CABBAGE, Brassica oleracea (see BitAssicA), a plant in most general cultivation for culinary purposes in Europe and other countries, cultivated also to a considerable extent for feeding cattle. It is a native of the rocky shores of Britain and other parts of Europe, more plentiful on the shores of the Mediterranean than in more northern lati tudes, and in its wild state is generally from a foot to two feet high. This plant has been cultivated in Europe from time immemorial; it has likewise been cultivated from an early period in gardens and about villages in India. Few plants show so great a ten dency to vary in their form through cultivation; and among the varieties of this one species are reckoned several of our most esteemed culinary vegetables, such as kale (q.v.) or greens, borecole, colewort (q.v.), savoy (q.v.), kohl rabi (q.v.), cauliflower (q.v.), and broccoli (q.v.)—plants which differ much in their appearance and in the particular qualities for which they are valuable, both from each other and from the original wild plant.
The wild C. has smooth sea-green leaves, waved and variously indented; the boiling of the leaves, or their forming close heads at a certain stage of the growth of the plant, so that the inner leaves are blanched, is peculiar to those cultivated varieties which com monly receive the name of cabbage.
The ordinary varieties of C. are often called by the general name of white C., to dis tinguish them from the red C., which is of a deep brownish-red or purplish, color, and is chiefly used for pickling, for which purpose it is much esteemed. The tree C., or cow C, is a variety cultivated for cattle, especially in the Channel islands and the n. of France, of which the leaves do not close together into compact heads, but which is remarkable for its great height—reaching, when it is in flower, 10 ft. on rich soils—and for its branching stem. The stems of this kind are sometimes used as stakes for pease, and even as cross-spars for thatched roofs. The Portugal or trana-uda C, also known as
eouve tronchuda, is a variety remarkable for its delicacy, and for the large midribs of its leaves, which are often used like sea-kale. It is an article of luxury like cauliflower, and requires a somewhat similar cultivation. —Cabbage-seed is sown either in spring or autumn, and the seedlings transplanted in rows at distances of two feet or upwards, according to the size of the variety. They are often planted chaser, and the alternate plants for open greens, for which the sprouts that ariso from the stem of soma varieties after the head has been cut off are also used. Cabbages require a rich, well manured soil, and the earth about the roots ought to be often stirred. By sowing and planting at different dates and of different varieties, a succession is secured in the gar den; and when winter approaches, part of the principal crop may be taken up and laid in a sloping position, so that only the heads are above the earth, in which way they are generally preservedwithout injury. In some places, cabbages are completely buried in the earth, the plants not being allowed to touch each other; and this method succeeds well in peaty or sandy soils.
The C., considered as food, contains more than 90 per cent of water, and therefore cannot be very nutritious: 100 parts of the ordinary C. consist of Extractive 2.34 Gummy matters 2.89 Resin .... 0.05 Vegetable albumen 0.29 Green fecula.. 0.63 Water and salts 93.80 The digestibility of C. varies according as it is partaken of raw or boiled; thus, raw C.
alone is digested in 24- hours; raw C., with vinegar, in 2 hours; and boiled C. takes 4/ hours. Immense quantities of cabbages are used in Germany as saner kraut (q.v.). CABBAGE BARK. See ANorrtA. ",, i,