, lay slabs, boards or poles, and cover
the roof that will be thus formed with six inches of straw or old hay,
and, if in the North, throw six or eight inches of earth over this.
Leave one end open for entrance and to air the pit, closing the other
end with straw or hay. In the North close both ends, opening one of them
occasionally in mild weather.

When cabbages are pitted on a large scale this system of roofing is too
costly and too cumbersome. A few thousand may be kept in a cool root
cellar, by putting one layer heads down, and standing another layer
heads up between these. Within a few years farmers in the vicinity of
Lowell, Mass., have preserved their cabbages over winter, on a large
scale, by a new method, with results that have been very satisfactory.
They cut off that portion of the stump which contains the root; strip
off most of the outer leaves, and then pile the cabbages in piles, six
or eight feet high, in double rows, with boards to keep them apart, in
cool cellars, which are built half out of ground. The temperature of
these, by the judicious opening and closing of windows, is kept as
nearly as possibly at the freezing point. The common practice in the
North, when many thousands are to be stored for winter and spring sales,
is to select a southern exposure having the protection of a fence or
wall, if practicable, and, turning furrows with the plough, throw out
the earth with shovels, to the depth of about six inches; the cabbages,
stripped as before described, are then stored closely together, and
straw or coarse hay is thrown over them to the depth of a foot or
eighteen inches. Protected thus they are accessible for market at any
time during the winter. If the design is to keep them over till spring,
the covering may be first six inches of earth, to be followed, as cold
increases, with six inches of straw, litter, or eel-grass. This latter
is my own practice, with the addition of leaving a ridge of earth
between every three or four rows, to act as a support and keep the
cabbages from falling over. I am, also, careful to bring the cabbages to
the pit as soon as pulled, with the earth among the roots as little
disturbed as possible; and, should the roots appear to be dry, to throw
a little earth over them after the cabbages are set in the trench. The
few loose leaves remaining will prevent the earth from sifting down
between the heads, and the air chambers thus made answer a capital
purpose in keeping o