CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS: ***

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New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. Library

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Cabbages

and

Cauliflowers:

HOW TO GROW THEM.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE, GIVING FULL DETAILS ON EVERY POINT, INCLUDING KEEPING AND MARKETING THE CROP.

[Illustration: Cabbage Head]

BY

JAMES J. H. GREGORY,

ORIGINAL INTRODUCER OF THE MARBLEHEAD, DEEP HEAD, WARREN, ALL SEASONS, HARD HEADING, AND REYNOLDS CABBAGES.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by JAMES J. H. GREGORY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE OBJECT OF TREATISE 1

THE ORIGIN OF CABBAGE 1

WHAT A CABBAGE IS 2

SELECTING THE SOIL 4

PREPARING THE SOIL 5

THE MANURE 6

HOW TO APPLY THE MANURE 8

MAKING THE HILLS AND PLANTING THE SEED 11

CARE OF THE YOUNG PLANTS 16

PROTECTING THE PLANTS FROM THEIR ENEMIES 18

THE GREEN WORM 22

CLUB, OR STUMP ROOT, OR MAGGOT 24

CARE OF THE GROWING CROP 29

MARKETING THE CROP 30

KEEPING CABBAGE THROUGH THE WINTER 32

HAVING CABBAGE MAKE HEADS IN WINTER 39

FOREIGN VARIETIES OF CABBAGE 43-45

AMERICAN VARIETIES 46-60

SAVOY VARIETIES 60-63

OTHER VARIETIES 63-67

CABBAGE GREENS 67

CABBAGE FOR STOCK 69

RAISING CABBAGE SEED 73

COOKING CABBAGE, SOUR-KROUT, ETC. 75

CABBAGE UNDER GLASS 76

COLD FRAME AND HOT-BED 78

CAULIFLOWER, BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS-SPROUTS, KALE AND SEA-KALE 81

CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS.

OBJECT OF THIS TREATISE.

As a general, yet very thorough, response to inquiries from many of my customers about cabbage raising, I have aimed in this treatise to tell them all about the subject. The different inquiries made from time to time have given me a pretty clear idea of the many heads under which information is wanted; and it has been my aim to give this with the same thoroughness of detail as in my little work on Squashes. I have endeavored to talk in a very practical way, drawing from a large observation and experience, and receiving, in describing varieties, some valuable information from McIntosh's work, "The Book of the Garden."

THE ORIGIN OF CABBAGE.

Botanists tell us that all of the Cabbage family, which includes not only every variety of cabbage, Red, White, and Savoy, but all the cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and brussels sprouts, had their origin in the wild cabbage of Europe (_Brassica oleracea_), a plant with green, wavy leaves, much resembling charlock, found growing wild at Dover in England, and other parts of Europe. This plant, says McIntosh, is mostly confined to the sea-shore, and grows only on chalky or calcareous soils.

Thus through the wisdom of the Great Father of us all, who occasionally in his great garden allows vegetables to sport into a higher form of life, and grants to some of these sports sufficient strength of individuality to enable them to perpetuate themselves, and, at times, to blend their individuality with that of other sports, we have the heading cabbage in its numerous varieties, the creamy cauliflower, the feathery kale, the curled savoy. On my own grounds from a strain of seed that had been grown isolated for years, there recently came a plant that in its structure closely resembled Brussels Sprouts, growing about two feet in height, with a small head under each leaf. The cultivated cabbage was first introduced into England by the Romans, and from there nearly all the kinds cultivated in this country were originally brought. Those which we consider as peculiarly American varieties, have only been made so by years of careful improvement on the original imported sorts. The characteristics of these varieties will be given farther on.

WHAT A CABBAGE IS.

If we cut vertically through the middle of the head, we shall find it made up of successive layers of leaves, which grow smaller and smaller, almost _ad infinitum_. Now, if we take a fruit bud from an apple-tree and make a similar section of it, we shall find the same structure. If we observe the development of the two, as spring advances, we shall find another similarity (the looser the head the closer will be the resemblance),--the outer leaves of each will unwrap and unfold, and a flower stem will push out from each. Here we see that a cabbage is a bud, a seed bud (as all fruit buds may be termed, the production