Cabbages Under Glass

The very early cabbages usually bringing high prices, the enterprising market gardener either winters the young plants under glass or starts them there, planting the seed under its protecting shelter long before the cold of winter is passed. When the design is to



winter over fall grown plants, the seed are planted in the open ground about the middle of September, and at about the last of October they are ready to go into the cold frames, as such are called that depend wholly on the sun for heat. Select those having short stumps and transplant into the frames, about an inch and a half by two inches apart, setting them deep in the soil up to the lower leaves, shading them with a straw mat, or the like, for a few days, after which let them remain without any glass over them until the frost is severe enough to begin to freeze the ground, then place over the sashes; but bear in mind that the object is not to promote growth, but, as nearly as possible, to keep them in a dormant state, to keep them so cold that they will not grow, and just sufficiently protected to prevent injury from freezing. With this object in view the sashes must be raised whenever the temperature is above freezing, and this process will so harden the plants that they will receive no serious injury though the ground under the sash should freeze two inches deep; cabbage plants will stand a temperature of fifteen to twenty degrees below the freezing point. A covering of snow on the sash will do no harm, if it does not last longer than a week or ten days, in which case it must be removed. There is some danger to be feared from ground mice, who, when everything else is locked up by the frost, will instinctively take to the sash, and there cause much destruction among the plants unless these are occasionally examined. When March opens remove the sash when the temperature will allow, replacing it when the weather is unseasonably cold, particularly at night. The plants may be brought still farther forward by transferring them from the hot-bed when two or three inches high to cold frames, having first somewhat hardened them. When so transferred plant them about an inch apart, and shield from the sun for two or three days. After this they may be treated as in cold frames. The transfer tends to keep them stocky, increases the fibrous roots and makes the plants hardier. As the month advances it may be left entirely off, and about the first of April the plants may be set out in the open field, pressing fine earth firmly around the roots. When cabbages are raised in hot-beds the seed, in the latitude of Boston, should be planted on the first of March; in that of New York, about a fortnight earlier. When two or three inches high, which will be in three or four weeks, they should be thinned to about four or less to an inch in the row. They should now be well hardened by partly drawing off the sashes in the warm part of the day, and covering at night; as the season advances remove the sashes entirely by day, covering only at night. By about the middle of April the plants will be ready for the open ground. When raised in cold frames in the spring, the seed should be planted about the first of April, mats being used to retain by night the solar heat accumulated during the day. As the season advances the same process of hardening will be necessary as with those raised in hot-beds.

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