THE GARDEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 838, 23 March 1888, Page 18

THE GARDEN.

The Cabbage.

The value of the cabbage as a green crop has been increased considerably in recent years as the result of skilful breeding, and it is therefore most desirable that the extended capabilities of the plant should be more generally understood. It has been said of a well-known and extensive sheep farmer, a large grower of this most useful crop, that he suffers from cabbage on the brain. The simple explanation of his affection for the cabbage is that he understands its cultivation, and, by proper mamagemeat, makes it available the whole year round, even in the hottest months of summer. Judging from its numerous species and varieties, few plauts can have obeyed the will of the improver more completely than the cabbage. But then its origin is ancient. De Candolle (‘Origin of Cultivated Plants,’) believes the species to be of European origin, and he conceives that the wild plant was gathered by the primeval inhabitants of Europe before it was cultivated, the date of its earliest cultivation being prehistoric. The names applied to various members of the Brassica family by various nations, and adopted iu our own language, are significant of the wide distribution of the family, and of the various forms which the original Brassica oleracea, or wild cabbage, has assumed underoultivation. For example, the Latin caulis, a stem, cabbage stem, or cabbage, is repeated in the German kohl, the Danish kaal, and in the first syllables of cauliflower, colewort, colza, and chou-rave or caulo-rapa (kohlrabi), or turnip cabbage, and couve tronchuda, the Portuguese cabbage. All the cultivated forms of Brassica, such as the cabbage, colewort, savoy, Brussels sprout, cauliflower, or broccoli, and the various kinds of kale are extremely ausceptible of cross-fertilisation, and, therefore, must be carefully isolated from other individuals of their species, if, in saving the seed a pure strain is desired. Every intelligent breeder recognises that this tendency points to long cultivation and to a great mixture of what may be termed character, or what in animals might be called ‘blood’ or breed. It is obvious that plants of this sort must always lend themselves readily to the purposes of the plant-impro-ver, who can, by breeding and rigorous selec. tion, produce new forms at will. I propose to describe certain recent modifications of the field cabbage which have added immensely to its value as a farm crop, especially for summer folding and for cows at all seasons ; but as the hint of these changes was taken from analogous improvements in garden cabbages. I will in the first notice some of these. The idea of breeding field cabbages to follow one another all through the year was probably derived from the occasional practice of gardeners in planting out in the same bed in autumn a large heavy sort of cabbage, like the Imperial, and a little quick-growing colewort. Both are sown is July ; the Imperials are pricked out 2ft. apart; the cole worts are set Ift, apart between the rows, and the latter, being quick in their habit of maturity, will be all cleared off before the others begin to spread their leaves preoions to hearting. It is quite worth while noticeing the peculiarities of some other garden cabbages, whose characteristics have now been reproduced in the field sorts for the sake of extending the period of the cabbage season.' A sort called the Little Gem is probably the earliest and the smallest of the cabbages. Sown the first week in April, it will, in ordinary seasons, be quite tit for use in four months. During the whole of August it will prove a very useful cabbage. The breeders of field cabbages, seeing what those pioneers the gardeners had affected in producing a sort of cabbage that might be sown and served at table within four months, naturally determined on following this lead, and hence the origin oE the early field cabbages. But before leaving Little Uern, it must be mentioned that another of its habits is to sit close to the ground ; and for this reason if is customary, forthe sakeof economy of spade, to prick out the plants close together. Little Gem has another peculiarity which should be mentioned in proof of those varieties of habit which the skilful breeder turns to account as he meets with them, and thus adds some useful and needful character which was not before available to the growers and consumers of these plants. Little Gem, be it observed, differs from almost all other sorts in being as good for autumn as for spring sowing. This ig a di§*

tinct characteristic which is rarely met With, since, if spring sorts are iown in autumn, they are usually addicted to the production of flower stems when they ought to be hearting. Technically, they * bolt ’ instead of hearting. Imperial, however, shares this good habit, and is therefore another good sort for sowing at both seasons. All Heart is a spring sort of marked type, having a habit of early maturity, and another characteristic which may interest those who f -lloiv me in regard to the importance of securing distinctive characters in plants of the farm as well as those of the garden. All Heart, in fact, received its name from its habit of losing the outside leaves when mature, so that it then stands out of the ground a cabbage all heart! It may be noted, too, that its shape is oblong, and on that account the plants may be set thickly in the bed. In the case of a field sort having this peculiarity it would be desirable, in drilling the seed on the system now in vogue, in preferrence to sowing in seed beds and planting out, 30 set the coulters fiin. closer than in drilling the globular sorts. Another garden cabbage and the last I shall mention, is a dwarf pickling cabbage, which I ob S rved growing side by side with the old sort with which most persons are familiar. It was needless to ask for its character, which in the early part of October was written plainly in the two beds. The dwarf sort is blood-red in color, a deeper color than the old sort, and it is earlier and more compact. It had already hearted, while its neighbor was still expanding itself with wide-spread leaves. Hard by, if I may borrow an illustration from another plant, I observed a similar distinction in two adjoining beds of kohlrabi. In one bed was the common sort, leafy and spreading, with more leaf than body, very hardy, and well suited for late fielding. In the other was a new sort, dubbed Champion, which is fast in growing, has very little leaf, and a much heavier body than the late sort. It may not be so hardy, but the long and careful selection, year after year, of plants producing slender leaves, has conferred upon sheep farmers a very valuable sort of kohlrabi, which is as well adapted to replace swedes as the coarser sort, and which may be eaten on the ground in September. Kohl rabi, by the way, possesses a quality in common with cabbage—it bears transplanting well. At anyrate, it transplants far better than swedes; but the cabbage, returning to our main subject, transplants still better. It owns the very valuable peculiarity of endaring heat and drought for a time after removal, without taking much harm, starting freely after rain. This may be due to the structure of the roots, and may be solely owing to causes which are capable of ready explanation, though habits and qualities are frequently beyond the reach of analysis or explanation, This, however, is an abstract speculation, and the object of these remarks is purely practical. I merely desire to explain that the Brassica family, from the tender denizens oft the Mediterranean country, such as the cauliflower, to the hardy kales and sprouts of the north of Europe, are plants of great variation : and that the field cabbage, like the rest of the family, may be readily modified *to order.’ In another article I propose showing what may be done with the plant as a farm crop, and the method of cultivating the several varieties. —H.E.