40 TUE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



which are reproduced every spring, as is celery, the cardoon, etc. 

 As a comestible, it certainly deserves a place in our market-gardens, 

 and its glaucous foliage has long been considered to entitle it to rank 

 as an ornament. 



Is it difficult to grow ? I think not, as I shall endeavour to 

 show. 



Seakale likes a deep, rich, sandy loam, well incorporated with 

 rotten stable manure, or better, leaf-mould, and with as good, healthy 

 a subsoil as possible. It may be propagated in various ways : — 



To raise seakale from seed in open beds, the seed should be 

 sown in February and March, or even a little later. As they come 

 up very capriciously, it is best to put four or five in each hole, 

 covering them over with a couple of inches of earth, and keeping 

 only one or two of the strongest plants. 



They may be sown in heat in batches ; but as the plants are 

 often attacked by the flea-beetle, it is best to sow in pots, which 

 should be plunged in a hot-bed, or put under glass, and the plants 

 set out when the frosts are past. The first cutting is not taken 

 until the third season — that is to say, in the second year of the 

 sowing. 



By cuttings : in this way we get the quickest crops. This 

 operation is performed thus : We choose some seakale roots, which 

 should not be too big — about the size of one's lingers — and cut them 

 into sections of two to five inches long. The upper ends should be 

 smooth, and the lower cut to a wedge. In this way we get the 

 quickest-growing and strongest plants. These root-cuttings should 

 be taken between the middle of February and the end of March. 

 Two or three may be set together, so as to form a strong tuft. The 

 plants should be at least twelve inches apart every way. 



The best plan of making a bed is to get well-rooted plants ; the 

 bed itself to be raised a little above the surface of the ground, so 

 that the roots, ■vrhich are very long, may not have overmuch moisture. 



By careful earthing up, we may easily get seakale in March and 

 April, before asparagus makes its appearance in the market ; the 

 plants to be uncovered as they are cut, so as to make a fresh growth 

 for the year following ; but in this way the stalks are never so white 

 and tender as when grown in heat, and the plant is only really good 

 when it is as tender as possible. 



Both rooted cuttings and seed should be planted in rows eleven 

 inches wide, with alleys two feet in width between, in which dung 

 is laid to hasten the growth of the plants. At the beginning of 

 January a pot eleven or twelve inches in diameter should be set 

 over each plant, or we may use frames, laid over with planks to 

 exclude the light. 



To get well-branching heads, they should be covered over with 

 four and a-half inches of earth taken from the alleys, and the whole 

 spread with litter or leaves. A uniform temperature of 47*^ to 50° 

 Fahr. should be kept up by mulching the roots with litter. 



The stalks should be cut close to the ground when they are two 

 to four and a-half inches in length, but the heads on them should 

 be suppressed as soon as they begin to form, to prevent the exhaus- 



