Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/38



Cabbage is one of the most ancient and esteemed vegetables, and as an esculent it stands in the highest estimation. The name is applied to the firm head or ball that is formed by the leaves folding close over each other. Like all other cultivated plants, the Cabbage has undergone so many changes and assumed so many varieties that it is not easy to give a description that will apply to the whole. Without exaggeration, many of the sorts are as far superior to others in flavor as cream is to sour milk, yet we continue to grow, year after year, the same varieties; some of which are so rank and strong that they are only fit for the cattle-yard or cow-shed, to the neglect of others which are not only tender and delicious to the taste, but are truly agreeable to the olfactory organs. The principal varieties in cultivation are the following.

Early York.—This is a valuable early variety, which has been cultivated upwards of one hundred years. Its earliness, and delicate taste and flavor, keeps it in estimation. The heads are small, round, slightly heart-shaped, and very firm. From its very dwarf growth, a great many can be planted in a small space. Rows one foot apart, and eight inches from plant to plant.

Large York. A variety of the former, of larger growth, and fully two weeks later. It is the variety cultivated extensively for the markets about Philadelphia.

Late York is another variety, improved in size, but inferior in flavor, and is, under the same culture, three weeks later than the Early York.

Early Nonpareil is one of the best sorts in cultivation. It heads freely, and is of a good size, and very delicate flavor.

Eariy Vanack is another sweet and delicately flavored vari-