OTHER VARIETIES OF CABBAGE.
I will add notes on some other varieties which have been tested, from year to year, in my experimental plot. The results from tests of different strains of standard sorts, I have not thought it worth the while to record.
Cannon Ball. The heads are usually spherical, attaining to a diameter of from five to nine inches, with the surrounding leaves gathered rather closely around them; in hardness and relative weight it is excelled by but few varieties. Stump short. It delights in the highest cultivation possible. It is about a week later than Early York. In those markets where cabbages are sold by weight, it will pay to grow for market; it is a good cabbage for the family garden.
Early Cone, of the Wakefield class, but with me not as early.
Garfield Pickling, of late variety, of the conical class.
Cardinal Red. A large, late variety of red; but on my grounds, it is not equal to Red Drumhead.
Vilmorin's Early Flat Dutch. Not quite as large as Early Summer, though about as early and resembles it in shape of head.
Royal German Drumhead. Reliable for heading.
Large White Solid Magdeburg. A late Drumhead; short stumped; reliable for heading. Medium late.
Pak Choi. Evidently of the Kale class; no heads.
Chou de Burghlez and Chou de Milan. These are coarse, loose, small heading varieties, allied to Kale. The latter is of the Savoy class.
Earliest Erfurt Blood-Red. Decidedly the earliest of the red cabbages. Very reliable for heading. A Drumhead; smaller than Red Drumhead. Very dark red.
Empress. Resembles Wyman in size and shape; but the heads are more pointed, and it makes head earlier. Heads well.
Schlitzer. This makes heads mostly shaped like the Winnigstadt, but a third larger. Its mottling of green and purple gives it a striking appearance. Early and very reliable for heading. Heads are not very hard; but, when cooked, are just about as tender and rich-flavored as the Savoy. Promises to be an excellent sort for family use.
Rothelburg. An early sure heading variety of the Drumhead class. Heads of medium size; resembling in shape Deep Head.
Sure Head. A strain of Flat Dutch. A late variety; heads deeper than Fottler, but with me not so reliable.
Dark Red Pointed. Resembles Winnigstadt in shape. About as late as Red Dutch, and not as desirable.
Bacalan Late. In shape resembles Winnigstadt. Grow a little wild.
Amack. A late variety. Heads generally nearly globular and quite hard. Very reliable for heading.
Bangholm. First of all. As early as the earliest, but very small,—not as large as Little Pixie.
Early Enfield Market.
Tourleville. Heads resemble Wakefield in form; but, with me, are neither so large nor so large, and are more inclined to burst.
Danish Round Winter. A late variety; bearing deep, hard heads on long stumps.
Dwarf Danish. Late. Reliable to head; uneven in time of heading. Worth planting for market.
Danish Ball Drumhead. Heads not characterized by globular shape, but rather flattish. Irregular in length of stump.
Early Paris. Closely resembles Wakefield.
Very Early Etampes. Earlier than Wakefield. Shape partakes of both Oxheart and Wakefield.
Early Mohawk. Light green in color; a good header, but not so hard heading as Fottler. Appears to have a little of the Savoy cross in it.
Sure Head. A late variety of the Dutch class; reliable for heading; stump rather long.
Excelsior. A variety which is of the Fottler class, but makes smaller sized heads.
Louisville Drumhead. Of the flat Dutch type; nearly as early as Early Summer.
Early Advance. Of the Wakefield type. With me it is full as early as Wakefield, and considerably larger. Rather coarser in structure.
Market Garden. Of the Fottler class; very reliable for heading. Heads of good size, but rather coarser than the Deep Head.
Chase's Excelsior. A second early; much like Fottler; heads finely.
Bloomsdale Early Market. With me this is not as good a variety as Wakefield.
Berkshire Beauty. There appear to be fine possibilities in this cabbage, which have not yet been developed into uniformity.
Landredth's Extra Early. With me it does not prove as early as Wakefield, and does not head as well.
Bridgeport Late Drumhead. A large Drumhead; in size, between Stone Mason and Marblehead Mammoth. Reliable for heading, but does not head as hard as either of these varieties. Not inclined to burst.
Large French Oxheart closely resembles Early Oxheart, but grows to double the size, and is about ten days later; quality usually good.
Early Sugar Loaf. Heads shaped much like a loaf of sugar standing on its smaller end, resembling, as Burr well says, a head of Cos lettuce in its shape, and in the peculiar clasping of the leaves about the head. Heads rather hard, medium size; early, and tender. It is said not to stand the heat as well as most sorts.
Large Brunswick Short-Stemmed. (English seed.) Late, long-stumped, wild, plenty of leaves, almost no head; bears but a slight resemblance to Fottler's Drumhead.
Early Empress. Cabbages well; heads conical; early.
Robinson's Champion Ox Drumhead. Stump long; heads soft and not very large; wild.
English Winnigstadt. Long-stumped; irregular; not to be compared with French stock.
Blenheim. Early; heads mostly conical; of good size.
Shillings Queen. Early; heads conical; stumps long.
Carter's Superfine Early Dwarf. Surpasses in earliness and hardness of head. Closely allied to Little Pixie.
Enfield Market Improved. Most of the heads were flat; rather wild; not to be compared with Fottler.
Kemp's Incomparable. Long-headed; heads, when mature, do not appear to burst as readily as with most of the conical class.
Fielderkraut. Closely resembles Winnigstadt, with larger and longer heads and stump; requires more room than Winnigstadt.
Ramsay's Winter Drumhead. Closely resembles St. Dennis. I think it is the same.
Pomeranian Cabbage. Heads very long; quite large for a conical heading sort; very symmetrical and hard; color, yellowish-green. It handles well, and I should think would prove a good keeper. Medium early.
Alsacian Drumhead. Stump long; late; wild.
Marbled Bourgogne. Stumps long; heads small and hard; color, a mixture of green and red.
CABBAGE GREENS.
In the vicinity of our large cities, the market gardeners sow large areas very thickly with cabbage seed, early in the spring, to raise young plants to be sold as greens. The seed is sown broadcast at the rate of ten pounds and upwards to the acre. Seed of the Savoy cabbage is usually sown for this purpose, which may be sometimes purchased at a discount, owing to some defect in quality or purity, that would render it worthless for planting for a crop of heading cabbage.
The young plants are cut off about even with the ground, when four or five inches high, washed, and carried to market in barrels or bushel boxes. The price varies with the state of the market, from 12 cents to $3 a barrel, the average price in Boston market being about a dollar. With the return of spring most families have some cabbage stumps remaining in the cellar; these can be planted about a foot apart in some handy spot along the edge of the garden, where they will not interfere with the general crop, setting them under ground from a quarter to a half their length, depending on the length of the stumps. They will soon be covered with green shoots, which should be used as greens before the blossom buds show themselves, as they then become too strong to be agreeable. If the spot is rich and has been well dug, the rapidity of growth is surprising; and if the shoots are frequently gathered, many nice messes of greens can be grown from a few stumps. Farmers in Northern Vermont tell me, that if they break off each seed shoot as soon as it shows itself, close home to the stump, nice little heads will push out on almost every stump. In England, where the winter climate is much milder than that of New England, it is the practice to raise a second crop of heads in this way. In my own neighborhood I have seen an acre from which a crop of drumhead cabbage had been cut off early in the season, every stump on which had from three to six hard heads, varying from the size of a hen's egg to that of a goose egg; but to get this second growth of heads, as much of the stump and leaves should be left as possible, when cutting out the original head. As in the cabbage districts of the North little or no use is made of this prolific after growth, it is worse than useless to suffer the ground to be exhausted by it; the stump should be pulled by the potato hoe as soon as the heads are marketed. When cabbages are planted out for seed, if, for any reason, the seed shoot fails to push out, and at times when it does push out, fine sprouts for greens will start below the head; when the stock of these sprouts becomes too tough for use, the large leaves may be stripped from them and cooked. I usually break off the tender tops of large sprouts, and then strip off the tenderest of the large leaves below.