Gkeenhouse Notes. 161 



but not exuberant state of vigor to prevent the heads from buttoning. 

 The crop held up well and on the 1st of May, when the experiment 

 closed, there were many merchantable heads unsold. Ninety per cent 

 of the plants made good heads, which is a very large proportion, even 

 for the best field culture. In this crop, the heads were allowed to 

 attain a larger size than in the raid-winter crop, the average diameter 

 being about six inches. A good head of Snowball is shown on page 

 145. It is rarely necessary to bleach the heads, as is done in field 

 culture. Late in the season, in April, it may be necessary to break a 

 leaf down over a head now and then to protect it from too hot sun, 

 but ordinarily the heads will be perfectly white under glass, when full 

 grown. The house in which these plants were grown is glazed with 

 single thick, third quality glass. The heads are as sweet and tender as 

 the best field product, and we have never grown a crop under glass, 

 either of vegetables or flowers, which was so satisfactory and which 

 attracted so much attention as these crops of cauliflowers. As to varie- 

 ties, there is evidently little choice between the Erfurt and Snowball 

 strains. In the last and most successful crop, the Early Snowball was 

 the earlier, but otherwise it had little if any superiority over the other. 



We endeavored to grow lettuce between the cauliflowers but it was 

 soon choked out by the dense growth of the large plants and was not 

 successful. The two borders of the beds grew good crops of mustard, 

 however, which makes delicious " greens " in winter. For this purpose 

 we like the Chinese mustard. 



Summary. — Cauliflowers are easily grown as a winter crop if they 

 are kept in vigorous and uniform growth. They need a rich soil, care- 

 ful attention to watering, cultivation and ventilation, and a cool tem- 

 perature like that employed for lettuce. They appear to thrive better 

 without bottom heat than with it. The Early Snowball and Erfurt 

 strains force well. Plants should be set iu the beds when from six 

 weeks to three months old, according to the season of the year, and 

 from four to five months elapse before the first heads are fit for market. 

 The heads ordinarily require no bleaching, and they are ready for sale 

 when from four to six inches in diameter. 



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