Next to the Potato in universal estimation stands the Cabbage, and there is good reason why this should be so. Good varieties properly grown furnish delicate, wholesome, nutritious dishes every day in the year. Professor Johnston says that the Cabbage is so rich in flesh-forming matters that, beat up with Potatoes - which are deficient in flesh-formers - it makes a dish equal to oatmeal-porridge.

To keep up a succession of Cabbages over as great a portion of the year as possible, at least three or four sowings must be made. For the very earliest, a sowing must be made from the 20th to the end of July, according to the season and locality. In northern districts the first date is the proper one; and in the sunny south, even the beginning of August is soon enough. The plants from this sowing require to be transplanted to their final quarters in September, or sooner if they are fit. A sheltered sunny spot should be chosen.

The second sowing should be made from the 6th to the 20th of August. The plants from this sowing are not to be finally transplanted until the following spring; but it is a good plan to prick them in a sheltered spot on not too rich soil, as we have often noticed that pricked-out plants - i.e., transplanted closely together - stand severe winters better than plants that are left in the seed-bed. One reason for this is, that the stems are less exposed than when not transplanted, and the operation causes a little check, which induces a harder growth. The third lot should be sown in March, and the fourth in May. Both these lots had better be pricked in soil in which some rotten manure has been mixed, so as to produce strong plants with plenty of fibry roots. Such plants, when lifted with a trowel and planted in showery weather with a ball of earth, give better results than when the plants are allowed to grow crowded in seed-beds, and afterwards pulled out and stuck in with a dibble. The plan of raising plants to secure a succession which we have recommended applies to the tender early varieties, of which Little Pixie may be taken as a type.

We are aware that a succession of Cabbages is kept up in amateurs' gardens by growing early, late, and medium kinds; but we advise those who wish fine Cabbages for the table to grow no late drumhead varieties at all. They are very inferior and very coarse, and occupy so much space that the ground on which they are grown is next to wasted, as they are seldom used; and they are, moreover, a very exhaustive crop to the soil. By the plan we have recommended, a supply of Cabbages can be had from the end of April up till midwinter of the finest kinds. A plan, not so often followed as it might be with profit, and which secures good dishes all through ordinary winters, is to pick the leaves off the earliest batches as they are cut, and to give a good mulching of rotten manure and plenty of water. This causes the old stumps to grow again and to produce a crop of small Cabbages, which are often preferred to the ordinary heads. We may add that all the Cabbage tribe requires liberal treatment in the way of manuring and deep digging; and in dry seasons, or on thin soils, mulchings of manure and soakings of liquid-manure.

Savoys take the place in winter which Cabbages occupy in summer, and are preferred by some. Two sowings of them are enough - one in August along with the Cabbages sown then, and another along with the first batch of spring-sown Cabbages. The autumn sowing requires transplanting in spring, and the spring sowing in showery weather, as soon as the plants are strong enough. The other remarks on the cultivation of the Cabbage apply in this case also.

Curly Greens

Curly Greens may be treated as recommended for Savoys, or, indeed, may be sown late enough to be ready in time to fill ground which is cleared of early crops of Spinach, Turnips, Potatoes, etc. The tops can be used in winter and early spring, and the stems will afterwards furnish a spring supply of tender sprouts.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower for a first lot should be sown from the 10th to the 20th of August, and afterwards protected with hand-lights, or in frames, in boxes, or otherwise, as necessity may suggest, during winter. Give them air on all favourable occasions, and give the extra protection which a mat affords during frosty weather. Plant these out in rich soil when the weather has become spring-like in March or April, and give them a little protection by means of inverted flower-pots, boxes, or even evergreen twigs, on frosty nights. Another sowing may be made under glass about the beginning of March, and afterwards nursed on in a frame or under a hand-light to succeed the autumn-sown ones, and another towards the end of March out of doors, and a third about the 1st of May. A small pinch of seed each time will suffice. All the Cabbage kind require rich soil and liberal treatment to do them justice, but none more so than the Cauliflower.

Brussels Sprouts

To have these as good as possible, they should be sown in a frame, or under a hand-light, in February, to get the plants as forward as possible, so as to give them the full benefit of the whole season to grow. This advice may be disregarded in good climates, but in cold northern localities it is of very great importance. When no other means exist for raising plants, they must just be sown under the most favourable conditions possible, using rich soil; and this applies to the raising of all the plants of this class in early spring - but by no means to those sown in autumn, as it is apt to induce a growth too tender to stand the severities of winter. As we advised when speaking of Cabbages, so we advise in this case - prick out the plants 3 inches apart in rich roil, and lift and transplant with the trowel. It is more than worth all the trouble.

Broccoli

Broccoli comes in when other vegetables are scarce, and is much appreciated on that account. Small growers do not need more than one sowing, and the best time to sow is about the end of March or beginning of April. They may be treated much in the same way as the others - only, do not manure the ground heavily, as too rich soil causes too luxuriant a growth, which is often damaged during winter. When a gross growth does ensue, it is a good plan to lift the plants and heel them over with their heads to the north. This operation is done by taking out a trench on the north side of the rows, and lifting the plants carefully and laying them in it, covering the stems up to the base of the fresh leaves; then another trench and another row of Broccoli, until the plot is completed. Those which show head during severe weather should be lifted and put where they can be protected, or protection may be afforded where they stand. The sprouting virieties are very prolific, and the most profitable kind to grow, but the Cauliflower kinds are much more delicate in flavour.

So far we have treated of the times and ways of sowing and planting. As they are very similar in their wants, we will sum up their general cultivation in a few words. We repeat that the whole family requires liberal treatment, except perhaps Broccoli, in the matter of digging deep and manuring well. The usual way in which the ground is prepared by amateurs is a bad one. The ground is left untouched during winter and autumn, while the remains of the previous crop are left to nourish the vermin peculiar to each different kind. The soil gets solid and impervious to rain, and the winter's rains flood over the surface and wash the essence of the plant's food right away. The smooth surface is not operated on beneficially to any extent by the frost of winter or the drying winds of early spring. But when the crops require putting in, the digging and manuring are commenced - the manure used generally being too fresh to afford much nourishment - and a laborious job the work is; and labour with a will or not, the whole cultivated mass is just a mass of little or large knots, which affords the very worst tilth imaginable for thrusting in fibreless Cabbage plants, - and the loose coherence of these knots causes the soil to assume the conditions of brick-kiln rubbish, and is nearly as ill suited for healthy growth.

The ground should be turned over in winter, or even in autumn, and thrown up as roughly as possible to the action of the weather, and a good dressing of manure dug in at the same time. Should the ground be in good condition one dressing will be enough; but in the case of very poor or newly-taken-in land, a dressing of well-decayed manure spread over the surface when it is hard frozen, and forked into the surface-soil in spring when the ground is dry enough to admit of the process", will be repaid with interest. But whether the ground is dressed with manure or not, the forking should take place all the same, breaking every lump. In districts where the rainfall is excessive, or the soil a tenacious clay, this treatment requires some modification. When both conditions have to be contended against, it is best not to dig until February, and that as roughly as possible; and in this case allow the lumps to become quite dry and then moist again before forking them over, when they will crumble down like meal. It is a good plan in all such soils to apply the manure at fork-ing-time in a thoroughly decomposed state.

A little rich soil placed at the roots of each is of great service in promoting a start, which is often half the battle.

The best way of planting is by means of a trowel, in drills 3 or 4 inches deep, from 2 to 2 1/2 feet apart, according to the soil and the plants. Thus for Little Pixie Cabbage or Dwarf Ulm Savoy, 2 ft. by 1 ft. 6 in. is ample on ordinary soil; while on good soil, with strong plants put out early in May, 2 1/2 ft. by 1 ft. 8 in. is not too much for such things as Brussels Sprouts. 2 ft. by 1 ft. 6 in. may be taken as an average width likely to suit the others on ordinary soils, but observation will teach each individual what is most proper in his own case.

As soon as the plants are large enough the soil between the rows should be carefully dug over with a fork, and the plants steadied by having the earth drawn to the stems with a hoe, as is usually done with potatoes. On very light soils in dry seasons, a mulching of rotten manure between the rows will prove of the greatest benefit, by preventing the escape of the natural moisture in the soil. Soakings of sewage or other liquid manure will also prove beneficial.

Gardener.