The Baked Potato Man

"Hot hot all ot—mealy and floury, hot ot ot. 

Yere's yer reg'lar Hirish fruit, with plenty of butter and Bait, all ot ot hot." 

It is always a delight to stumble across a bit of written history that gives a real emotional connection to the times it takes place in.  I find it is usually because there is a link to something I know first hand from my life, a receptor, that the historical facts grab on to my imagination with such force.  The baked potato, with its distinctive smell and hand warming abilities, is a bridge across a number of centuries for many people I should think.

The Baked Potato Man came to my attention through an ebay auction of the postcard of "London Life, the Baked Potato Man".

What a great cart!!

The metal rays on which he has impaled some really big spuds are a fantastic design.

Four drawers to warm the potatoes.

This is a really good cart.

The following article from 1833 takes a good look at the Baked Potato Man business and gives us the "who, how and why" of the thing. The men in that article use a much simpler "can" to keep the potatoes warm.






Below from 1883, The Working Man's Friend, and Family Instructor:

THE BAKED POTATO CANS - 

"Hot hot all ot—mealy and floury, hot ot ot. Yere's yer reg'lar Hirish fruit, with plenty of butter and Bait, all ot ot hot." 

All round the metropolis, and for some distance in the country, may be seen various originals of Gayarni's graphic sketch, every one of whom announces his trade in some such loud-voiced legend as the above. It is calculated that there are not fewer than three hundred individuals engaged in the street trade of baked potatoes. Some of these have regular standings, while others travel about from place to place with their cans on their arms. The trade is a comparatively new one in London, it having been introduced within the last twenty years. Previous to the sale of baked potatoes in the streets, roasted chestnuts and apples were carried about in baskets; but, for at least six months in the year, the potato trade is considered very profitable.

The potatoes for street consumption—as we learn from Mr. Mayhew's " London Labour and the London Poor"—are bought of the salesmen in Spitalfields and the Borough markets, at the rate of 6s. 6d. the cwt. They are usually a large-sized "fruit",  running about two or three to the pound. The kind generally bought is what are called the "French Regent's".  French potatoes are greatly used now, as they are cheaper than the English. They are picked, and those of a large size, and with a rough skin, selected from the others, because they are the "mealiest".  What is known as a waxy potato shrivels in the baking.

 There are usually from 280 to 300 potatoes in the cwt.; these are cleaned by the huckster, and, when dried, taken in baskets, about a quarter cwt. at a time, to the baker's, to be cooked. They are baked in large tins, and require an hour and a half to cook them well. The charge for baking is 9 d. the cwt.,  the baker usually finding the tins. They are taken home from the bakehouse in a basket, covered up, and protected from the cold, by a piece of green baize. 

The huckster then places them in his can, which consists of a tin with a half-lid; it stands, as we see in the engraving, on four legs, and has a large handle to it, while an iron fire-pot is suspended immediately beneath the vessel which is used for holding the potatoes. Directly over the fire-pot is a boiler for hot water. This is concealed within the vessel, and serves to keep the potatoes always hot. Outside the vessel where the potatoes are kept is, at one end, a small compartment for butter and salt, and at the other end another compartment for fresh charcoal. Above the boiler, and beside the lid, is a small pipe for carrying off the steam. 

These potato-cans are sometimes brightly polished, sometimes painted red, and occasionally brass mounted, Some of the handsomest are all brass, and some are highly ornamented with brass-mountings. The potato sellers take great pride in their cans, and usually devote half an hour every morning to polishing them up, by which they are kept almost as bright as silver. We have seen a potato can in Shoreditch, of brass mounted with German silver, which cost ten guineas. There are three lamps attached to it, with coloured glass, and of a style to accord with that of the machine; each lamp cost 5s. The expense of an ordinary can, tin and brass mounted, is about 50s. They are made by a tinman in the Ratcliffe-highway. 

The usual places for these cans to stand are the principal thoroughfares and street markets. There are three at the bottom of Farringdon-street, two in Smithfteld, and three in Tottenham-court-road (the two places last named are said to be the best " pitches" in all London), two in Leather-lane, one on Holborn-hill, one at King's-cross, three at the Brill, Somers-town, three in the New-cut, three in Coventgarden (this is considered to be on market-days the second-best "pitch "), two at the Elephant and Castle, one at Westminsterbridge, two at the top of Edgewore-road, one in St. Martin's-lane, one in Newport-market, two at the upper end of Oxford-street, one in Clare-market, two in Regent-street, one in Newgatemarket, two at the Angel, Islington, three at Shoreditich church, four about Rosemary-lane, two at Whitechapel, two at Mile-endgate, two near Spitalfields-market, and more than double the above number wandering about London. Some of the cans have names—as, the "Royal Union Jack" (engraved on a brass plate), the "Royal George," the "Prince of Wales," the "Original Baked Potatoes," and the " Old Original Baked Potatoes."

The business of the baked potatoes sellers begins about the middle of August and continues to the latter end of April, or as soon as the potatoes get to any size,—until they are pronounced "bad." The season, upon an average, last about half the year, and depends much upon the weather. If it is cold and frosty, the trade is brisker than in wet weather. The best hours for business are from half-past ten in the morning till two in the afternoon, and from five in the evening till eleven or twelve at night. The night trade is considered the best. In cold weather the potatoes are frequently bought to warm the hands. Indeed, an eminent divine classed them, in a public speech, among the best of modern improvements, a cheap luxury to the poor wayfarer, who was benumbed in the night by cold, and an excellent medium for diffusing warmth into the system, by being held in the gloved hand. Some buy them in the morning for lunch and some for dinner. A news vender, who had to take a hasty meal in his shop, told Mr. Mayhew he was "always glad to hear the baked-potato cry, as it made a dinner of what was only a snack without it".  The best time at night, is about nine, when the potatoes are purchased for supper.

The customers of baked-potatoes belong to nearly all classes. Many "gentlefolks" buy them in the Street, and take them home for supper in their pockets; but the working people are of course the greatest purchasers. Many poor boys and girls lay out a half-penny in a baked potato. Women buy a great number of those sold. Some take them home, and sone eat them in the street. Three baked potatoes are as much as will satisfy the stoutest appetite.

 One potato-dealer in Smithfield is said to sell about 2 1/2 cwt. of potatoes on a market-day; or, in other words, from 900 to 1,000 potatoes, and to take upwards of 2l. Upon an average, taking the good stands with the bad ones throughout London, there are about 1 cwt. of potatoes sold by each baked potato man—and taking the number of these throughout the metropolis at 200, we have a total of 10 tons of baked potatoes consumed every day. The money spent upon these comes to within a few shillings of 125l. (calculating 300 potatoes to the cwt., and each of those potatoes to be sold at a halfpenny). Hence, there are 60 tons of baked potatoes eaten in London streets, and 750l. spent upon them every week during the season. 

 Saturdays and Mondays are the best days for the sale of baked potatoes in those parts of London distant from the markets; but in those in the vicinity of Clare, Newport, Covent-garden, Newgate, Smithfield, and other markets, the trade is briskest on the market-days. The baked-potato men are many of them broken down tradesmen. Many are labourers who find a difficulty of obtaining employment in the winter time; some are costermongers; and some have been artisans.

After the baked potato season is over, the generality of the hucksters take to selling strawberries, raspberries, or anything in season. Some go to labouring work. The capital required to start in this trade is not, we are told, more than £2, while the average daily receipts amount to about 6s.

Cato on Cabbage

       Cato the Elder

1. Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Cato Censorius, Cato Sapiens, Cato Priscus, Cato Major, or Cato the Elder; known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. Wikipedia
3. Born: 234 BC, Tusculum, Italy
4. Died: 149 BC, Rome, Italy
5. Books: De Agri Cultura
6. Children: Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus, Cato Salonianus

Cato on Cabbage

On cabbage as an aid to digestion

• Cabbage surpasses all vegetables. Eat it either cooked or raw: if you eat it raw, dress it with vinegar. It aids digestion remarkably and does the bowels good, and the urine will be beneficial for all purposes.
• If you want to drink a lot and eat copiously at a party, eat as much cabbage as you want, raw, dressed with vinegar, before dining. Then, when about to dine, eat about 5 leaves. You will feel as if you had eaten nothing, and you can drink as much as you want. (!)
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  
  
• If you want to purge by vomiting, take 4 lb. of the tenderest cabbage, divide into three equal bunches and tie. Then put a pot of water on the fire, and when it begins to boil plunge one bunch into it briefly. It will stop boiling. Then, as it boils, plunge the bunch again while you count five, and take it out. Do the same with the second bunch, and then the third. Then put all together and pound. Remove into a linen bag, and express about 1 pint of juice into an earthenware mug. Add a salt crystal about the size of a bitter vetch seed, and roasted cumin seed enough to give a flavour. Then put the mug outdoors, in good weather, overnight. The person who is to take the medicine should have a hot bath, drink honey water, and go to bed without dinner, then in the morning drink the juice and walk for four hours, and do any business required. When the urge comes and nausea is felt, recline and vomit. So much bile and phlegm will be thrown up that the patient will wonder where it all came from. Later, after moving the bowels, drink half a pint or a little more. If the motions are too frequent, take two spoonfuls of fine flour, crumble into water and drink a little, and they will stop.
• For those who are troubled by colic, cabbage should be steeped in water. When steeped, put it into hot water. Boil until thoroughly soft. Pour off the water. Then add salt and a little cumin; also add fine barley meal and olive oil. The boil, pour into a dish and allow to cool. This is to be included in the patient’s next meal, or, preferably, to be eaten on its own. Unless there is fever, give also harsh red wine mixed with as little water as possible; if there is fever, give water. Do this daily, early in the morning. Do not give too much, or the patient will become sick of it instead of continuing to take it freely. Treat a man, a woman or a child in the same way.
• Now as to patients for whom urination is painful or dribbling. Take cabbage, put in boiling water, boil briefly till half cooked. Then pour out some of the water, add plenty of oil and salt and a little cumin. Bring to the boil briefly. Then take the juice, cold, and eat the cabbage itself, digesting it as quickly as possible. Do this each day. 

On the Pythagorean Cabbage and its good and health-giving properties. 
(According to Pliny (24-79 A.D.), Pythagoras was so fond of cabbage that he extolled its virtues in a book. Pythagoras was the father of vegetarianism!?  Check out this interesting page.)


First you must know the different kinds of cabbage and their nature. 

• It blends all healthy influences and ever adapts itself with the application of heat, being at once dry and wet, at once sweet and sour and bitter. Cabbage, in its mixed nature, has all of the so-called Seven Good Things.  (I can't find the Seven Good Things...bummer.)
• First, then, to explain this nature. The first kind is called levis, delicate. It is large, broad-leaved, long-stemmed, and has a powerful nature and great force.
  
  The second is crinkled, called apiaca: good in nature and appearance, it is more powerful in medicine than the first.
  
  So is the third, called mild: thin- stemmed, it is tender and the bitterest of all, with a very active thin juice, and you must know first of all that of all the kinds of cabbage none is as effective a medicine as this.
• Put it, ground fine, to all wounds and swellings. It will clean up and heal all sores painlessly. It brings boils to a head and makes them burst.
• It will clean up and heal septic wounds and cancers, as medicines cannot. Before you apply it, wash with plenty of hot water, then apply ground cabbage twice a day. It will remove all decay. Black cancer (gangrene?) gives off a smell and a foul slime; the white is purulent but fistulous and suppurates under the flesh. Grind cabbage for illnesses of this kind. It will cure them, and is the best thing for illnesses of this kind.
• In case of dislocation, foment with hot water twice a day and apply ground cabbage: it will soon cure it. Apply twice a day: it will remove the pain. If there is any bruising, it will break it up; apply ground cabbage: it will cure it.
• If any sore or cancer develops in the breasts, apply ground cabbage: it will cure it. If the sore cannot bear the bitterness of the cabbage, mix with barley flour and apply the mixture: it will cure all sores of this kind, while other medicines cannot cure them or clean them up. If a boy or girl has a sore of this kind, again, add barley flour.
• If you want your cabbage chopped, washed, dried, sprinkled with salt or vinegar, there is nothing healthier. To enjoy it more, sprinkle with honey vinegar. Washed and dried, with chopped rue and coriander and sprinkled with salt you will enjoy it a little better. It does you good, permits no disease to remain in the body, and does the bowels good. If there was any disease present internally, cabbage will cure all, remove all sicknesses from the head and the eyes and cure them. Take it in the morning before eating.
• If there is black bile, if the spleen swells, if the heart or liver or lungs or diaphragm are painful, in a word, it will cure whatever organ is painful.
  Grate silphium over it: that is good.
• When all the veins are blown up with food they cannot breathe through the body, and that gives rise to illness. When from overeating the bowels will not move, if you take (as I advise) an appropriate amount of cabbage, you will develop no illness from overeating.
• Now nothing clears illness of the joints as well as raw cabbage, whether you eat it chopped, with rue and coriander chopped in, dry, with grated sirpicium, or as cabbage in honey vinegar sprinkled with salt. If you take this, you will have the use of all your joints. It costs nothing, and even if it did you should try it for the sake of health. Take it in the morning before eating.
• One who suffers from insomnia or senility will find the same cure effective. Give this patient, before eating, cabbage fried in fat, hot, and a little salt. The more that is eaten, the quicker will be the recovery from this illness.
• Those who are troubled by colic are to be treated as follows. Soak cabbage thoroughly, then place in a cooking pot and boil thoroughly. When well cooked, pour off the water and add plenty of oil and a little salt, cumin and fine barley meal. Then boil thoroughly. When it has boiled put in a dish. Give this to the patient to eat, without bread if possible; if not, allow bread, with this dish as relish, but nothing else. If there is no fever, give red wine to drink. The cure will be rapid.
• Whenever necessary this will cure anyone who is weak: take cabbage as just described.
• In addition, store the urine of anyone who habitually eats cabbage; warm it, bathe the patient in it. With this treatment you will soon restore health; it has been tested. If you wash feeble children in this urine they will be weak no longer. Those who cannot see clearly should bathe their eyes in this urine and they will see more. If the head or neck is painful, wash in this urine, heated: they will cease to be painful.
• Also, if a woman foments her parts with this urine, they will never irritate. Foment as follows: boil in a basin and place under a commode; the woman is then to sit on the commode, covering the basin with her clothing.
• Wild cabbage has the greatest strength. It should be heated and ground thoroughly fine.
• If you intend to purge someone, the patient should not take dinner on the preceding day. In the morning, before eating, give ground cabbage and 4 cyathi of water. Nothing will purge so well, not even hellebore or scammony, and safely too: you must know that it is healthy for the body. Use it on those you despair of curing. When giving this purge, administer as follows: give this for seven days as a liquid food. When there is appetite, give donkey meat. If the patient will not eat that, give boiled cabbage and bread, and a mild wine mixed with water to drink. The patient should wash only occasionally, using oil instead. One thus treated will long remain healthy and suffer no sickness unless self-induced.
• If there is a suppurating or fresh sore, sprinkle this ground wild cabbage with water and apply: you will cure it.
• In the case of a fistula, insert it as a pack. If the pack will not stay in, dilute the ground cabbage, put in a bladder, attach a reed, squeeze into the fistula. This will soon effect a cure.
• Also apply, ground, with honey, to any wounds old or recent. This will cure them.
• If there is a nasal polyp, put dried ground wild cabbage in a tuft of wool; put to the patient’s nose to aspire as much as possible. Within three days the polyp will fall out. (!)When it has done so continue the treatment for an equal number of days to heal up the roots of the polyp completely.
• If you are hard of hearing grind cabbage with wine, press out the juice, drop into the ear warm. You will soon be aware of hearing more.
• Apply cabbage to a suppurating scab. It will cure it without causing a sore. 

Captain Cook's Cabbage and New Zealand

'We were all hearty seamen no cold did we fear
 And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear
 Thanks be to the Captain he has proved so good
 Amongst allthe Islands to give us fresh food.'

(Song by T. Perry, from H.M.S. Resolution) 

As I stumble about in cabbage's past, getting tripped up by this or that historical root of the cabbage story, I keep being confronted with people I know from other historical circles.

Captain James Cook is the second important seaman from the great voyages who has cabbage ties, Jacques Cartier was the first.  Cartier established cabbage in the New World in 1541, while Cook was determined in his second voyage to get cabbage accepted and grown in New Zealand in 1773.  Cook introduced the southern Maori people to various root crops that he gauged appropriate for the cooler climate, cabbage, carrot, potato, turnip among other cool weather crops.

Below: Resolution and Adventure in Matavai Bay, by Hodges; Cabbages by Emma.

Cooks attempt was successful, for it seems both the cabbage was happy with New Zealand and dispersed seeds naturally, as well as the Maori were happy with cabbage and appeared to have made sure it was growing near their villages.  The ships now were able to get supplies of the effective antiscorbutic that could be shipped as sauerkraut.

There are some good reading books available from the New Zealand Electronic Text Collections! The following is from Exotic Intruders -The introduction of plants and animals into New Zealand
by Joan Druett. " When Commander Bellinghausen visited Motauro in 1820, he was able to gather 'such a quantity of wild cabbage that we had sufficient for one meal of cabbage soup for all the servants and officers.' Major Cruise, also writing in 1820, said, ' ... the excellent plants left by Captain Cook, viz., Cabbages, turnips, carrots, etc., are still numerous but very degenerated.' The botanist Dieffenbach, who visited the area in 1839, wrote,'... the cabbage, which now abounds in Queen Charlotte Sound, and which grows wild, was in blossom, and covered the sides of the hills, with a yellow carpet.' He found cabbages growing wild all over the Cook Strait area, and plantations of cabbages  PAGE 13thriving on Kapiti Island. The early settler Bidwill, when travelling in the Tauranga area found that the Maoris gathered wild cabbages, which they boiled as a vegetable. Turnips were almost as successful, the Maoris growing them in their gardens and taking them around the country."

Great Link: PDF - CAPTAIN COOK AND SCURVY, By EGON H. KODICEK, Director, Dunn Nutritional Laboratory,University of Cambridge and Medical Research Council, and FRANK G. YOUNG, F.R.S.

Cabbage - "Visions of Sauerkraut"

This is an impressive marketplace for cabbage!  It was taken in 1901 in Germany and titled "Visons of Sauerkraut".

Mode of preparing Sauer-Kraut.—The Germans consider the cabbage a more economical plant than even the potato; but in its natural state it could not form, as it does in Germany, a principal article of diet amongst the healthiest and stoutest part of the population, and it therefore undergoes a peculiar preparation, after which it is called "sauerkraut." Cabbage thus prepared in the Gorman fashion has been recently introduced in the dietary of the British navy, and occasionally it may be seen at table in England, in the houses of private individuals. The following recipe for making sauer-kraut is from a work entitled ' Germany and the Germans,' written by a gentleman long resident in that part of the Continent:—" When the cabbage has arrived at maturity, or even beyond it, that is, when white and very hard (for the crops are left in the ground till late in autumn), the outer leaves are first peeled off, the cabbage is then divided, and the stalk entirely cut away. It is now placed in a machine, which sets in motion several sharp blades, that cut it much in the same manner as we do pickled cabbage, but finer. This process being completed, the whole is closely packed in barrels, and between each layer of cabbage is placed a sprinkling of salt, carraway seeds, and juniper berries. When the barrels are full, they are closely covered, and pressed by heavy weights. In three weeks or a month it is fit for use, and will keep good for years. Care must be taken, when any part of it is removed, that the remainder is left covered with its own brine. During the season for preparing the sauer-kraut, thousands of persons in Germany are employed in cutting the cabbage. It requires four hours to boil, and is usually served with salt meat. The Bavarian method is, after it has been boiled, to mix with it butter and red wine."

1839 - The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 8

The following is from A History of the Vegetable Kingdom: Embracing Comprehensive Descriptions of the Plants Most Interesting from Their Uses to Man and the Lower Animals; Their Application in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, and Domestic Economy; and from Their Beauty Or Peculiarities; Together with the Physiology, Geographical Distribution, and Classification of Plants,  1874

Sauerkraut, "that excellent preparation" of the Germans, and of which they are so immoderately fond, is merely fermented cabbage. To prepare this, close-headed white cabbages are cut in shreds, and placed in a four-inch layer in a cask; this is strewed with salt, unground pepper, and a small quantity of salad oil: a man with clean wooden shoes then gets into the cask, and treads the whole together till it is well mixed and compact. Another layer is then added, which is again trod down, and so on until the cask is entirely filled. The whole is then subjected to heavy pressure, and allowed to ferment; when the fermentation has subsided, the barrels in which it is prepared are closed up, and it is preserved for use.

 The preparing of sauerkraut is considered of so much importance as to form a separate profession, which is principally engrossed by the Tyrolese. The operation of shredding the cabbage is now performed by a machine, which the men carry on their backs from house to house; this means for the abridgment of labour was only invented about forty or fifty years ago.

 Every German family stores up, according to its size, one or more large casks of this vegetable preparation. October and November are the busy months for the work, and huge white pyramids of cabbage are seen crowding the markets; while in every court and yard into which an accidental peep is obtained, all is bustle and activity in the concocting of this national food, and the baskets piled with shredded cabbage resemble "mountains of green-tinged froth or syllabub."

Sauerkraut has been found of sovereign efficacy as a preservative from scurvy during long voyages. It was for many years used in our navy for this purpose, until displaced by lemon juice, which is equally a specific, while it is not so bulky an article for store.

The larger and grosser kinds of cabbage are used as food for cattle. But this nutriment has a great tendency to impart a disagreeable flavour to the milk of cows fed on it, and even to the flesh of other cattle. This unpleasant effect may, we are told, be prevented by removing the withered leaves; but cabbage is more disposed to fermentation and putrefaction than almost any other vegetable. 

When cultivated as food for stock, it is of course a matter of importance with agriculturists to produce the greatest weight in a given space. The average crop, as stated by Mr Arthur Young, is thirty-six tons per acre, when the plants are grown on a dry soil, which is very similar to that quoted from other and more modern writers; but on a sandy soil only eighteen tons have been obtained.

 Some cabbages are occasionally produced of an astonishing size and weight. A cabbage seed accidentally sown among onions came up in the onion bed, and without any care being taken of it, grew to very large dimensions, and weighed, when taken up, twenty-five pounds. A cabbage was also produced in Devonshire, a number of years back, which, when growing, occupied a space of fifteen feet of ground, measured five feet in circumference, and weighed sixty pounds.

The Cow Cabbage Mania of 1836

Before I tell you about the cow cabbage mania of 1836, let me show you what cow cabbage looks like.  This cabbage was grown as animal food, the farmer stripping the lower leaves from the stem for fodder allowing it to keep growing and producing more leaves.  

(above: 1901 - How do you fancy one of these for a stick old chappie?)

Still grown to amazing effect!  Looks like it is a tourist attraction.

All these postcards were 

on eBay on one day.

Great Walking Stick Links:

GardenHistoryGirl  has a beautifully written post on this plants use as sticks;  fun to read!

A Garden of Walking Sticks, 2011–2013; go here...very cool

The Cow Cabbage Mania of 1836

Here is a piece from THE AMERICAN FARMER in 1828...the seed for mania is planted!  The concept of supporting four cows for a year with only 60 square feet of ground was astounding.

________________

THE COW CABBAGE. The following account of this extraordinary vegetable is extracted from the Gardener's Magazine: -—

"I enclose a few seeds of an arborescent cabbage, introduced from La Vendee, by the celebrated Comte de Puisaye, which promised to be an important acquisition to agriculture. I have seen it growing in the garden of my friend, Admiral Brooking, here, to the height of eight feet. In La Vendee, I am told, it attains an altitude of from 12 to 15 or even more feet. Being a native of a warmer climate, it should be planted in a warm and sheltered situation: sixty plants are said to afford sufficient provender for a cow for a year, and as the side shoots only are used, it lasts four years without fresh planting. A square of 60 feet will contain 246 plants, four feet apart, or 16 more than four cows require for a year's provender, without the aid of other food. W. Hamilton, Oxford Place, Plymouth."

—Mr. William Lee. a native of Leeds, now resident, in France, has brought over a small quantity of the seed of the cow cabbage, which he has distributed to his friends.

1831 - The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs printed this:

I have noticed in the last Free Press and Repository, a communication copied from the New York Farmer, signed by James Timelier, of Plymouth, Mass. on the importance of cultivating what he calls the cow cabbage, or Cesarian Kail, the seed of which was sent by Mr. James Mease. Through the politeness of the Post Master, in Charlestown, I too received, in May, 1829, some of the same kind of cabbage seed (spoken of by Mr Thacher) from Dr. Mease, of Philadelphia.  

The Doctor, in his communication to the Post Master at Charlestown, gave the plant the name of tree cabbage.  Living as I do in a more southern climate, and having been more successful in raising the tree or cow cabbage, than either Mr. Thacher or his neighbour, ‘"who took up his plants in the autumn and put them into his cellar”,  I will, with your permission, make known, through the columns of your paper, the progress I have made in cultivating this new kind of cabbage, called by my old Gardener, "wild cabbage”.

I sowed a few of the seeds in my garden early in May, 1829; they germinated quickly, and produced thirty plants; twenty of these I transplanted in the first week of October following, placing them two and a half feet apart- eight of the plants I did not remove, suffering them to remain the same distance apart of those I transplanted—all remained through the winter without shelter of any kind, and only two stalks killed by the frost.  Those not transplanted were most luxuriant, some of them are at this lime nine or ten feet high—those transplanted are from four to five feet high. 

Dr Thacher speaks of this cabbage being very valuable as provender for cows.  I have not tried it in that way, but think it may answer a good purpose.  I can speak with certainty from experience, and say that it is very valuable for table greens, called in Virginia ' sprouts.' It was ready for use last spring before any other greens—one stalk will produce more than a bushel of sprouts.  

Dr. Thacher speaks of this cabbage living four years. Dr. Mease, when he transmitted the seed, said they would live three years. This is only the second year since those in my garden were planted; they are now loaded with seed, and the stalks appear on the decline. I rather incline to the opinion it will only last two years, but am by no means positive, as there are at this time among those in my garden, many young shoots springing from the roots of the old stock. 

New England farmers are encouraged to cultivating this new article notwithstanding the plants must be kept in a cellar in the winter. I think keeping the plants in a cellar a discouraging business, but here, where they will stand the winter I think it will be found a most valuable plant, and farmers may profit by it—they cannot lose.  

A SUBSCRIBER, Jefferson County, (Va.) July, 1830.

[The expedient of keeping the plants in the cellar during the winter can only be necessary in a cold climate, and upon a small scale they will repay the trouble they thus give.]—Virginia Free Press.

1837 - And now the outrageous claims that fueled the "mania"...

this is a report on the mania a year after it peaked.

From the Farmers' Register:

THE "WATERLOO CAESAREAN EVERGREEN CABBAGE", 

ALIAS COW CABBAGE OF JERSEY.

The Farmer and Gardener of September 13, introduces an account of this cabbage (taken from the last No. of the Horticultural Register of Boston,) in the following manner: 

"We have a few hundred of these plants growing at our little establishment; but as the season has been inauspicious, and they have not had a fair chance for luxuriant growth, we cannot say what may be the result of our experiment. We obtained the seed of Robert Sinclair, Jr. at $5 a pound; those in England are, or were, held at $5 for 20 seed. The next season we shall take time by the forelock, and give the article a more fair and perfect trial. It it should prove by proper test to realize a moiety of what has been said of it, it will certainly produce a new era in agricultural pursuits; but as the venders of the seed of new things are not always the most scrupulous in pronouncing their eulogies on their virtues, time and actual cultivation are necessary in order that their capacities may be properly demonstrated.

In the more southern portions of our country, if this cabbage should prove as valuable as some of its encomiast have stated it to be, it will, indeed, be a blessing. But of its properties after we have had time to form a correct practical opinion, we shall speak more fully."

Though the exaggerations of the English account given in the Horticultural Register, are partly neutralized by the remarks of its conductor(editor), still there is some danger that there may spring up and spread over our land a cow cabbage mania, such as at different times has been excited by millet, Cobbett’s Russian turnips, and Gama Grass. For this reason, as well as for the amusement of our readers, we republish (from the August No. of Loudon's Gardener's Magazine,) this most impudent puff, and shameless yet very successful deception. The nostrums recommended by agricultural quacks and patent venders, like those of the medical quacks, are generally the more successful in proportion to the enormity of the pretension and falsehood.

"An individual in England having shown a specimen of this variety of what is properly a borecole, to Mr. Coke of Holkham, that gentleman expressed surprise at its size, etc.  Advantage was taken of this to pull off, as the phrase is, this vegetable under a new name; viz. the Waterloo Caesarean evergreen cow cabbage, and sell the seed at the rate of a sovereign for a packet containing twenty seeds. The following is an extract from the advertisement:

'Patronized by His Majesty. Wonder ul production of nature! Waterloo Caesarean evergreen cow cabbage, of recent discovery, unequaled in affording the most interesting and desirable results to the farmer, grazier, and manufacturer. This singular and extraordinary species of cabbage, almost unknown in England till introduced by the persevering efforts of Mr. Fullard, three years since, grows from nine to twelve feet high, and from fifteen to twenty feet in circumference.  Five of these stupendous cabbages, now raised to the greatest perfection in quality as well as size, have been repeatedly found, by proper management, an ample allowance of food for one hundred sheep, or ten cows per day; and the nutrition thence supplied by this delicious vegetable will (as experience has already abundantly demonstrated) speedily produce the most surprising improvement in the growth and utility of every description of cattle. As an evidence of the beneficial tendency of this cabbage, Mr. F. has the great pleasure and satisfaction of saying that sheep fed upon it have been found to produce wool of the finest silken texture, twenty-five inches long; a circumstance which cannot fail immediately to claim the utmost attention and admiration: as such, the cultivator of these cabbages will not only realize pecuniary profit beyond any previous experience, but the manufacturer will also obtain a material superior to any heretofore produced by the most profitable speculation, the general and extensive demand for which must exceed all present calculation. The commerce of the, country, as well as the interest and pleasure of the community at large, will likewise be greatly, if not incalculably,  enhanced by the cultivation and use of this improved vegetable production. This Waterloo Caesarean cow cabbage has been pronounced by the father of the agriculturists, whom, from his well known experience, we are all bound to believe, to be the greatest wonder that ever appeared in the vegetable kingdom. It was shown to that very highly esteemed and truly respectable gentleman, T. W. Coke, Esq., Holkham Hall, Norfolk, in October last, when he immediately said—'Mr. Fullard, you told me, three years ago, agriculturists were only halfway advanced in improvement: this cabbage makes me say I am bound to believe you. I do say it is the greatest wonder the earth ever produced.’  Mr. Coke subsequently introduced several dukes and other noblemen to the number of nine, to view this great production, all of whom expressed their astonishment, and engaged a part of the seed for use this year (1836).  These cabbages, if designed for use in the winter season, can, for convenience, as well as advantage to the grower, be then removed from the fields, and will serve to make handsome serpentine walks in gardens; or they will form a most excellent avenue for winter across a field; or, by setting them singly, will make a ground, that has not a tree in it, a park for winter, and may be given to the stock in spring. To obviate skepticism, and to afford the highest satisfaction and confidence as to the perfect rectitude of the statements here given, agriculturists, graziers, and all who feel an interest in the species of produce, are respectfully requested to apply to Mr. _______ , wholesale perfumer, who will, with pleasure, exhibit specimens of the cabbage, and also wool of sheep fed with this vegetable production. Mr.___ is the sole agent in London for the Waterloo Caesarean cow cabbage seed. All purchasers of it are particularly desired to sow it at the proper season (which is in July,) as stated in the directions which accompany the parcels, price 20s. each. The plants of this seed, unlike other vegetable produce for cattle, never fail, either numerically or in quality.  A part of this seed has been engaged by His Majesty, and forwarded to Norfolk Farm, near Windsor, to be sown this season; and the production is already likewise patronized by most of the royal family. The Duke of Wellington, and the following gentlemen, are a few only who have selected the seed for cultivation this year:  the Right Hon. ____ Dymock, Champion of England;  Robert Leeds, Esq, Surrey;  Thomas Back, Esq, Welelsbro’ ;  Joseph Cowen, Esq., Bladenburn; Sir William Folk, Norfolk; R. Preston, Esq., Barrister, Lincoln's Inn; Allington, Esq,, Little Barford, near St.Neots; Edward Lindsell, Esq., Broon. near Biggleswade;  Henry Walker, Esq., Corn Exchange; R. Sutton, Esq Royal Exchange; Jesse, Esq" Hampton Court;Henry Hills, Esq., Allebury; Henry Handley, Esq., M. P., Lincolnshire; Perkins, Esq., proprietor of Islington Market; William Shield, Esq., Lincolnshire; Thomas Hudson, Esq., York; Hern, Esq.,Bury St. Edmonds; Watkin, Esq.,Windsor.  (I got tired of correcting the OCR for these names, so stopped...but they sure are amusing to a Connecticut eye!)

It is desirable to remember, that these sweet vegetables, when boiled, are remarkably tender, and in flavor resemble asparagus. For the table, or culinary purposes, they will ever be highly appreciated. They grow in the form of a cone, and from the thickness of their foliage, and being evergreen, they will be found ornamental to a garden. The plants, after two months growth, (say in September,) require to be set out at the distance of two yards and a half from each other. They will grow on soils of moderate richness; but their greatest perfection will require soil of good quality. At any subsequent period to their being thus transplanted, they may be removed to any other place where convenience or taste may suggest. All letters from the country, requiring a packet of seed to be forwarded, must (to be attended to) contain a sovereign, or an order for the payment in London; and it is requested the name and address, where it is to be sent, be legibly written. Caution :—Any packet sold at a less price than a sovereign, either in town or country, cannot be genuine. Observe, also, upon each packet the circular seal,with this inscription: (not legible)

It is important to observe, that none of the genuine cow cabbage seed will be sold after the month of July, for sowing this year, (1836)

Further Particulars.—In reference to the length of wool produced by sheep fed upon the new colossal vegetable, as described in this prospectus, the proprietor, Mr. Fullard, to prove the fact, has now a lamb-hog, one year old, to be seen at Mr. (X) where T.w. Coke Esq., of Holkham Hall, paid a visit on Tuesday, the I4th instant; and, upon due examination of the said lamb-hog, he declared, in the presence of many witnesses, that he never before saw such a specimen of wool for length and fine quality. Mr. F. has already been awarded nine premiums, by the Agricultural Societies for the superiority of his sheep and other cattle.

(This last paragraph didn't get copied as text...)

The following brief mention is from A History of the Vegetable Kingdom: Embracing Comprehensive Descriptions of the Plants Most Interesting from Their Uses to Man and the Lower Animals; Their Application in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, and Domestic Economy; and from Their Beauty Or Peculiarities; Together with the Physiology, Geographical Distribution, and Classification of Plants,  1874

A variety of brassica, under the name of cow cabbage (brassica oleracea, var. arborescens), has been recently introduced into this country from La Vendee by the Comte de Puysage. The proximity of this department to the ancient province of Anjou, and the description of the plant, leave no doubt of its identity with the Anjou cabbage, a very large variety described by Mill.  In 1827 thirty-six seeds were divided among six agriculturists, for the purpose of raising this useful vegetable in England. The perfect success resulting from some of these seeds, which have produced plants of a luxuriant growth, is already known; and horticulture is now so much more disseminated and understood in this country, that there is every reason to hope that the cow cabbage will at length become naturalized in England. It is said that sixty plants afford provender sufficient for one cow during three or four years without fresh planting. A square of sixty feet will contain two hundred and fiftysix plants, four feet apart from each other, sixteen plants more than four cows require for a year's provender without the aid of other food. This plant is now successfully cultivated in Jersey, whence seeds have been sent to a nurseryman in London.