ns
become plenty, as these replace the cabbage on many tables. By starting
cabbage in hot beds a crop of celery or squashes may follow them the
same season.

KEEPING CABBAGES THROUGH THE WINTER.

In the comparatively mild climate of England, where there are but few
days in the winter months that the ground remains frozen to any depth,
the hardy cabbage grows all seasons of the year, and turnips left during
winter standing in the ground are fed to sheep by yarding them over the
different portions of the field. With the same impunity, in the southern
portion of our own country, the cabbages are left unprotected during the
winter months; and, in the warmer portions of the South they are
principally a winter crop. As we advance farther North, we find that the
degree of protection needed is afforded by running the plough along each
side of the rows, turning the earth against them, and dropping a little
litter on top of the heads. As we advance still farther northward, we
find sufficient protection given by but little more than a rough roof of
boards thrown over the heads, after removing the cabbages to a
sheltered spot and setting them in the ground as near together as they
will stand without being in contact, with the tops of the heads just
level with the surface.

In the latitude of central New England, cabbages are not secure from
injury from frost with less than a foot of earth thrown over the heads.
In mild winters a covering of half that depth will be sufficient; but as
we have no prophets to foretell our mild winters, a foot of earth is
safer than six inches. Where eel-grass can be procured along the sea
coast, or there is straw or coarse hay to spare, the better plan is to
cover with about six inches of earth, and when this is frozen
sufficiently hard to bear a man's weight (which is usually about
Thanksgiving time), to scatter over it the eel-grass, forest leaves,
straw, or coarse hay, to the depth of another six inches. Eel-grass,
which grows on the sandy flats under the ocean along the coast, is
preferred to any other covering as it lays light and keeps in dead air
which is a non-conductor of heat. Forest leaves are next in value; but
snow and water are apt to get among these and freezing solid destroy
most of their protecting value. When I use forest leaves, I cover them
with coarse hay, and add branches of trees to prevent its being blown
away. In keeping cabbages through the winter, three general fac