The rainfall here usually insures a fair crop of cabbage, but any crop which requires transplanting in midsummer is liable to delay or injury in case of protracted dry weather. Hence, irrigation is desirable. At the distances just recommended for planting (4 × 2½ feet) there would be 4,356 plants to the acre. In the case of such varieties as Johnson & Stokes' Earliest and Jersey Wakefield cabbage, where the number of plants per acre would be perhaps 10,000, the Michigan Experiment Station obtained 5,000 more marketable heads per acre under irrigation than where water was not used upon the growing crop. (This fact is mentioned in a book on irrigation just issued by the publishers of this book).
Varieties.—The earliest varieties of cabbage have small, conical heads; the midsummer sorts mostly round heads; and the late or drumhead sorts have large, flat heads. There are cabbages which never head; as, for instance, the collards of the South; and there are varieties of crinkled-leaf cabbages, known as the Savoy types. The kales are closely related to the cabbages. Both cabbages and kales have purple-colored forms, sometimes called red forms.
Cabbage.—For early varieties for the South, we recommend Johnson & Stokes' Earliest, Early Jersey Wakefield and Charleston Wakefield; for both early and late in the North, Johnson & Stokes' Market Gardeners' No. 2, Louderback's All the Year Round; for late varieties for the North, New Rock Head Winter, Johnson & Stokes' Matchless Flat Dutch, Danish Ball Head. The Johnson & Stokes' Hard Heading Savoy Cabbage is of rare excellence. For descriptions of the many varieties of cabbage, please see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."
Cultivation.—Thorough horse cultivation between the rows should be supplemented by a hand-hoe between the plants in the rows. The cultivation must be good and continuous until the heads begin to form.
Diseases and Insects Enemies.—Club root has been mentioned. It is a fungous trouble. The best remedy is new ground. The black flea on very young plants can be conquered with air-slacked lime or wood ashes. The cut worm is troublesome only in spring; not with late cabbage. The root maggot is sometimes very destructive, both with cabbage and cauliflower. New ground is the most satisfactory remedy. Green aphides or lice often follow lack of strength in the cabbage. Pyrethrum powder, air-slacked lime, kerosene emulsion, etc., are used as remedies for lice. The pyrethrum may be used dry or in water, at the rate of a tablespoonful to two gallons. The green cabbage worm, one of the worst of all enemies, can be pretty effectually checked by means of air-slaked lime dusted over the leaves. Other caterpillars yield to the same treatment.
Bursting.—Bursting of cabbage heads is caused by a second growth, the result, perhaps, of continued wet weather, or warm weather following cold weather. The best remedy is to cut part of the feeding roots, either by close cultivation or with a hoe.
Selling.—Cabbage prices vary between extremes that are far separated. Early cabbage usually sells at a good profit. Summer and autumn prices may be low. Winter and spring prices are almost always fair, and occasionally extra. Pennsylvania farmers sometimes ship to wholesalers in the cities and sometimes sell at public sale in the open field, in the autumn, just as the crop stands. The latter plan is an excellent one, where auction prices warrant it. It avoids the cost and risk of storage, as each buyer removes and stores his purchase.
Storage.—Cabbage will bear much freezing without injury. The art of winter storage is to put it where it will have the fewest changes of temperature, and where it will be cool and damp without being wet.
The most common practice is to cover two or three rows of inverted heads, with roots attached, with from 6 to 12 inches of soil, making provision for good drainage by ditches on both sides of the wedge-shaped heap.