IQ^ ON THE CULTIVATION OF SEA KALE. 



Exported 200 The Crambe Maritima was kaowii, and sent from this 

 year* ago. kingdom to the continent more than two hundred years a^o, 

 by rObel, and Turner*; but our immortal countryman. 

 Miller aoticed Philip Miller, has the honour of being the first who wrote 

 *^* upon it professionally, as an e^calent, telling us, in the first 



edition of his Gardener's Dictionary, published in 1731, 

 that the inhabitants of Sussex gather the wild plant to eat 

 in sjring, soon after the heads are thrust out of the ground, 

 otherwise it will be tough and rank. Prcfessor Martyn, 

 next, in the last edition of the same work, has printed some 

 valuable additional instructions, how to cultivate this plant, 

 frem the M S. of the Rev. Mr. Laurent. Lastly, the late 

 celebrated Mr. Curtis has done more to recommend it, aad 

 difi'use the knowledge of it, in the dissertation above quoted, 

 than any of his predecessors. 

 Mode of cul- To grow this vegetable in the highest perfection, prepare 

 t^ire. the ground in December or January, by trenching it two 



feet and a half deep; if not that depth naturally, and light, 

 it must be made so artiticially, by adding a due proportion 

 of fine white sand, and very rotten vegetable mould. If your 

 ground is wet in winter, it must be efTectually drained, so 

 that no water may stand within a foot at least of the bot- 

 tom: for the strength of your plants depends on the dryness 

 of the bottom, and richness of your soil. Then d'.vide the 

 ground into beds, four feet wide, w-th alleys of eighteen 

 inches, after which, at the distance of every two feet each 

 way, sow five or six seeds two inches deep, in a circle of 

 about four inches diametei; ; this operation must be per- 

 formed with strict care and regularity, as the plants are af- 

 terwards to be covered with the blanching potsf, of which 



a drawing 



• It would be difficult to ascertain the precise period of its being first 

 used with us as a culinary plant ; on many parts of the seacoast, the 

 inhabitants for time immemorial have been in the practice of seekir.g for 

 the plant in the spring, where it grows spontaneously ; and, r'^nioving 

 the sand or pebbles, they cut off the young shoots as yet blanched, close 

 to the root. Mr William Jones, of Chelsea, saw bundles of it in a 

 cuitivatod state, exposed for sale, in Chichester market, in the year 1 753. 



CUBT. 



-f It appears to me, that for forcing, it would be a great improvement 

 to mak« the blanching pois.in t'vq pieces, the uppt'-rmost of which 



should 



