #10 
 
 35 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 Total cost, 
 
 $86 
 
 Allowing liberally for possible contingencies, we ought to 
 secure, with such treatment, at least 7000 heads from 8000 
 plants, which makes the cost per head iff cents. 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS. 
 
 95 
 
 ESTIMATED COST OF ONE ACRE OF LATE CAULIFLOWERS. 
 
 Rent of land, 
 
 Fertilizer, 
 
 Plowing, harrowing, etc., 
 
 5000 plants, including seed, .... 
 
 Setting plants, 
 
 Cultivating, hoeing, etc., 
 
 Harvesting and preparing for market, 
 
 #10 
 
 35 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 Total cost, $99 
 
 Estimated product, 120 barrels. 
 
 Cost, per barrel, ready for shipment, 82^ cts. 
 
 Any one unfamiliar with the cauliflower crop will be sur- 
 prised at the difference in our estimate of yield between the 
 early and late crops, as in one instance we have estimated 
 the product of 7300 plants at no barrels, and in the other 
 that of 5000 plants at 120 barrels; but it should be borne in 
 mind that for the late crop it is the usual custom to use a 
 larger variety, which, given more room, produces larger heads. 
 And this, combined with the greater difficulty experienced 
 in growing the early crop, renders our first estimate as liberal 
 as the second. Crops of from 150 to 175' barrels of cauli- 
 flowers are by no means rare ; but our purpose here is to make 
 the estimate a safe one as a basis for future calculations, and 
 we do not wish to place it so high as to be misleading. 
 
 With proper care and attention both of these crops are 
 profitable, and yet we feel inclined to add a final word of 
 warning. Do not embark extensively into the cultivation 
 of these crops in the expectation of becoming wealthy. 
 
 We have known many instances where the net profits of the 
 cabbage and cauliflower crops have been sufficient to purchase 
 the land upon which they were grown, and many a man in the 
 locality from which I write rejoices in the ownership of a 
 home and farm made possible by their cultivation, and yet the 
 average profits are not excessive. It is much better to begin 
 upon a small scale and find out by experience the require- 
 
9 6 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 ments of our markets, the adaptability of different varieties 
 to our soil and climate, and what difficulties stand in the way 
 of growing the crop at such prices as our markets afford. 
 Then, with more extended experience and a complete knowl- 
 edge of our own local conditions, we may extend our plant- 
 ings to the full limit of our facilities. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 I. It is by no means my purpose to undertake a full descrip- 
 tion of the many varieties which at present comprise the list. 
 
 The extended descriptions printed in the seed catalogues of 
 the present day render such work unnecessary, and the con- 
 stant introduction of new sorts would make it of little perma- 
 nent value. As long as any money is to be made by the intro- 
 duction of new varieties they will be introduced, even if every 
 point of distinction emanates from the imaginative brain of 
 the enterprising seedsman and the seed sold comes from the 
 same old cabbage. Re-naming old varieties has apparently 
 become a part of the business of the seedsman, and, while we 
 may become a trifle mystified by his elaborate description and 
 illustration, and possibly a little disgusted because we find we 
 have purchased, at an extravagant price, an old favorite under 
 a new name, we cannot regard it as an unmixed evil. 
 
 The influence of new introductions is, after all, toward im- 
 provement, and even when an old sort is knowingly sent out 
 under a new name, care is taken to secure the best strain of 
 seed for the purpose, and, by this means, many a man, led to 
 purchase by a fascinating name, secures seed which is better 
 than that which otherwise might have been purchased, even 
 though it actually be but the same old sort. The benefits 
 arising from the introduction of anything which is really good 
 are so far-reaching and so large in proportion to the actual ex- 
 penditure of money for the purchase of seed, that we have come 
 7 97 
 
9 8 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 to regard this practice as working more good than evil to the 
 gardening world. 
 
 The introduction of new varieties, or new strains of old 
 varieties, seems to be a necessity, also, from the fact that old 
 strains, when cultivated successively, appear to deteriorate, or 
 ‘ ‘ run out,” as the farmer would say. To-day you may pass 
 over hundreds of acres of cauliflowers and not find one single 
 plant of that variety which, ten years ago, was the favorite on 
 every farm ; while the popular sort of to-day, which we find 
 everywhere, and is the grower’s main reliance, is a good strain 
 of an old variety which came to us under a new name. 
 
 It is, indeed, well worth while to purchase a new introduc- 
 tion if we can feel reasonably sure that we are purchasing some- 
 thing good. It matters little what means have been adopted 
 to secure improvement so long as improvement has actually 
 been secured. We know, of course, that the actual origina- 
 tion of a new plant is entirely beyond man’s power. He can 
 hybridize and, by a series of selection, fix, to a great extent, 
 certain features which he desires to perpetuate upon the hybrid ; 
 or he can find, among old sorts, specimens which are appar- 
 ently sports yet may possess desirable qualities of their own, 
 and these he may establish and improve upon by means of the 
 same series of selection, which seems to be the only means at 
 hand whereby the desired improvement can be attained. 
 
 But further than this he cannot go, and anything absolutely 
 new is hardly to be looked for. Neither is it probable that at 
 this day we shall be greatly benefited by the discovery of new 
 forms in the vegetable world. To us the greatest benefits are 
 likely to be attained by that work which aims at the improve- 
 ment of existing sorts. 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 99 
 
 VARIETIES OF CABBAGE. 
 
 For the purpose of the market gardener we think cabbages 
 may best be considered under four classes, which are divided 
 with reference to their seasons of maturity into Early , Second 
 Early , Intermediate, and Late. 
 
 The earliest varieties all produce heads of a conical form. 
 This seems to be Nature’s law, and, while many attempts have 
 been made to establish flat or round heading sorts which will 
 mature as quickly, the effort has, up to the present time, been 
 unsuccessful. In the mind of the writer there is no question 
 but that the Early Jersey Wakefield is the best early cabbage 
 for the general purposes of the market gardener. 
 
 An effort has been made to establish three distinct strains 
 of the Jersey Wakefield. In one case the element of early 
 maturity was, in a measure, sacrificed to size, and the result 
 was given to the gardener in the introduction of the Large 
 or Charleston Wakefield. It may be said that this strain is 
 larger and somewhat later than the parent stock, and we note 
 more variation in the leaf and coloring of the leaves. It is a 
 sure-heading strain and desirable to any one who desires the 
 increased size at the expense of a few days’ time in earliness. 
 
 The effort to establish an extra early strain of this popular 
 cabbage has not been entirely successful. Here size was 
 sacrificed and selection made from the very earliest specimens, 
 which are frequently the smallest. As a result, we find this 
 strain not only small but rather too finely bred and lacking 
 in vitality, vigor, and hardiness, it succumbs more readily to 
 unfavorable conditions, and is more sensitive to the attacks 
 of its natural enemies than the regular strain, while the claim 
 of earlier maturity is but doubtfully established. 
 
 The true Early Jersey Wakefield usually sold as Select 
 or Selected Early Jersey Wakefield, is early, reliable about 
 heading, and very uniform ; the leaves are dark green in 
 
IOO 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 color and very thick, and the stem short. The plant is a 
 vigorous grower, very hardy, enabling the gardener to carry 
 it through the winter with ordinary care, and seems to pos- 
 sess, in a marked degree, the essential elements of a typical 
 early cabbage. Its greatest fault is the cracking of the heads 
 as soon as they mature, a feature which makes it impossible to 
 hold the crop for any length of time after maturity. Notwith- 
 standing this fault the Early Jersey Wakefield, 
 for more than 20 years, has been the 
 popular first early cabbage, and is to- 
 day more extensively grown for 
 market than any other 
 early variety. 
 
 Fig. 37. — Early Jersey Wakefield. 
 
 Etampes and Early Express* are two new French 
 
 sorts so closely resembling each other as to make a separate 
 description unnecessary. These two varieties have been ex- 
 tensively advertised as the earliest of all, and we have usually 
 found that a few heads can be secured from them before the 
 Wakefield. For practical purposes, however, we do not think 
 them so desirable ; the heads are not so large and lack the 
 solidity characteristic of the Early Wakefield, while the con- 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 IOI 
 
 stitution of the plant does not appear to be so strong and 
 vigorous. The best strains of these two sorts are very true 
 and head up uniformly and well, and were the claim of 
 extreme earliness well established they might be found very 
 desirable in many instances, but we usually find that although 
 we can find heads among them in advance of the Early 
 Wakefield, we are unable to market the general crop any 
 earlier, while the disadvantages above spoken of render their 
 extended use in the market garden rather improbable. 
 
 Fig. 38.— New Extra Early Express. 
 
 Second Early Cabbages. 
 
 Recent'years have seen many additions to the list of second 
 early cabbages, most of which have been excellent. To 
 attempt to describe all of them would take more time than we 
 have at our command, and we desire to consider them collect- 
 ively rather than individually, making mention incidentally 
 of a few of the most prominent sorts of the present time. 
 
 The typical second early cabbage is one which combines 
 •the essential features of early maturity, size, and reliability of 
 heading. Earliness is desirable because the cabbage is used to 
 
102 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 follow closely after our earliest sorts in the markets, but, as 
 this quality is opposed to size, we would prefer a variety 
 which made some concession in earliness in order to secure 
 good-sized heads. The claim made for some of the recent 
 introductions in the second class, that they are just as early as 
 the Wakefield and twice the size, is hardly worthy of consid- 
 eration. 
 
 All of the second early sorts of the flat and round-headed 
 types have an important place in our fields, but that place 
 will not be found in supplanting the early varieties. They 
 are entirely distinct in character, and their place is to follow 
 the early sorts with a larger head of different shape, which 
 packs closer for transportation and, as a rule, commands 
 better prices than the pointed heads of the earliest sorts. In 
 the matter of size we regard with most favor in this class that 
 strain which gives us good-sized heads without excessive 
 growth of plant. With most gardeners economy of space is 
 an important consideration, and the rule is to plant thickly. 
 This is folly with any variety which makes a strong growth of 
 outside leaves, as overcrowding results in various deformities 
 and lessens rather than increases the product ; but where a 
 strain of seed has been bred to produce heads of good size 
 with comparatively small outside growth, close planting can 
 be adopted with profit. 
 
 The greatest difficulty experienced in growing the second 
 early sorts, when the plants are carried over the winter in 
 cold frames, or in milder climates where they will live out-of- 
 doors during the winter months, arises from a tendency to 
 run to seed, which is quite common to all these varieties. 
 Where growth is continuous from the time of sowing the seed 
 until maturity no difficulty will be experienced, and it is not 
 likely to be found where growth is only occasionally checked 
 by unusual cold, but where the plants stand for weeks practi- 
 cally at a standstill, as they do in northern cold frames or 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 I0 3 
 
 throughout the northern sections of the Southern States, 
 where the winters do not kill but render growth impossible, 
 the tendency to seed is much more marked in the second 
 early than in the earliest sorts. For this reason the seed of 
 these cabbages should not be planted for cold frames until ten 
 days or two weeks later than the early varieties, in which event 
 the danger of the plants seeding, when growth begins in the 
 spring, is much diminished, or we can use hot-bed plants 
 with safety. 
 
 Fig. 39. — Henderson's Early Summer. 
 
 Henderson’s Early Summer. — This variety is one of 
 our most popular second early sorts. It is a strain of Newark 
 Early Flat Dutch, first introduced by Peter Henderson & Co., 
 and, through extensive advertising, has become so well and 
 favorably known under this name as almost to have superseded 
 the old strain. In point of maturity it is about ten days later 
 than the Early Wakefield. The best strains are very true in 
 color (a bluish shade of green), and their habit of growth is 
 compact, with few outside leaves; it heads up with the 
 greatest regularity, nearly every plant producing a good, hard 
 
104 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 head, and all approaching maturity at nearly the same time. 
 It must be admitted, however, that there always has been, 
 even in the very best strains, a tendency to produce heads 
 which are pointed, or nearly so, and which are not desirable, 
 and the best efforts of our seed growers have, so far, failed to 
 entirely eliminate them. This must be considered its greatest 
 fault. 
 
 Burpee’s Allhead Early (Fig. 40).— This is one of 
 the most recent introductions and commends itself to the 
 gardener as one of the very best of the second earlies. It is 
 
 rather larger than the Early Summer, and this increase in 
 size has apparently been gained without lengthening the season 
 of growth, as we do not find any material loss in earliness. It 
 is a sure-heading strain, very uniform in size, color, and habit 
 of growth, and well merits its popularity. 
 
 Henderson’s Succession (Fig. 41). — This is a trifle 
 later than the two sorts above mentioned, and is valuable as 
 an intermediate as well as a second early sort. It is deservedly 
 popular, producing solid, flat heads of excellent quality ; the 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. I05 
 
 growth is strong and vigorous and the plant heads uniformly 
 and well. 
 
 Intermediate Sorts. 
 
 We class as intermediate those sorts which, in season of 
 maturity follow the second earlies. Their place is an impor- 
 tant one for, not only can they be used to follow the second 
 earlies in the markets, but it frequently happens that in the 
 
 Fig. 41.— Henderson’s Succession. 
 
 rush of work incidental to the busy season the planting of 
 seed has been too long delayed to allow a late variety to 
 mature before cold weather, and we find that, by planting the 
 intermediate sorts, we have yet time to obtain a good crop, 
 while the difference in yield is so small as to be of no great 
 importance. These sorts are seldom used for the first plant- 
 ings, the seed, as a rule, being planted in hotbeds for first 
 sowing, and later in the open ground. 
 
io6 
 
 cabbage and cauliflower. 
 
 All Seasons (Fig. 42). — This is a most excellent inter- 
 mediate sort of strong growth and excellent heading capacity. 
 As first introduced it presented considerable diversity of type, 
 but this has been largely corrected in the best strains of the 
 present time. This sort will stand long in the field after 
 maturity without bursting open, which, in some instances, is a 
 very desirable feature. The heads are large and deep, flattened 
 
 at the top, and are of excellent quality, and we have found it 
 one of the best winter keepers. 
 
 Louisville Drumhead (Fig. 43). — The true strain of 
 this cabbage possesses all the qualities of a most excellent in- 
 termediate sort. In season of maturity it is with the All Sea- 
 sons and about two weeks later than the Early Summer. In 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 107 
 
 color it is quite distinct, being of a dark bluish shade of green. 
 The plant is of dwarf habit, but produces heads of compara- 
 tively large size, — in fact, we know of no cabbage which will 
 produce heads so large in comparison to the growth of plant. 
 It also seems to possess the power of resisting the attacks of 
 insect enemies, and will, in many instances, give crops under 
 conditions where other sorts fail. It heads well in hot, dry 
 weather, and is, withal, a valuable sort. We note with 
 regret, however, that other sorts have sometimes been substi- 
 
 Fig. 43. — Louisville Drumhead. 
 
 tuted and sold under this name, leading to confusion, and, in 
 many instances, to disappointment, and, without doubt, to 
 some degree detracting from the reputation it would otherwise 
 have established. 
 
 Fottler’s Brunswick (Fig. 44). — This is one of the 
 older sorts which still retains its popularity. Its distinctive 
 features are a very short stem, a decidedly flat head, and the 
 peculiar spoon-like form assumed by the leaves. Without 
 doubt a good strain of Fottler’s Brunswick is an excellent 
 
io8 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 cabbage and in some localities it is very highly valued, but it 
 must be admitted that a tendency to form rosettes appears to 
 be natural to it, and while a very large proportion of them 
 
 Fig. 44.— Fottler’s Early, or Short -Stem Drumhead. 
 
 form good, solid heads, it is never entirely free from this im- 
 perfection. It is a little later than the other intermediate sorts 
 mentioned, but earlier than the late varieties; of compact 
 habit but a strong grower. A number of strains of this cab- 
 bage have been developed and sent out under various natties. 
 
 Warren’s Stone Mason is somewhat earlier than the 
 late sorts, and therefore may be classed as an intermediate. It 
 is one of the most thoroughbred sorts we have and the hardest 
 heading variety among the green cabbages. It is a light green 
 in color, growing very true to type, the only variation being in 
 the shape of the heads, which grow both round and flat. 
 Under favorable conditions almost every plant will produce a 
 very solid head of unusual weight in comparison to its size. 
 It is to be regretted that the constitution of the plant is not 
 robust and it is one of the first to succumb to unfavorable 
 conditions. 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 I09 
 
 Late Cabbages. 
 
 The ideal late cabbage is one which combines in greatest 
 degree strong, vigorous growth and sure-heading capacity 
 with good table and keeping qualities. The list is a long one, 
 comprising many names, and yet nearly all the prominent 
 sorts are but selections of the Late Flat Dutch and Drumhead 
 stocks, differing from the parent strains according to the ideas 
 followed in their development and the success met with in 
 carrying out these ideas. So many names have been given to 
 these sorts, and the substitution of one for another is so com- 
 mon, as to lead to confusion of varieties in the mind of the 
 average gardener, and it is no uncommon thing to find even 
 close observers who will insist that there is no difference what- 
 ever between the two strains of late cabbage known as the Flat 
 Dutch and Drumhead stocks. With this conclusion we are com- 
 pelled to differ, and must insist that there is not only a technical, 
 but a practical difference, and one which it is desirable to main- 
 tain. It must be admitted, however, that in the very best strains 
 of Drumhead we are able to find specimens which, in all re- 
 spects, seem to be typical Flat Dutch, while Drumheads among 
 the Flat Dutch stocks are by no means uncommon. And yet 
 we think that the line between the two may be clearly drawn 
 and followed with reasonable exactness throughout the entire 
 list of late and intermediate sorts. 
 
 In the Flat Dutch varieties the ideal type gives strong but 
 not excessive growth ; a head thick, but decidedly flattened 
 on top ; a leaf but slightly blistered, with the outer edges 
 nearly smooth or presenting only a slightly ruffled appearance ; 
 in color the foliage assumes a bluish cast. 
 
 In the late Drumheads we find a more vigorous growth of 
 outside leaf, a brighter green in the color of the foliage, a 
 more distinctly ruffled appearance to the edges of the leaves, 
 and the heads assume a rounder form. The Drumheads are 
 
no 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 the larger of the two stocks. It is true that among late cab- 
 bages we frequently find plants which possess the character of 
 both stocks, the smoother leaf of the Flat Dutch being some- 
 times combined with the rounder head of the Drumhead, while 
 others have unquestionably originated from one stock and been 
 changed by breeding to such an extent as to assume the char- 
 acter of the other. For instance, Burpee’s Surehead (Fig. 
 45) is, no doubt, a cabbage of Flat Dutch parentage which, by 
 
 selection, has come 
 to assume so much 
 of the Drumhead 
 character that we 
 now consider it a 
 cabbage of the 
 Drumhead type. 
 
 We know that 
 many of our gar- 
 dening friends will 
 be disposed to think 
 that such points of 
 difference as we 
 have mentioned are 
 of little or no con- 
 sequence in the cul- 
 tivation of their 
 fields, but let us 
 look a little closer and see if this technical knowledge of 
 varieties cannot be applied to the practical part of our busi- 
 ness. If, for instance, we are growing cabbages to be sold 
 in the city markets, the Flat Dutch strains are most desir- 
 able, as they present a rather better appearance, pack to 
 better advantage in barrels, and are usually preferred by 
 purchasers. On the other hand, if we are growing them 
 for the pickling establishments, where they are sold by the 
 
 Fig. 45. — Burpee’s Surehead. 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ton (an industry of. no small proportions at the present time), 
 we should prefer the Drumhead varieties, as a given bulk will 
 certainly weigh more than the same bulk of Flat Dutch. 
 
 Besides numerous varieties offered under other names, we 
 have three strains of the Flat Dutch : Excelsior, which is a 
 little in advance of the others in point of maturity, and very 
 uniform and well bred ; Premium, a medium and very reliable 
 sort for main crop ; and the Large Late, which is later and 
 larger than the 
 others. 
 
 Among the Drum- 
 heads we are much 
 impressed with the 
 value of a strain 
 called Premium 
 Late Drumhead, 
 which, for our pur- 
 pose, appears to 
 combine many val- 
 uable features. 
 
 Both the Savoy 
 and the Red cab- 
 bages may be Fig. 46 —Burpee’s Superior Large Late Flat Dutch, 
 classed as late sorts, 
 
 although there are strains of each which mature as early as 
 some of the intermediates; these strains, however, produce 
 such small heads that they have never found much favor. 
 We wonder exceedingly that more Savoy cabbage is not 
 grown as a late or winter cabbage. It is true that some 
 of the old sorts were unreliable and very small, but the newer 
 introductions head with as great regularity as most cabbages, 
 are excellent keepers, and of the finest flavor. Perfection 
 Drumhead is finely curled, sure heading, and excellent in all 
 respects. Marvin’s is larger but hardly as well curled. 
 
II 2 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 Marvin’s Savoy Cabbage. — Tested at the New York 
 Agricultural Experiment Station, this new strain of Drumhead 
 Savoy Cabbage was reported on as follows : ‘ ‘ Twelve plants 
 
 transplanted June 23d. Fit for table use August 29th. Num- 
 ber of heads, 1 2 ; average diameter, 8^ inches ; average 
 weight, 5 pounds 1 4 ounces. ’ ’ This was the only variety they 
 made a special mention of, and said : “ Among those deserv- 
 
 ing of special mention was Marvin’s Savoy, of which the 
 
 Fig. 47.— Marvin’s Savoy . — Engraved from a Photograph. 
 
 heads were very large, and nearly as compact as those of the 
 more solid, smooth-leaved varieties.” 
 
 Savoy cabbages, as you are doubtless aware, are all of very 
 sweet flavor and are really superior for cooking. 
 
 Red cabbages are in demand for pickling during the late 
 fall and early winter months, at which season they can usually 
 be disposed of to good advantage. It is not advisable to 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 ”3 
 
 keep them till spring, and if not disposed of during the fall 
 they should be stored in the manner recommended for early 
 winter use. Mammoth Rock Red is a great favorite, pro- 
 ducing large, solid heads, true to color and reliable about 
 heading. 
 
 Burpee’s Safe-Crop Cabbage (Fig. 48) is a large, late 
 strain of market gardener’s cabbage, which is sure to head. 
 The heads are of large size, hard and firm, with but few outside 
 leaves; stems short, foliage compact, and of a beautiful green 
 
 Fig. 48.— Burpee’s Safe-Crop Cabbage. 
 
 color. The plants are thrifty, easily transplanted ; set in rows 
 three feet apart and two feet in the rows to admit of cultiva- 
 tion. It is a very desirable variety for a late crop on account 
 of its solidity, and because it is an excellent winter keeper. It 
 also stands a considerable time without bursting. In quality 
 it is not quite equal to Burpee’s Surehead as a summer cab- 
 bage, being slightly strong, but it improves as the season ad- 
 vances, making a winter cabbage hard to equal. The thick, 
 flat heads are remarkably uniform in color, as well as in shape 
 8 
 
1 14 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 and size ; it is a rapid grower and well repays good cultivation. 
 It is very tender and juicy at all stages of growth, cares little 
 for the worms, and will stand a hot, dry time remarkably 
 well. 
 
 Burpee’s World-Beater Cabbage. — This new cab- 
 bage (which was procured from Francis Brill) originated near 
 Hoboken, in Hudson County, N. J., and well deserves the 
 name World-Beater, for never before have we seen any cab- 
 bage that produces such uniformly large heads, or any very 
 
 large cabbage in which the heads were so hard and solid. We 
 predict that in a few years the Marblehead Mammoth will be 
 discarded, for not only is World-Beater fully as large, if not 
 larger, but also it is uniformly true to type and sure to head 
 hard — “ solid as a rock. ” The large, broad heads are very 
 thick through, rounded at the top ; fine grained and tender, — 
 more so than any other very large cabbage. Stalk short, 
 foliage compact, dark green with a purplish-brown tinge. It 
 is a rapid grower, and does not require special culture to 
 develop. 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 XI 5 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter further into the description 
 of varieties, but we cannot refrain from expressing a hope that 
 the fact that many excellent varieties are not mentioned here 
 will not be construed as an effort on our part to detract from 
 their merits. We have always been impressed with the influ- 
 ence of local climatic conditions upon different varieties, and 
 regard the experience of the grower in his own locality as the 
 safest guide. The opinions of a grower in New York are of 
 doubtful value to a grower in Florida or Canada, and these 
 notes on varieties are appended, not so much to influence his 
 selection of sorts, as in the hope that some of our suggestions 
 may be valuable when supplemented by the conclusions which 
 his own practical experience gives. As one year follows 
 another new varieties will come and old ones go. Those pro- 
 cesses, so well known to the cultivator, will be all-sufficient 
 to separate the good grain from the chaff, while the impetus 
 given to the work of developing the plant to its fullest degree 
 of usefulness by the increasing demand for the very best 
 of each class will certainly operate to the benefit of the 
 grower. 
 
 VARIETIES OF CAULIFLOWERS. 
 
 II. The varieties of cauliflower are by no means as numerous 
 as those of cabbage, and the list does not appear to be increas- 
 ing to any great extent. In looking over the experiences 
 of the past fifteen years, in a section of country which is 
 probably more extensively engaged in the cauliflower culture 
 than any other in the United States, we are impressed with 
 the completeness with which one variety has succeeded 
 another — in fact, there is no other vegetable in the garden in 
 which the recent introductions have so completely superseded 
 the old sorts. 
 
 Our first experiences were with such sorts as Early Paris , 
 Nonpareil , LeNormand' s Short Stem, etc., which were never 
 
n6 
 
 V 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 too reliable, but under the conditions of new land and 
 thorough cultivation gave fair crops, and very paying ones, 
 at the high prices then ruling. A few years later these sorts 
 had dropped entirely out of existence with the introduction 
 of the Algiers, which, when first introduced, was much better 
 than any of the first named sorts. To-day we note another 
 change ; we may now pass through hundreds of acres without 
 noticing a single plant of the Algiers variety, so entirely has 
 it been replaced by the Erfurt strains. To our mind the 
 latter change would not have been so complete, but for the 
 fact that the strain of Algiers seed sold seemed rapidly to 
 deteriorate. If it were possible to secure, with any degree 
 of certainty, the same stock first introduced under this name, 
 we should still find it filling a prominent place in our fields ; 
 but after a few years of cultivation we found ourselves no 
 longer able to obtain the true strain, and discarding it 
 became a necessity. 
 
 Algiers. — When true, this sort is of vigorous growth, with 
 long leaves which taper to a decided point at the ends ; its 
 color is of a decidedly bluish cast, and in this respect good 
 strains are very uniform. It should be a very sure-heading 
 sort, producing large, solid, white heads, free from leaves, 
 and of excellent quality. 
 
 Veitch’s Autumn or Italian Giant. — We mention this 
 sort, not to commend it, but to offer a word of caution. It 
 much resembles the Algiers in color and habit of growth, and, 
 if it can be made to head at all, the heads are similar. We 
 find it so slow in reaching maturity as to be practically worth- 
 less in this section. Possibly it may be valuable in localities 
 favorable to its development ; but to our mind the grower 
 should plant it sparingly until he finds it will mature the 
 heads. 
 
 The Erfurt strains, of which there are several, appear to 
 be at the present time our most reliable sorts. It may be said 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 117 
 
 that there are at least three distinct strains of Erfurt, which, 
 when true, leave little to be desired, provided the locality in 
 which they are grown is favorable to their development. 
 
 Earliest Dwarf Erfurt (Fig. 50), sometimes called Extra 
 Early, or Narrow-Leafed Erfurt, is a very dwarf variety and the 
 earliest of the Erfurt varieties. It is very valuable for our 
 earliest, as well as latest planting, as it reaches maturity so 
 quickly as to enable the grower to secure a crop in the event 
 of his planting being delayed until too late to plant the later 
 
 Fig. 50.— Earliest Dwarf Erfurt Cauliflower. 
 
 strains. It is very reliable about heading, producing heads 
 of the finest quality, although not so large as the later and 
 larger growing sorts. 
 
 Early Snowball (Fig. 51) is a variety of Erfurt which, 
 since it has been extensively advertised under this name, has 
 attained great popularity, and is now the main reliance for 
 the most extensive plantings. It is of dwarf habit, but not 
 so small as the first mentioned strain, and the heads are much 
 larger. Under favorable conditions nearly every plant will 
 make a fine, solid head of good size. Although not so early 
 
n8 
 
 CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER. 
 
 as the Earliest Dwarf, it is valuable both for the early and the 
 late crops, and, taken altogether, we find it the most relia- 
 ble of the Erfurts. 
 
 The Large Erfurt is the largest and latest of the Erfurts ; 
 is, perhaps, two weeks later than the Snowball ; is reliable 
 about heading, but does not mature its crop so evenly as the 
 earlier strains. This variety is valuable mainly for the fall 
 planting, for which purpose it is used largely and prized 
 highly. 
 
 All of the Erfurts are similar in color, a rather bright shade 
 
 of green, and in habit of growth, the distinctive features be- 
 ing found in the size of the plant and season of maturity. 
 
 Burpee’s Best Early Cauliflower. — Named and intro- 
 duced by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. in 1887, this grand variety 
 has proved to be, as claimed, the very best early cauliflower in 
 cultivation. It has attained its present perfection after sixteen 
 years’ intelligent selection by one grower, and is remarkable 
 both for its extra earliness and certainty to head. Of dwarf, 
 compact growth, with short stalk, it bears close planting, and 
 
NOTES ON VARIETIES. 
 
 119 
 
 the leaves, growing upright, naturally protect the heads. The 
 large, handsome heads, measuring eight to ten inches across, 
 are pure, snowy-white, very close, compact, and of the finest 
 quality. So extremely solid and deep, nearly globe-shaped, 
 are the heads, that they weigh heavier than most, if not all 
 
 Fig. 52.— Burpee’s Best Early Cauliflower. 
 
 other cauliflowers of the same size. Market gardeners can 
 use “Burpee’s Best Early” for either early or late, with full 
 assurance that it is impossible to procure a better or more 
 reliable variety. 
 
 1 
 
s 
 
 / 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AMMONIA sulphate, 29, 32 
 Anthromyia brassicse, 42 
 Aphis brassicae, 39 
 All Seasons cabbage, 106 
 
 "DI-SULPHIDE carbon, 44 
 
 Bone-black, dissolved, 27, 29 
 Buhach, 39 
 
 /"'ABBAGE aphis, 39 
 borer, 45. 
 
 Burpee’s Allhead Early, 
 104 
 
 Safe Crop, 113 
 Sup. Large Late 
 Flat Dutch, hi 
 W orld-Beater, 
 
 H4 
 
 club-root in, 51 
 deterioration of plant, 18 
 etampes, 100 
 good type of leaf, 14 
 imperfect head, 18 
 insect enemies, 36-52 
 intermediate sorts, 99-105 
 Louisville Drumhead, 106 
 maggot, 42 
 mamestra, 50 
 Marvin’s Savoy, 112 
 New Extra Early Express, 
 101 
 
 perfect head of, 17 
 plusia, 46 
 
 stem of good type, 15 
 over-crowded, 15 
 of poor type, 15 
 solid at base of head, 16 
 not solid at base of head, 16 
 Warren’s Stone Mason, 108 
 wild or original type, 19 
 worm, 36 
 
 Zebra Caterpillar, 36 
 Canning cauliflower, 88 
 Carbon bi-sulphide, 44, 
 
 Cauliflower, 73, 75, 115, 119 
 Algiers, 116 
 
 Cauliflower, Burpee’s Best Early, 118, 
 1 19 
 
 Earliest Dwarf Erfurt, 117 
 Le Normand’s Short Stem, 
 H5 
 
 loss from poor seed, 19 
 Early Paris, 115 
 
 Snowball, 117, 118 
 packing for market, 85 
 papering, 83 
 pickling, 87 
 pinning up, 80 
 tucking up, 80 
 tying up, 80 
 Cheap seed, 21 
 Clover sod, 23 
 
 crimson, 24 
 Club-root, 51 
 Cost of fertilizer, 30 
 
 transportation, 31 
 system, 31 
 
 Continued cropping, results of, 23 
 Credit system, 31 
 
 DIBBERS, 56 
 
 Dried blood, 29, 32 
 fish scrap, 32 
 
 Dissolved South Carolina rock, 34 
 
 DARLY cabbages, 53-58 
 
 Jersey Wakefield cabbage, 99 
 Jersey Wakefield cabbage, 
 select, 99 
 varieties, 99-101 
 Estimated cost per acre, 93-95 
 Excessive rainfall, 25 
 
 "FERTILIZERS, 27-35 
 c high and low grade, 
 
 30-31 
 
 dried blood, 33 
 fish. 33 
 meat, 33 
 meat scrap, 33 
 Fottler’s Brunswick cabbage, 107 
 
 I 2 I 
 

 122 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 /"* REEN manure, 24 
 
 clover as, 23, 24 
 crimson clover as, 
 24 
 
 Ground meat, 34 
 
 "LJ ARLEQUIN cabbage bug, 48 
 AA Henderson’s Early Summer cab- 
 bage, 103 
 Succession cab- 
 bage, 104 
 
 Potash, 27, 29, 33 
 
 muriate, 29, 33, 34 
 sulphate, 29 
 Profit and loss, 92 
 Phyllotreta vittata, 36 
 Pyrethro-kerosene emulsion, 50 
 Pyrethrum powder, 39 
 
 TP ED cabbages, 112 
 ^ spider, 45 
 Rock dissolved, S. C., 28, 33 
 phosphate, 27 
 
 INTERMEDIATE sorts of cabbage, 
 A 99-105 
 
 Introduction, 9-12 
 Imported cabbage worm, 37 
 
 T^EROSENE emulsion, 39-45 
 
 Pyrethro, 50 
 
 OECOND early cabbages, 99-101 
 0 Seed, 13 
 
 size, appearance, and germi- 
 native power, 12 
 Soil and preparation, 22 
 Storing for winter, 70-72 
 Sulphate ammonia, 29, 32 
 
 T AND plaster, 41 
 
 Late cabbages, 59, 99, 109 
 cauliflower, 76-91 
 
 Lime, 41, 
 
 Louisville Drumhead cabbage, 106 
 
 lWTAMESTRA picta, 47 
 AVA trifolii, 50 
 
 Marker, 90 
 
 Marvin’s Savoy cabbage, 112 
 Murgantia histrionica, 48 
 Muriate potash, 33, 34 
 
 "MITRATE soda, 29, 33, 34 
 x 1 Notes on varieties, 97 
 Nitrogen, 27, 29 
 
 IDAPERING cauliflower, 83 
 Paris green, 38 
 Pickling cauliflower, 87 
 Pinning up cauliflower, 80 
 Planting the seed bed, 61 
 Plasmodiophora brassicae, 51 
 Plusia brassicae, 51 
 Phosphoric acid, 27, 29, 33 
 
 available, 29, 33 
 insoluble, 34 
 
 HPETRANYCHUS telarius, 45 
 A Thrip, 45 
 Tucking up cauliflower, 80 
 
 T 7 ARIETIES of cabbages, 99 
 v early, 99 
 
 second early, 99, 100 
 intermediate, 99, 105 
 late, 99, 109 
 of cauliflower, 115-119 
 of cauliflower, Algiers, 
 116 
 
 of cauliflower, Burpee’s 
 best early, 118, 119 
 of cauliflower, Erfurt, 
 116, 117 
 
 of cauliflower, Early 
 Snowball, 117 
 
 TX/ARREN’S Stone Mason, 108 
 vv Wavy-striped Flea-Beetle, 36, 37 
 When to plant early cabbages, 54 
 late cabbages, 65 
 early cauliflower, 73 
 late cauliflower, 76 
 
 ^ EBRA Caterpillar, 47 
 
Horticultural Books. 
 
 WHY WE PUBLISH THEM. 
 
 In the success of the planter is the germ of our success. First, 
 the best Seeds, Bulbs, and Plants ; next, the plainly told prac- 
 tice of accepted experts in gardening. This is why we publish 
 books on Horticulture, and from a modest beginning this feature 
 of our business has grown to very considerable proportions. The 
 past year we distributed many volumes, which shows how fortunate 
 we are in publishing books the people want. 
 
 Two Useful Books for the MILLION. 
 
 VEGETABLES for the HOME GARDEN 
 
 This is really a 30=cent book, but it. is so obviously needed by every one that 
 we offer it to our customers at the merely nominal charge of ten cents. 
 
 It is a brief, clear, and reliable book of 125 pages, illustrated with more than 
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 Part First treats of the Location and Management of the Home Garden, 
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 Cold Frames, Selection of Seed, Preparation and Planting, Climate, etc. 
 
 Part Second gives accurate and complete Cultural Directions for all Culinary 
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 Time Required from Planting until Vegetables are Ready for Use. 
 
 In the Appendix are revised Planting Tables for Vegetables, Grass and Forage 
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 Tables of Annual Rainfall for all the States of the Union. 
 
 . The book has been compiled from our own publications, the trial records of 
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 Fully Illustrated. Price 10 Cents, Postpaid. 
 
 FLOWERS FOR EVERY HOME. 
 
 This new book tells how to grow successfully flowers from seed, both indoors 
 and out. It has been written by E. D Darlington, who for many years has 
 been the general superintendent of our Trial Grounds. Few writers have had 
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 Fully Illustrated. Price 10 Cents 
 Both Books, postpaid, for 16 cts. (eight 2-cent stamps). 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
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Celery for Profit. 
 
 All agree that Celery offers greater chances for making money 
 than any other garden crop. The difficulties encountered by the 
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 The book is thoroughly 
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 contents : — 
 
 Steneralities — An Introduction— The Early Celery— The New Celery Culture- 
 The Irrigation Problem— The Fall and Winter Crop— Winter Storage— Mar- 
 keting Problems— Varieties, etc., etc. 
 
 Price, Postpaid, 20 Cents, 
 
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 Fully Illustrated. Price 40 cts. 
 
 SWEET PEAS Up = to=Date. 
 
 In 1893 we published All About Sweet Peas, by Rev. W. T. 
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 Since then rapid progress has been made in the development of new improved 
 varieties and much knowledge has been gained from further experience under 
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 SWEET PEAS Up=To=Date. In order that all lovers of Sweet Peas may 
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 ■T OP ZO three books for the Million, — Sweet Peas Up-to-Date, 
 
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 ceding page. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
ONIONS 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 
 
 30 
 
 12 061342314 
 
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 A Full and Complete Hand=Book of Onion Growing. 
 
 At last we publish a really complete hand-book on Onion grow- 
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