A Manual of Vegetable Plants; Containing the Experiences of the Author in Starting All Those Kinds of Vegetables Which Are Most Difficult for a Novice to Produce from Seeds (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... PART SECOND. PLANTS IN THE OPEN GROUND. Cabbage Plants.--One of the most difficult and vexing parts of all garden operations is to secure a good supply of healthy, growing plants. Indeed, after this feat is accomplished, if the soil is sufficiently enriched, in the right mechanical condition, and the proper cultivation given, there is little left for a man to do but to harvest a bountiful crop. Nine tenths of the failures in this branch of business are directly assignable to some mismanagement in the first stages of the plants' growth, and as in all animal nature, a disease or injury contracted in infancy, though perhaps for a long time latent, may finally develop into complete ruin. The general ignorance which exists throughout this country on the subject of insects and diseases from which the cabbage is liable to destruction, may be inferred when we state that our sales of cabbage plants to market gardeners and planters have ranged to upwards of eight hundred thousand in a single spring. Nearly all the purchasers of these, at least all those who bought in large quantities, would have grown their own plants, had they been satisfied that they could have produced as good and healthy plants at home as they received from us. In some seasons (the present, 1877, being a remarkable one in this respect) every thing will be so favorable that in many localities plants in abundance can be grown by mere chance, nothing happening to attack them to their detriment. But this chance cannot be depended upon safely, for in a majority of instances it will simply result in failure. In how many thousands of instances does a man's experience culminate somewhat as follows: A man desires to raise a field of cabbage. He first consults all the seed catalogues and works...