Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them
J >> James John Howard Gregory >> Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow ThemNew York
State College of Agriculture
At Cornell University
Ithaca, N. Y.
Library
* * * * *
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 of
seed being the primary object in nature, the fruit enclosing it playing
but a secondary part), the office of the leaves being to cover, protect,
and afterwards nourish the young seed shoot. The outer leaves which
surround the head appear to have the same office as the leaves which
surround the growing fruit bud, and that office closes with the first
year, as does that of the leaves surrounding fruit buds, when each die
and drop off. In my locality the public must have perceived more or less
clearly the analogy between the heads of cabbage and the buds of trees,
for when they speak of small heads they frequently call them "buds."
That the close wrapped leaves which make the cabbage head and surround
the seed germ, situated just in the middle of the head at the
termination of the stump, are necessary for its protection and nutrition
when young, is proved, I think, by the fact that those cabbages, the
heads of which are much decayed, when set out for seed, no matter how
sound the seed germ may be at the end of the stump, never make so large
or healthy a seed shoot as those do the heads of which are sound; as a
rule, after pushing a feeble growth, they die.
For this reason I believe that the office of the head is similar to and
as necessary as that of the leaves which unwrap from around the blossom
buds of our fruit trees. It is true that the parallel cannot be fully
maintained, as the leaves which make up the cabbage head do not to an
equal degree unfold (particularly is this true of hard heads); yet they
exhibit a vitality of their own, which is seen in the deeper green color
the outer leaves soon attain, and the change from tenderness to
toughness in their structure: I think, therefore, that the degree of
failure in the parallel may be measured by the difference between a
higher and a lower form of organic life.
Some advocate the economy of cutting off a large portion of the heads
when cabbages are set out for seed to use as food for stock. There is
certainly a great temptation, standing amid acres of large, solid, heads
in the early spring months, when green food of all kinds is scarce, to
cut and use such an immense amount of rich food, which, to the
inexperienced eye, appears to be utterly wasted if left to decay, dry,
and fall to the ground; but, for the reason given above, I have never
done so. It is possible that large heads may bear trimming to a degree
without injury to the seed crop; yet I should consider this an
experiment, and one to be tried with a good deal of caution.
SELECTING THE SOIL.
In some of the best cabbage-growing sections of the country, until
within a comparatively few years it was the very general belief that
cabbage would not do well on upland. Accordingly the cabbage patch would
be found on the lowest tillage land of the farm. No doubt, the lowest
soil being the richer from a gradual accumulation of the wash from the
upland, when manure was but sparingly used, cabbage would thrive better
there than elsewhere,--and not, as was generally held, because that
vegetable needed more moisture than any other crop. Cabbage can be
raised with success on any good corn land, provided such land is well
manured; and there is no more loss in seasons of drouth on such land
than there is in seasons of excessive moisture on the lower tillage land
of the farm. I wish I could preach a very loud sermon to all my farmer
friends on the great value of liberal manuring to carry crops
successfully through the effects of a severe drouth. Crops on soil
precisely alike, with but a wall to separate them, will, in a very dry
season, present a striking difference,--the one being in fine vigor, and
the other "suffering from drouth," as the owner will tell you; but, in
reality, from want of food.
The smaller varieties of cabbage will thrive well on either light or
strong soil, but the largest drumheads do best on strong soil. For the
_Brassica_ family, including cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, etc.,
there is no soil so suitable as freshly turned sod, provided the surface
is well fined by the harrow; it is well to have as stout a crop of
clover or grass, growing on this sod, when turned under, as possible,
and I incline to the belief that it would be a judicious investment to
start a thick growth of these by the application of guano to the surface
sufficiently long before turning the sod to get an extra growth of the
clover or grass. If the soil be very sandy in character, I would advise
that the variety planted be the Winnigstadt, which, in my experience, is
unexcelled for making a hard head under almost any conditions, however
unpropitious. Should the soil be naturally very wet it should be
underdrained, or stump foot will be very likely to appear, which is
death to all success.
PREPARING THE SOIL.
Should the soil be a heavy clay, a deep fall ploughing is best, that the
frosts of winter may disintegrate it; and should the plan be to raise an
early crop, this end will be promoted by fall ploughing, on any soil, as
the land will thereby be made drier in early spring. In New England the
soil for cabbages should be ploughed as deep as the subsoil, and the
larger drumheads should be planted only on the deepest soil. If the
season should prove a favorable one, a good crop of cabbage may be grown
on sod broken up immediately after a crop of hay has been taken from it,
provided plenty of fine manure is harrowed in. One great risk here is
from the dry weather that usually prevails at that season, preventing
the prompt germination of the seed, or rooting of the plants. It is
prudent in such a case to have a good stock of plants, that such as die
may be promptly replaced. It is wise to plant the seed for these a week
earlier than the main crop, for when transplanted to fill the vacant
places it will take about a week for them to get well rooted.
The manure may be spread on the surface of either sod or stubble land
and ploughed under, or be spread on the surface after ploughing and
thoroughly worked into the soil by the wheel harrow or cultivator. On
ploughed sod I have found nothing so satisfactory as the class of wheel
harrows, which not only cut the manure up fine and work it well under,
but by the same operation cut and pulverize the turf until the sod may
be left not over an inch in thickness. To do the work thus thoroughly
requires a yoke of oxen or a pair of stout horses. All large stones and
large pieces of turf that are torn up and brought to the surface should
be carted off before making the hills.
THE MANURE.
Any manure but hog manure for cabbage,--barn manure, rotten kelp,
night-soil, guano, fertilizers, wood ashes, fish, salt, glue waste, hen
manure, slaughter-house manure. I have used all of these, and found
them all good when rightly applied. If pure hog manure is used it is apt
to produce that corpulent enlargement of the roots known in different
localities as "stump foot," "underground head," "finger and thumb;" but
I have found barn manure on which hogs have run, two hogs to each
animal, excellent. The cabbage is the rankest of feeders, and to perfect
the larger sort a most liberal allowance of the richest composts is
required. To grow the smaller varieties either barn-yard manure, guano,
fertilizers, or wood ashes, if the soil be in good condition, will
answer; though the richer and more abundant the manure the larger are
the cabbages, and the earlier the crop will mature.
To perfect the large varieties of drumhead,--by which I mean to make
them grow to the greatest size possible,--I want a strong compost of
barn-yard manure, with night-soil and muck or fish-waste, and, if
possible, rotten kelp. A compost into which night-soil enters as a
component is best made by first covering a plot of ground, of easy
access, with soil or muck that has been exposed to a winter's frost, to
the depth of about eighteen inches, and raising around this a rim about
three feet in height, and thickness. Into this the night-soil is poured
from carts built for the purpose, until the receptacle is about
two-thirds full. Barn manure is now added, being dropped around and
covering the outer rim, and, if the supply is sufficient, on the top of
the heap also, on which it can be carted after cold weather sets in.
Early in spring, the entire mass should be pitched over, thoroughly
broken up with the bar and pick where frozen, and the frozen masses
thrown on the surface. In pitching over the mass, work the rim in
towards the middle of the heap. After the frozen lumps have thawed, give
the heap another pitching over, aiming to mix all the materials
thoroughly together, and make the entire mass as fine as possible. A
covering of sand, thrown over the heap, before the last pitching, will
help fine it.
To produce a good crop of cabbages, with a compost of this quality, from
six to twelve cords will be required to the acre. If the land is in good
heart, by previous high cultivation, or the soil is naturally very
strong, six cords will give a fair crop of the small varieties; while,
with the same conditions, from nine to twelve cords to the acre will be
required to perfect the largest variety grown, the Marblehead Mammoth
Drumhead.
Of the other kinds of manure named above, I will treat farther under the
head of:
HOW TO APPLY THE MANURE.
The manure is sometimes applied wholly in the hill, at other times
partly broadcast and partly in the hill. If the farmer desires to make
the utmost use of his manure for that season, it will be best to put
most of it into the hill, particularly if his supply runs rather short;
but if he desires to leave his land in good condition for next year's
crop, he had better use part of it broadcast. My own practice is to use
all my rich compost broadcast, and depend on guano, fertilizers, or hen
manure in the hill. Let all guano, if at all lumpy, like the Peruvian,
be sifted, and let all the hard lumps be reduced by pounding, until the
largest pieces shall not be larger than half a pea, before it is
brought upon the ground. My land being ready, the compost worked under
and the rows marked out, I select three trusty hands who can be relied
upon to follow faithfully my directions in applying so dangerous manure
as guano is in careless or ignorant hands; one takes a bucket of it,
and, if for large cabbage, drops as much as he can readily close in his
shut hand, where each hill is to be; if for small sorts, then about half
that quantity, spreading it over a circle about a foot in diameter; the
second man follows with a pronged hoe, or better yet, a six-tined fork,
with which he works the guano well into the soil, first turning it three
or four inches under the surface, and then stirring the soil _very
thoroughly_ with the hoe or fork. Unless the guano (and this is also
true of most fertilizers) is faithfully mixed up with the soil, the seed
will not vegetate. Give the second man about an hour the start, and then
let the third man follow with the seed. Of other fertilizers, I use
about half as much again as of guano to each hill, and of hen manure a
heaping handful, after it has been finely broken up, and, if moist,
slightly mixed with dry earth. When salt is used, it should not be
depended on exclusively, but be used in connection with other manures,
at the rate of from ten to fifteen bushels to the acre, applied
broadcast over the ground, or thoroughly mixed with the manure before
that is applied; if dissolved in the manure, better yet. Salt itself is
not a manure. Its principal office is to change other materials into
plant food. Fish and glue waste are exceedingly powerful manures, very
rich in ammonia, and, if used the first season, they should be in
compost. It is best to handle fish waste, such as heads, entrails,
backbones, and liver waste, precisely like night soil. "Porgy cheese,"
or "chum," the refuse, after pressing out the oil from menhaden and
halibut heads, and sometimes sold extensively for manure, is best
prepared for use by composting it with muck or loam, layer with layer,
at the rate of a barrel to every foot and a half, cord measure, of soil.
As soon as it shows some heat, turn it, and repeat the process, two or
three times, until it is well decomposed, when apply. Another excellent
way to use fish waste is to compost it with barn manure, in the open
fields. It will be best to have six inches of soil under the heap, and
not layer the fish with the lower half of the manure, for it strikes
down. Glue waste is a very coarse, lumpy manure, and requires a great
deal of severe manipulation, if it is to be applied the first season. A
better way is to compost it with soil, layer with layer, having each
layer about a foot in thickness, and so allow it to remain over until
the next season, before using. This will decompose most of the straw,
and break down the hard, tough lumps. In applying this to the crop, most
of it had better be used broadcast, as it is apt, at best, to be rather
too coarse and concentrated to be used liberally directly in the hill.
Slaughter-house manure should be treated much like glue manure.
Mr. Proctor, of Beverly, has raised cabbage successfully on strong clay
soil, by spreading a compost of muck containing fish waste, in which the
fish is well decomposed, at the rate of two tons of the fish to an acre
of land, after plowing, and then, having made his furrows at the right
distance apart, harrowing the land thoroughly crossways with the
furrows. The result was, besides mixing the manure thoroughly with the
soil, to land an extra proportion of it in the furrows, which was
equivalent to manuring in the drill.
Cabbage can be raised on fertilizers alone. I have raised some crops in
this way; but have been led to plow in from four to six cords of good
manure to the acre, and then use from five hundred to a thousand pounds
of some good fertilizer in the hill. The reason I prefer to use a
portion of the cabbage food in the form of manure, is, that I have
noticed that when the attempt is made to raise the larger drumhead
varieties on fertilizers only, the cabbages, just as the heads are well
formed, are apt to come nearly to a standstill. I explain this on the
supposition that they exhaust most of the fertilizer, or some one of the
ingredients that enter into it, during the earlier stage of growth;
perhaps from the fact that the food is in so easily digestible
condition, they use an over share of it, and the fact that those fed on
fertilizers only, tend to grow longer stumped than usual, appears to
give weight to this opinion. Though any good fertilizer is good for
cabbage, yet I prefer those compounded on the basis of an analysis of
the composition of the plants; they should contain the three
ingredients, nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, in the proportion of
six, seven, five, taking them in the order in which I have written them.
MAKING THE HILLS AND PLANTING THE SEED.
The idea is quite prevalent that cabbages will not head up well except
the plants are started in beds, and then transplanted into the hills
where they are to mature. This is an error, so far as it applies to the
Northern States,--the largest and most experienced cultivators of
cabbage in New England usually dropping the seed directly where the
plant is to stand, unless they are first started under glass, or the
piece of land to be planted cannot be prepared in season to enable the
farmer to put his seed directly in the hill and yet give the cabbage
time sufficient to mature. Where the climate is unpropitious, or the
quantity of manure applied is insufficient, it is possible that
transplanting may promote heading. The advantages of planting directly
in the hill, are a saving of time, avoiding the risks incidental to
transplanting, and having all the piece start alike; for, when
transplanted, many die and have to be replaced, while some hesitate much
longer than others before starting, thus making a want of uniformity in
the maturing of the crop. There is, also, this advantage, there being
several plants in each hill, the cut-worm has to depredate pretty
severely before he really injures the piece; again, should the seed not
vegetate in any of the hills, every farmer will appreciate the advantage
of having healthy plants growing so near at hand that they can be
transferred to the vacant spaces with their roots so undisturbed that
their growth is hardly checked. In addition to the labor of
transplanting saved by this plan, the great check that plants always
receive when so treated is prevented, and also the extra risks that
occur should a season of drouth follow. It is the belief of some
farmers, that plants growing where the seed was planted are less liable
to be destroyed by the cut-worm than those that have been transplanted.
When planning to raise late cabbage on upland, I sow a portion of the
seed on a moist spot, or, in case a portion of the land is moist, I
plant the hills on such land with an extra quantity of seed, that I may
have enough plants for the whole piece, should the weather prove to be
too dry for the seed to vegetate on the dryer portions of it. It is wise
to sow these extra plants about a week earlier, for they will be put
back about a week by transplanting them.
Some of our best farmers drill their seed in with a sowing machine, such
as is used for onions, carrots, and other vegetable crops. This is a
very expeditious way, and has the advantage of leaving the plants in
rows instead of bunches, as in the hill system, and thus enables the hoe
to do most of the work of thinning. It has also this advantage: each
plant being by itself can be left much longer before thinning, and yet
not grow long in the stump, thus making it available for transplanting,
or for sale in the market, for a longer period.
The usual way of preparing the hills is to strike out furrows with a
small, one-horse plough, as far apart as the rows are to be. As it is
very important that the rows should be as straight as practicable, it is
a good plan to run back once in each furrow, particularly on sod land
where the plough will be apt to catch in the turf and jump out of line.
A manure team follows, containing the dressing for the hills, which has
previously been pitched over and beaten up until all the ingredients are
fine and well mixed. This team is so driven, if possible, as to avoid
running in the furrows. Two or three hands follow with forks or shovels,
pitching the manure into the furrows at the distance apart that has been
determined on for the hills. How far apart these are to be will depend
on the varieties, from eighteen inches to four feet. On land that has
been very highly manured for a series of years, cabbage can be planted
nearer than on land that has been under the plow but a few years. For
the distance apart for different varieties see farther on. The manure is
levelled with hoes, a little soil is drawn over it, and a slight stamp
with the back of the hoe is given to level this soil, and, at the same
time, to mark the hill. The planter follows with seed in a tin box, or
any small vessel having a broad bottom, and taking a small pinch between
the thumb and forefinger he gives a slight scratch with the remaining
fingers of the same hand, and dropping in about half a dozen seed covers
them half an inch deep with a sweep of the hand, and packs the earth by
a gentle pat with the open palm to keep the moisture in the ground and
thus promote the vegetation of the seed. With care a quarter of a pound
of seed will plant an acre, when dropped directly in the hills; but half
a pound is the common allowance, as there is usually some waste from
spilling, while most laborers plant with a free hand.