The garden yard

Cole crops are among the hardy plants of the garden and field, requiring plenty of moisture at the roots, a cool season and cool soil. Hence their name, Cole meaning cool. They are mostly seed-bed crops and need considerable space in which to spread. They are grown for their tops, rather than for their roots or fruits.

CABBAGE.

Cabbage culture needs a cool deep soil that will hold moisture, and continuous growth from start to finish. Its other essentials are: extra care in the selection of the seed; frequent and thorough surface tillage; avoiding the root maggot, club-root, and rot, by proper rotation of crops, and by destroying the cabbage worm as soon as it appears. “A cabbage head” may mean a stupid man, for “a cabbage head” can’t take care of cabbages.

The demand for cabbage has increased more rapidly during the past ten years than for any other vegetable in the market. For sauer kraut alone the demand is enormous. Where a few hundred barrels would supply all the demand twenty years ago, tens of thousands of barrels are now needed annually. Its use was at one time largely confined to the German in this country, but that is no longer true. So there is always a market for cabbage, and if you are willing to take the pains necessary to grow good cabbage, you will find it a paying crop. Cabbage is also largely grown for stock-feeding, and all the animals, from the horses to the fowls, are glad to get it.

There are, of course, the two sorts of crops now so usual in market-gardening, the early and the main season crops. The early crop is started under glass either in the hot-bed or forcing house, while the main season crop is sown in seed-beds or in the open.

The best soil preparation begins the fall before, with deep plowing and from 10 to 20 tons of manure to the acre. Then, if the land is at all acid or has not recently been limed, it is well to apply lime at the rate of 1000 pounds to the acre, and plow that in along with 50 pounds of nitrate of soda. This will supply the food for the cabbage, which is a gross feeder, and won’t thrive without plenty of food. Farmers who raise it in large quantities, give it three applications of nitrate of soda after it is quite well grown. They use about 50 pounds to the acre each time, about ten days apart.

If sown in hot-beds, care must be taken to harden the cabbage sprouts by gradual exposure to the air before transplanting, so as not to cause any serious delay in growth. In field-grown cabbage, likely to be used in part at least for stock feeding, the plants should stand from 24 to 30 inches apart, in rows not less than 30 inches apart. This gives room for the heads to increase in size and weight. Under these conditions an acre will produce from 7500 to 9000 plants. But on small areas, where the crop is intended for market, the plants may be crowded somewhat, to keep down the size and to secure an average weight of four to six pounds each. In this way an acre will bear 10,000 plants. Cabbage should be cultivated once in a week or ten days until the heads touch in the rows. If your cabbage is uniform in size, has few outside leaves, very little stump or core when cut open, closely packed leaves lapping in the centre, freedom from disease or insect injury, and is true to name and type, you should secure the uniform price of five cents a head in good markets.

Cabbage suffers from many diseases and insects, and the gardener needs to be on the watch constantly if he is not to lose his crop after all his labor. The cabbage worm makes its appearance early, and should be destroyed at once; while for club-root, black rot, etc., rotation is our only usual remedy.⁠[6]

Different varieties thrive better in different localities. You must experiment in a small way, or find out what your neighbors have done, keeping a record of the sort that does best under your conditions, and then plant only that. Near New York City the Bergen Drumhead does wonderfully well, but in some western parts of the country it has less success. The Newark Flat Dutch, on the other hand, for an early cabbage, does well both east and west. For a late season variety the Premium Flat Dutch is excellent.

To show the possibilities of profit in cabbage, Professor Bailey, in his “Vegetable Gardening,” quotes from an expert cabbage grower in Green Bay, Wis., as follows:—Assume that you have first-class land worth $200 per acre:

If you get only 8000 plants out of 10,000 set, it is a little below the average return, and as the market price is estimated at only 3½ cents per head, there is no trace of exaggeration in these figures. The estimate was made ten years ago.

A crop of cabbages can be grown and harvested in 100 to 110 days, which makes possible two crops from the same piece of ground in the one season. There are two ways of planting the first crop. One is to use a good rich seed-bed and sow the seed in November, the favorite variety being the Jersey Wakefield. When the plants are three or four inches high, transplant them to cold-frames in a protected spot and let them winter there. In the spring they will soon start growing and be ready for transplanting to the field early. The only drawback to this method is, that the plants being really old when spring comes, you are apt to lose a good many by their running to seed. For this reason, another method is rather to be preferred. Use the same variety of seed, but sow in hot-beds in February, and as soon as the plants are three or four inches high, transplant to cold-frames. If they are not too crowded, they will be ready for planting in rows in the field by April 1. But you must remember that the cabbage is a heavy feeder and that your soil must be rich and full of humus.

One noted cabbage grower in New Jersey says he plants his cabbage with a potato planter, which makes the rows 3 feet apart, distributes the fertilizer, and makes the ridges for the plants all at one time. He levels down the ridges with a plank drag which covers two rows at a time. The fertilizer is of high grade, applied at the rate of 1000 pounds to the acre. If plants are set 20 inches apart, it will require 10,000 for an acre. He cultivates thoroughly until the cabbages begin to head; then while cultivating once more, he applies nitrate of soda at the rate of 150 pounds to the acre, putting it on the row close to the plants, but not on the plants. This makes the cabbage head up quickly and uniformly, and makes the heads crisp and tender, besides increasing the yield enormously. This crop should all be marketed by July 4, and the yield should be from 8000 to 9000 heads per acre.

For the second crop, sow the seed in a good bed in the open, about the last of May and by July 15 at latest, the plants can be transplanted to the field. Between marketing the first crop and transplanting the second, the ground should be again thoroughly prepared by the addition of 1000 pounds of fertilizer to the acre and 150 pounds of nitrate of soda. Plant the same as in first crop. The variety most used is the large, early Dwarf Flat Dutch.

In growing late cabbage there is much more danger of maggots and other insects destroying your crop. The New York Experiment Station has tried a simple device which has given satisfaction so far as tested. This consists of screening the bed completely with cheesecloth which protected the plants from maggots. From 1800 square feet of screened bed 50,000 plants were transplanted to the field, while from an unscreened check plat intended to plant 40 acres, only enough plants for four acres were secured. The plants were “hardened” by removing the screen one week before transplanting. There was no more wilting than with plants grown in the open. This is cheaper than any form of insecticides.

KALE.

Kale requires much less care than cabbage, and is usually sown where it stands. It is probably nearer the original type of cole plant than any other, and even in cultivation produces no heads, but very large, heavy foliage. It is a very hardy plant, and is grown especially for spring and fall crops, and is much used as greens at seasons when other greens are not to be had. In the Northern States the seeds are sown in the spring and the plants are ready for use in the fall. When the crop has been thinned, the plants that are to reach maturity should be from 10 to 20 inches apart, and the distance between rows may depend upon the sort of cultivation to be given. In large areas of kale, horse-cultivation is best, but in a small plot the usual 12 to 18 inches will allow of wheel-hoe work.

Kale is such a hardy plant that frost will not hurt it, and the crop is often allowed to stand in the field until very late in the season, or even all winter. The large outer leaves are improved by frost. In the South and Middle South, kale seed is sown in the late summer and the young plants allowed to stand in the field unprotected all winter, but this cannot be done in the North. There the young plants need cold-frame protection. For this reason there is little winter-grown kale in the North, and the extensive supply that comes from Virginia from January until late spring makes it unprofitable to force it for early spring in the North.

There is a form of kale called collards, which is much grown in the South, especially where the climate is too hot for successful cabbage-growing. The seed is sown very early in the spring in protected seed-beds, so that the crop may get its growth before the hot weather sets in. It is much like cabbage, and sometimes young cabbage plants are raised for greens, and are called collards. Kale is subject to the same enemies as cabbage (which see), and requires the same sort of cultivation.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

Brussels sprouts are closer kin to kale than to cabbage, although not exactly like either. All cole crops have similar needs in soil, food and tillage, so what holds for one may be taken as true for all, except that kale and Brussels Sprouts do not exact so much care as the others. In the Northern States, the seeds are generally sown quite late in the season that the crop may not come to perfection too early, as the plants are most prized in late autumn and early winter. A large part of the crop’s growth is made in the cool weather of early fall. If the seed is sown in seed-beds in June, the plants will be ready to set out late in July or early in August. Where the winters are mild the crop is often left in the field until used, but in the North it is usually dug and placed in pits, like leek or celery.

The stalk of the Brussels sprouts may be from two to three feet high, although where the season is short, the dwarf or half-dwarf varieties give surer crops. All along this stalk, from the root to the crown of leaves at the top, grow tiny baby cabbages, each of which is called a “sprout,” and averaging from an inch to two inches in diameter. When the sprouts are small and tender they are the most delicately flavored of any of the cabbage family. In many places, however, the demand is very limited.

Success in raising a good crop depends chiefly upon careful selection of seed. There is no crop which runs down so quickly, and in which greater care is necessary in choosing only the best for seed. It is subject to the same diseases as other cole crops.

CAULIFLOWER.

The cauliflower is more particular than cabbage, both as to climate and cultivation. It won’t head up in the heat and must have a cool, moist climate to reach perfection. It also needs a constant water supply and therefore demands the best of tillage. It will grow only from the best of seed, and as it is easily sunburned, it is grown chiefly for early and late crops. For early crops the seeds are sown in hot-beds or forcing houses, and transplanted as soon as the weather is settled, so that the crop is off in late June or early July. The best varieties for this early cropping are the Snowball and Paris, variations of the Early Dwarf Erfurt. The fall crop is started in seed-beds in the summer and transplanted to the garden. For this crop some of the larger and later growing varieties may be planted.

Cauliflower is grown to best advantage along the northern sea-coast States, Long Island, the shores of the Great Lakes, and in the Puget Sound region, and wherever irrigation is practiced. Where the climate is at all inclined to be sunny it is well to tie leaves over the young heads to blanch them, otherwise they will brown in the strong light and bring a lower market price. It is necessary, too, to save all the moisture there is in the soil by the most careful tillage. Tillage should be shallow but frequent all through the growing period. “Buttoning” or the throwing up of irregular growths which spoil the evenness of the head, comes from poor seed, or dry soil, or too great heat; and also from allowing the plants to be checked in their growth and then started again by renewed cultivation. The crop requires steady and persistent care, rather than occasional energetic care, and will repay you for all your effort.

The best cauliflower seed—and that is the only sort worth using—is expensive, often running as high as $3 to $5 an ounce, and you may be tempted to choose the cheaper sorts. But the best seed is of vital importance in growing cauliflower, the cheaper kind being given to “buttoning,” which lessens the price you can get in the market. The best seed in the market has so far come from Denmark, but the Puget Sound growers are beginning to rival the Danes. There is a family of long-season, late-growing cauliflowers, called broccoli, but they are little known in this country. Things that are little known are all right to eat and to show, but they are usually hard to sell.

KOHLRABI.

Although of the cabbage family, kohlrabi looks and tastes more like turnips and is cultivated like turnips. It is grown for the thickened stem or tuber which grows above the ground, and if eaten when young is very tender and more delicate in flavor for early spring use than turnips. It is also excellent for stock feed and is grown extensively for that. The best variety for garden use is the White Vienna, and the tubers should be eaten when from two to three inches in diameter. Like all cole crops they need continuous growth, otherwise they become bitter and stringy. Successive sowings of the crop may be made and when thinned the plants should stand from six to ten inches apart. They require from two and one-half to three months to mature and may be planted and tilled just as turnips are.

Cole crops all suffer from the same insects and diseases and it is well to get the latest advice upon how to deal with them. For root maggot, a most troublesome pest, read Cornell Bulletin 78 (published at Ithaca, New York), though the only really effective remedy is well-planned rotation. In this bulletin, Slingerland recommends placing tarred paper cards close to the young plants to protect them against the maggot; rubbing the eggs of the maggot off the base of the young plants, and injecting bisulphide of carbon or carbolic acid emulsion into the soil about the plants. It is necessary to use a syringe made specially for this purpose.

The Cornell Bulletin 104, deals with cut-worms, and New York Bulletins 83 (p. 657) and No. 144, tell about the cabbage worm or butterfly, the common yellow butterfly. Better look them up. They recommend persistent use of Paris green on the first crop, and a mixture made of five pounds pulverized resin; one pound concentrated lye; one pint fish oil or any cheap oil except tallow; five gallons water. The same treatment does for the cabbage looper.

For aphids, or lice, read the New York Bulletin 83 (p. 657) and Florida Bulletin 34 (p. 270). The injection of bisulphide of carbon in the ground, or the application of kerosene emulsion to both sides of leaves when young and small; tobacco; pyrethrum; Persian insect powder—any of these will prove more or less effective.

New York Bulletin 83 (p. 683) will tell you about methods of dealing with the Harlequin Cabbage Bug. Hand-picking is effective, and with clean culture, should eradicate this pest.

Club-root is really cured only by a thoroughly planned system of rotation, although air-slaked stone lime, applied in the proportion of 75 bushels to the acre, does good work. Read New Jersey Bulletin 98.