of the plants. It is
prudent in such a case to have a good stock of plants, that such as die
may be promptly replaced. It is wise to plant the seed for these a week
earlier than the main crop, for when transplanted to fill the vacant
places it will take about a week for them to get well rooted.

The manure may be spread on the surface of either sod or stubble land
and ploughed under, or be spread on the surface after ploughing and
thoroughly worked into the soil by the wheel harrow or cultivator. On
ploughed sod I have found nothing so satisfactory as the class of wheel
harrows, which not only cut the manure up fine and work it well under,
but by the same operation cut and pulverize the turf until the sod may
be left not over an inch in thickness. To do the work thus thoroughly
requires a yoke of oxen or a pair of stout horses. All large stones and
large pieces of turf that are torn up and brought to the surface should
be carted off before making the hills.

THE MANURE.

Any manure but hog manure for cabbage,--barn manure, rotten kelp,
night-soil, guano, fertilizers, wood ashes, fish, salt, glue waste, hen
manure, slaughter-house manure. I have used all of these, and found
them all good when rightly applied. If pure hog manure is used it is apt
to produce that corpulent enlargement of the roots known in different
localities as "stump foot," "underground head," "finger and thumb;" but
I have found barn manure on which hogs have run, two hogs to each
animal, excellent. The cabbage is the rankest of feeders, and to perfect
the larger sort a most liberal allowance of the richest composts is
required. To grow the smaller varieties either barn-yard manure, guano,
fertilizers, or wood ashes, if the soil be in good condition, will
answer; though the richer and more abundant the manure the larger are
the cabbages, and the earlier the crop will mature.

To perfect the large varieties of drumhead,--by which I mean to make
them grow to the greatest size possible,--I want a strong compost of
barn-yard manure, with night-soil and muck or fish-waste, and, if
possible, rotten kelp. A compost into which night-soil enters as a
component is best made by first covering a plot of ground, of easy
access, with soil or muck that has been exposed to a winter's frost, to
the depth of about eighteen inches, and raising around this a rim about
three feet in height, and thickness. Into this the night-soil is poured
from carts built for