The Portland daily press., 1883-05-05
Cabbage Culture.


Cabbage can be grown on most any kind
OF soil except light, sandy soil, and some
times on that in wet season. ANY kind of
soil that is adapted for good corn crop is
suitable for the cabbage. 1t does best on a
greensward or new ground. The ground
must be made rich with good coat of ma
nure and plowed deep as they have long, ia
pering roots. Most any kind of manure is
good, excepting hog manure; that produces
clubfoot, and is very injurious to the crop.
The best kind for an early crop for market is
Henderson's Early Summer, it being the
earliest large-heading variety grown, and it
keeps longer without bursting open than
most OF the early Eorts. For a late variety, |
consider the Premium Flat Datch tbe best
kind. Seed for early ca5bages should be
soyn in the hot-bed in March. and plants
transplanted when from fonr to six inches
high. To preserve the plants from the fiy,
make the seed bed on platform or scaffold.
raised on posts, about four feet from the
ground. The jumps of the insect are limit
ed to certain height, and the plants are
thus placed beyond their reach. When seed
IS soWn IN field for late or fall crops, as soon
as the plants appear above ground they
should be sprinkled with wood ashes and air
Stacked lime, equal parts, while the plants
are moist with rain or dew. This is an eff
caclons remedy for destroying The beetle or
flea that attacks them as soon as they have
broken through the soil. Until the plants
have stem as large as pipe stem, they are
subject to the raYages OF the cut worm, for
which there seems to be no better remedy
than ashes or air-slacked line, sprinkIed lib
orally close to the stems of the plant As
this pest disappears about the middle of
June, cabbages planted late suffer but little
from it. We have now another pest that is
far worse than the cat-worm In some loeali-
ties, which is the maggot; the egg is laid by
a small fly, and as soon as Matched makes his
way down the pith of the tap root. The
plant will stand still and will look green,
with the exception of one or two leaves,
which will be yellow for two or three
weeks. As soon as yellow leaf is no
ticed on plant, it might as well be
pulled up, as it viii never thrive:
and avoid when planting another
not to put it in the same place as the old
one, as the maggot will frequently be left in
the ground and will be ready to attack the
new plant. A remedy for the maggot is one
tablespoonful of saltpetre tpure erystals)
and one-fourth ounce of carbolic acid mixed
in pailful Of water, and dip the roots Of
the plants in the solution before transplant
ing. Plants should be two feet apart In the
rows, and the rows three feet apart, which
will make seven thousand, two hundred and
sixty plants to the acre. The white or
cream-colored butterfly makes his appear
ance soon after the plants are set out, which
produces the green worm Mr.. G. NJ. Smith
of Philadelphia gives his experience in com
batting with the worm. On his return from
the west, last summer, he found his cabbages
infested with them, which threatened total
destruction. After trying various remedies.
he found this receipt TO be the best: Take
twenty parts OF superphosphate made with a
slush acid, one part Of carbolic powder, and
three parts Of air-slacked lime, mixed well
together, and busted into each head four
times at intervals of ore week. The result
was the saving of seventy-fve thousand
cabbages, and loss of only five per cent
]. E. Ellis, Correspondent Of the Mirror and
Farmer