229 

 CULTIVATIOiS" OF THE CATJLIFLOWEE. 



BY ME. JAMES BAE^fES, OF BICTOI^'. 



I 



IKING- gardens generally, I find that this princely 

 vegetable is really not much grown. For years and 

 year?, travelling hither and thither, how rarely do I see 

 cauliflowers doing any good except in the well-kept 

 gardens of the nobility and gentry, and in tbe produc- 

 tive grounds of market growers, I want to see cauliflowers in 

 plenty in the garden of the farmer, tbe tradesman, the artizan, the 

 cottager. Why not ? In these western parts, a very good substi- 

 tute for the cauliflower is found in the hardy kinds of white broccoli, 

 which are pretty extensively grown, and are not to be despised. 

 Indeed, in this locality they are in use from January till May, and 

 are commonly called cauliflowers, though between the best broccoli 

 and, the real cauliflower there is considerable difterence ; and there 

 can be no thorough substitute for the beautiful curd-like, tempting, 

 delicate vegetable which a thorough gardener will recognize as a 

 cauliflower fit for a gentleman's table. Yet really, to speak the 

 plain truth, a good cauliflower may be grown on any ground that 

 will produce a good cabbage ; it wants nothing that the most humble 

 cultivator cannot provide. I own it wants care ; so do savoy 

 cabbages, and other coarse things that are useful in their way, and 

 that abound everywhere. 



There is just this difficulty at starting, that the cauliflower is 

 rather tender in constitution. Well, it is not so tender but that a 

 little protection is sufficient for it. Now this little protection is the 

 first thing to think of in preparing to grow cauliflowers ; all the 

 rest is easy enough. We have choice through winter of the use of 

 hand-glasses, pits, frames, cool houses, perhaps even ground vineries. 

 I have no doubt they would answer well to protect narrow beds of 

 cauliflowers planted in such a way that the vineries could be put 

 down over them before winter sets in. But I shall suppose a 

 person to have none of these helps, and yet anxious to grow cauli- 

 flowers. AVell, if he lives in a good warm climate, a warm sheltered 

 border may suffice, as may be seen occasionally in the west of 

 England ; but if this will not do, there is the cheap and handy 

 alternative of a turf pit, which costs almost nothing to make, and 

 when done with, the turf walls may be chopped up to grow melons, 

 cucumbers, or cinerarias, or pelargoniums in — the stuff', in fact, being 

 first-rate for almost any purpose. To make a turf pit requires the 

 turf to be piled up so as to form a wall eighteen inches or two feet 

 thick, sloping up gently, and with posts at the corners to which to 

 attach some common narrow planking for a plate, with a slip on 

 each side to guide the light ; and here we come to difficulty No. 1, 

 for the cost of a light may be too much for the cultivator, or if the 

 cultivation is to be carried out on a large scale even in a well-kept 

 garden, something cheaper than glass and carpentry may be required. 

 Well, then, I will choose for my pit an old shutter, or a flat cover 



