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 When I went abroad after the war, I chose Cuba. The first lunch on tropical land began with a head of cabbage. At first we wondered: why not bananas, not pineapples, not grapefruits, of which there are plenty, but our humble northern vegetable? Then there was Australia - a region as banana-pineapple as Cuba.
 But the dinner also began here with a head of cabbage. And off we go! Countries alternated, cities, people, plants, cuisine changed. Only one thing has not changed: cabbage! She led lunch in Melbourne, Bombay, Tunisia and even the Sahara Desert.
Even when we got on the plane, where lunch was replaced by a sandwich. The sandwich was with ... her! Multi-storey: a slice of bread, a round of sausage, plastic cheese, and all this alternates with cabbage leaves! Reflecting on the omnipotence of this crispy vegetable, I dreamed that the whole history of mankind is permeated with cabbage. In ancient Egypt, boiled cabbages were served after dinner for dessert. The Romans recommended eating cabbage twice: before dinner and after.
Pythagoras assured that she gives a person vigor and good mood.
I don't know which cabbage Pythagoras had in mind: raw or boiled, in the form of cabbage soup? Probably raw, because boiled does not give all people fun and joy. It is known that Ivan the Terrible, slurping cabbage soup, got angry with Prince Golitsyn for some oversight and poured a plate over his head. But on the other hand, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich adored cabbage soup so much that he did not forget about them on their wedding day. Apparently, after them he had a particularly joyful mood! And listen to what our classic A. Tvardovsky said: “And the cabbage leaf creaked fresh, frosty, deliciously!”
However, no matter how simple this ordinary vegetable may seem, it is not at all easy to grow it in the field. He drove many gardeners to despair, some even gave up.
In 1904, the owner of a large cabbage garden decided to use waste - leaves left on the ground after harvesting the heads. He had several cows. Gathering the leaves, he began to regale his charges. The thought was this: cabbage is tasty and healthy food. She is a great germ fighter. And very juicy. The more cabbage, the more milk.
Ever since this ingenious idea occurred to the gardener, he switched his livestock to waste alone. However, instead of the expected increase in milk, the opposite happened. Milk yield began to fall, and the milk became salty. It smelled disgusting, and a rash appeared on the udders of the cows. The frightened owner hastened to transfer his sponsors to a regular ration.
 The gardener told his neighbors about his plans, and one of them repeated the experiment with a waste sheet. He had more cows, and he distilled milk into cream and made butter from them. Five days passed, and the cream smelled like a barrel when peeled from last year's cabbage residue. The oil did not want to knock down, and if it did manage to knock it down, then no amount of force could squeeze out the excess water. This experimenter also had to return the cows to their former mixed allowance. So, the cabbage leaf is good, but in company with other vegetables!
By the way, our glorious gardener Efim Grachev managed to use these very lower leaves, which spoiled the mood of buttermakers, in a completely different way. This connoisseur of vegetable business knew how to get such huge heads of cabbage that no one else in the world could grow. History has preserved an interesting fact for us. The World Agricultural Exhibition was held in Vienna in autumn. The highlight of the program was the head of cabbage brought from St. Petersburg by Grachev.
It was like a car wheel in diameter - 71 centimeters! On this occasion, a drawing was placed in one of the Viennese newspapers: a man is driving Grachev's head of cabbage in a wheelbarrow. Signature: "This fork will be enough for me and my family until the next harvest!"
Grachev never concealed the secrets of his success and immediately spoke about them in print.I also talked about the record heads of cabbage. For this purpose, he chose a very interesting variety Kolomenka, which was bred by the peasants of the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow. Kolomenka grew rapidly, spreading over. the sides have their outer leaves, wide as newspaper pages. They sealed the soil so securely that moisture was retained in it, like in plastic wrap. This saved him from expensive watering, which, moreover, did not help much at that time. The only condition is that the seedlings must be planted no later than May, otherwise the leaves will not have time to completely drape the ground before the heat.
Grachev's followers tried to imitate him, but they did not always succeed. So it is with cabbage leaves. Having been late with seedlings, one of them tried to catch up in another way. He took out fresh manure and scattered it over the skits, deciding to spur the belated plants. But it turned out not better, but worse. Young plants really began to rise faster, but, as luck would have it, all the power went into the very leaves that cover the soil! A lot of them grew, and the heads of cabbage almost did not start.
In general, cabbage fertilization is a delicate science. They talk about a settler who was building a house and did not manage to develop ridges for a vegetable garden in time. In order not to be left without vegetables for the winter, he decided to use a pile of clay, which he turned out when he dug underground. The neighbors laughed: “What will you grow on empty clay? At least spice it up with manure! " The new settler did not have dung, and he planted it like that. I don't know about other vegetables, but the cabbage has grown even better than in the best fertilized vegetable garden.
 Vegetable expert K. Romer, having learned about this case, decided to check: you never know what they talk about? He went to the new buildings and brought several carts of clay earth, taken out from a one and a half meter depth. After repeating the new settler's experience, Romer obtained the same result. One more check next year. And this time, pure clay gave an excellent result.
Unfortunately, such an unassuming creature cannot stand one thing: staying in one place for too long. Over the years, the cabbage flea begins to heap more and more often. Once, at the request of the peasants, the editor of the agricultural magazine P. Steinberg went to the Saratov province. Skits stretched there along the low floodplain of the river. It was a very comfortable, very suitable place. Therefore, every year, having collected heads of cabbage, they planted the same crop in the spring. As the editor walked through the aisles, there was a noise like pouring rain. Instinctively looking at the sky, Steinberg did not see a single cloud there. But the look at the ground threw him into confusion. Thousands, millions of fleas fell from all directions. They made a noise like a summer shower. It was not possible to save the harvest that year. The scientist advised the peasants to change their culture. Introduce crop rotation. They objected: the place was too convenient, better than in the floodplain, cabbage is nowhere to be found.
However, sometimes you don't need to change the place. A completely simple remedy helps. Agronomist A. Ebert sprayed cabbage fields near Shchelkovo near Moscow with diluted juice of potato tops, and potato plantations - with cabbage juice. The pests were confused. The cabbage specialists went for potatoes. They laid their testicles there. Caterpillars were hatched and died, not finding food. For the sprinkled plants themselves, the juice did no harm. On the contrary, it turned out to be top dressing and strengthened the defenses of plants.
It is remarkable that there have been cases in history when a pampered cabbage guarded by a man, left without his help, adapted to a new environment and emerged victorious in difficult life situations. In 1773, Captain Fournet, sailing by, sowed it in New Zealand. He did not return to harvest, and the cabbage garden was left to itself. The cabbage bloomed and gave seeds. Local parrots liked the seeds so much that they flew in flocks, ate and carried along the coast.
 And then something happened that is usually rare. The newcomer pushed the local herbs, which are so persistent at home. When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand, he saw yellow flower beds on the banks.What was the amazement of the navigator when he recognized in the yellow-flowered plants his native cabbage, which adorns the wild rocks of the British Isles with yellow flowers. She survived here in the Southern Hemisphere, so far from her homeland.
Now let's return to the omnipotence of our favorite vegetable. The world eats cabbages as much as oranges. Most of all - in our country. Many - in China, Japan, Europe. And very few in Africa. "Cabbage is a great germ fighter!" - say doctors and in every possible way promote this vegetable. Especially cabbage juice. Vitamin U was found in it, which cures stomach ulcers and various other troubles. However, some cautious biologists recall one experiment conducted by three experts in 1928.
They put the rabbits on a cabbage diet. And they unexpectedly discovered that four-legged vegetarians began to increase abnormally thyroid... She has grown ten times more against the norm. Then the scientists changed the food. They squeezed out the juice and began to give it to their pets. The juice did not have such an effect on the thyroid gland. But pomace!
Even rinsed twice in water, they made the thyroid gland grow. It increased in size even more rapidly than when fed with whole cabbage.
A. Smirnov. Tops and roots
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