Still another method, employed where hard freezing is not anticipated, is to take up the plants and set them out in a slanting position close together out of doors with the heads to the north, as is done with cabbages.
Pulling up the plants and throwing them on their sides will protect the heads from a moderate degree of cold, and can be resorted to upon the sudden approach of cold weather. Cutting the heads with plenty of leaves and throwing them in long low heaps, faces downward, will preserve them in the cool, damp weather of early winter for a considerable time, and the heads, even in this condition, will increase somewhat in size.
It will sometimes happen, early in the season, that one desires to retard the development of the head until a convenient time for marketing. For this purpose the plants may be lifted, when the heads are nearly mature, and set under a shed or elsewhere in the shade.
It may be well here to remind those who grow only a few plants in a garden, and who wish to prolong the season, that several cuttings may be taken from a single head if desired. A portion of the head should be left each time. Occasionally, but not often, a stump will sprout and form a second crop. A method of accelerating the formation of heads, which is practiced in Ireland, may also be worth recording. It consists in slitting the stalk from near the ground upward toward the heart, and placing a stick in the slit to prevent the parts reuniting. The soil is then drawn up around the cut, and the plant staked to prevent its breaking off. It is said that plants so treated will form their heads from six to eight days earlier than they otherwise would.