Growing Cauliflower In Your Garden

come. Yet, they are very tender. They will not endure a South of England winter without a covering, occasionally at least, of some sort; and the covering is, almost always, glass, either on frames or in a hand light. So that, to keep them through an American winter, there must not only be Slass, but that glass (except where you have a green house to be kept warm by fire) must have a covering in severe weather.

They require age, and yet, you must not sow them too early in the fall; for, if you do, they will have little heads about the size of a dollar, and go off to seed at once without coming to a large head at all.

If you be too backward in sowing, the heads do not begin before the great heat comes; and, in that case, they will not head till the fall.

All these circumstances make the raising of them for spring use very difficult.

Sow (Long Island) first week, or second week, in September, in the same manner that you sow cabbages. When the plants have eight leaves, put them in a warm place, in the natural ground, and do not put much dung in the ground. The back part of the Hot-bed ground would be the place. Plant them six inches asunder upon a piece of ground that your frame will cover; but do not put on the frame, till sharpish frosts begin to come.

Then put it on, and, whenever you expect a frost, put over the lights at night. If there be much rain, keep the lights on, but give plenty of air. Take the lights off whenever you can. When the hard frost comes, put long dung from the stable very thick all round the frame up to the very top of it, and extending a yard wide; and, in severe weather, cover the glass with a mat, or old carpet first; then put straw upon the mat; and then cover the straw with another mat.

But, mind, they must be kept in the dark as little as possible. When the sun is out, they must have it; and, in mild days, they must have a great deal of air. When there is an occasional thawing day, take the lights of, and hoe and stir the ground; for, they want strength as well as protection; and they must have all the air you can, with safety to their lives, give them.

Thus you go on till within about three weeks of the general Indian Corn planting season. By this time you may leave the lights off day and night. Ten ays before Corn planting get your ground ready, deeply dug and full of rich manure.

Make holes with a spade; remove each plant with a, ball of earth about the roots; fix the plants well in the holes at two feet asunder; leave a little dish round each; water them with water that runs out of a yard where cattle are kept. They love moisture, especially under a hot sun.

Give them this sort of water, or muddy, stagnant water, every three days in hot weather; hoe and dig between them also; and, you will have Cauliflowers in June.

If you have a Green house, the trouble is little. Sow as before. Put about four plants in a flower pot a toot diameter at top, instead of putting under a frame.

They will live in the Green house like other plants; and will be ready to put out as above mentioned. Fifty plants are enough. They are very fine vegetables; but they come not earlier than green peas.

To have Cauliflowers to eat in the fall is much easier matter, and then they are, in my opinion, more valuable than in the spring. Sow at the same time and in the same manner as you sow early cabbages.

Treat the plants in the same way; put them at two feet and a half distance; you need not no water them; they will begin to come early in October; and, if any of them have not perfected their heads when the sharp frosts come, take them up by the root, hang them up by the heels in a warm part of a barn, or in a cellar; they will get tolerably good heads; and you will have some of those heads to eat at Christmas.

The seed, on account of the heat, is extremely difficult to save in America; but, if a fall Cauliflower were kept in a green house during winter, and put out three weeks before corn planting time, I am persuaded, it would bring good seed in June.

The quantity of this plant must depend upon the taste for it; but it is so much better than the very best of cabbages, that it is worth some trouble to get it.

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