A Practical Treatise, Giving Full Details on Every Point, Including Keeping and Marketing the Crop
by JAMES J. H. GREGORY
Cooking Cabbage, Sour-Krout, Etc.
If we cut vertically through the middle of the head, we shall find it made up of successive layers of leaves, which grow smaller and smaller, almost ad infinitum. Now, if we take a fruit bud from an apple-tree and make a similar section of it, we shall find the same structure. If we observe the development of the two, as spring advances, we shall find another similarity (the looser the head the closer will be the resemblance),—the outer leaves of each will unwrap and unfold, and a flower stem will push out from each. Here we see that a cabbage is a bud, a seed bud (as all fruit buds may be termed, the production of seed being the primary object in nature, the fruit enclosing it playing but a secondary part), the office of the leaves being to cover, protect, and afterwards nourish the young seed shoot. The outer leaves which surround the head appear to have the same office as the leaves which surround the growing fruit bud, and that office closes with the first year, as does that of the leaves surrounding fruit buds, when each die and drop off. In my locality the public must have perceived more or less clearly the analogy between the heads of cabbage and the buds of trees, for when they speak of small heads they frequently call them "buds." That the close wrapped leaves which make the cabbage head and surround the seed germ, situated just in the middle of the head at the termination of the stump, are necessary for its protection and nutrition when young, is proved, I think, by the fact that those cabbages, the heads of which are much decayed, when set out for seed, no matter how sound the seed germ may be at the end of the stump, never make so large or healthy a seed shoot as those do the heads of which are sound; as a rule, after pushing a feeble growth, they die.
Should the soil be a heavy clay, a deep fall ploughing is best, that the frosts of winter may disintegrate it; and should the plan be to raise an early crop, this end will be promoted by fall ploughing, on any soil, as the land will thereby be made drier in early spring. In New England the soil for cabbages should be ploughed as deep as the subsoil, and the larger drumheads should be planted only on the deepest soil. If the season should prove a favorable one, a good crop of cabbage may be grown on sod broken up immediately after a crop of hay has been taken from it, provided plenty of fine manure is harrowed in. One great risk here is from the dry weather that usually prevails at that season, preventing the prompt germination of the seed, or rooting 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.
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. My own practice is to use all my rich compost broadcast, and depend on guano, fertilizers, or hen manure in the hill. Let all guano, if at all lumpy, like the Peruvian, be sifted, and let all the hard lumps be reduced by pounding, until the largest pieces shall not be larger than half a pea, before it is brought upon the ground. My land being ready, the compost worked under and the rows marked out, I select three trusty hands who can be relied upon to follow faithfully my directions in applying so dangerous manure as guano is in careless or ignorant hands; one takes a bucket of it, and, if for large cabbage, drops as much as he can readily close in his shut hand, where each hill is to be; if for small sorts, then about half that quantity, spreading it over a circle about a foot in diameter; the second man follows with a pronged hoe, or better yet, a six-tined fork, with which he works the guano well into the soil, first turning it three or four inches under the surface, and then stirring the soil very thoroughly with the hoe or fork. Unless the guano (and this is also true of most fertilizers) is faithfully mixed up with the soil, the seed will not vegetate. Give the second man about an hour the start, and then let the third man follow with the seed.
In four or five days, if the weather is propitious, the young plants will begin to break ground, presenting at the surface two leaves, which together make nearly a square, like the first leaves of turnips or radishes. As soon as the third leaf is developed, go over the piece, and boldly thin out the plants. Wherever they are very thick, pull a mass of them with the fingers and thumb, being careful to fill up the hole made with fine earth. After the fourth leaf is developed, go over the piece again and thin still more; you need specially to guard against a slender, weak growth, which will happen when the plants are too crowded. In thinning, leave the short-stumped plants, and leave them as far apart in the hill as possible, that they may not shade each other, or so interfere in growing as to make long stumps. If there is any market for young plants, thousands can be sold from an acre when the seed are planted in the hill; but in doing this bear in mind that your principal object is to raise cabbages, and to succeed in this the young plants must on no account be allowed to stand so long together in the hills as to crowd each other, making a tall, weak, slender growth,—getting "long-legged," as the farmers call it.
Cabbage when boiled with salt pork, as it is mostly used, is the food for strong and healthy digestive powers; but when eaten in its raw state, served with vinegar and pepper, it is considered one of the most easily digested articles of diet. In the process of cooking, even with the greatest care, a large portion of the sweetness is lost.
To Pickle, select hard heads, quarter them, soak in salt and water four or five days, then drain and treat as for other pickles, with vinegar spiced to suit.
For Cold Slaw, select hard heads, halve and then slice up these halves exceedingly fine. Lay these in a deep dish, and pour over vinegar that has been raised to the boiling point in which has been mixed a little pepper and salt.
Sour-Krout. Take large, hard-headed drumheads, halve, and cut very fine; then pack in a clean, tight barrel, beginning with a sprinkling of salt, and following with a layer of cabbage, and thus alternating until the barrel is filled. Now compact the mass as much as possible by pounding, after which put on a well-fitting cover resting on the cabbage, and lay heavy weights or a stone on this. When fermented it is ready for use. To prepare for the table fry in butter or fat.
The outer green leaves of cabbages are sometimes used to line a brass or copper kettle in which pickles are made in the belief that the vinegar extracts the coloring substance (chlorophyl) in the leaves, and the cucumbers absorbing this acquire a rich green color. Be not deceived by this transparent cheat, O simple housewife! the coloring matter comes almost wholly from the copper or brass behind those leaves; and, instead of an innocent vegetable pigment, your green cucumbers are dyed with the poisonous carbonate of copper.