Any manure but pig manure is good 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 pigs have run, two pigs to each animal, excellent.
The cabbage is a big feeder, and to perfect the larger sort a most large allowance of the richest composts is needed.
If you are growing smaller varieties either barn-yard manure, guano, fertilizers, or wood ashes is good, if the soil be in good condition; though the richer and more abundant the manure the larger are the cabbages, and the earlier the crop will mature.
To grow large varieties of drumhead,—by which I mean to make them grow to the greatest size possible,—You will need a strong compost of barn-yard manure, muck or fish-waste, and, if possible, rotten kelp.
Early in spring, dig your plot making sure all lumps are broken down.
If the lumps are frozen wait until they have thawed, give the heap another digging over, aiming to mix all the materials thoroughly together, and make the entire mass as fine as possible. A covering of sand, thrown over the heap, before the last diging, will help refine the ground.
To produce a good crop of cabbages, with a compost of this quality, from six to twelve cords will be required to the acre. If the land is in good heart, by previous high cultivation, or the soil is naturally very strong, six cords will give a fair crop of the small varieties; while, with the same conditions, from nine to twelve cords to the acre will be required to perfect the largest variety grown the Bonnie Plants sell a variety called OS Cross, which produces cabbage heads that start at 30 to 50 pounds.
A cord is 128 cubic feet
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