SEPTEMBER. 281 



a better setter, but was thicker skinned and inferior in flavour. A 

 variety something like Esperione, but smaller and inferior, was not 

 recognised. A Black Seedling, said to have been raised between Black 

 Cluster and White Sweetwater, described as a great bearer, was 

 straggling in bunch, small in berry, full of seeds, very thick skinned, 

 and utterly worthless. Mr. Ivery exhibited a very fine bunch of his 

 Buckland Sweetwater. The meeting was much gratified to find that it 

 so fully maintained the high opinion which the society had previously 

 passed on it ; the only peculiarity noted regarding it, which differed 

 from the description given last year, was that the berries had reassumed 

 the bluntly ovate form under which it had first been presented. 



PROTECTING AND PRESERVING BROCCOLI IN WINTER. 



Although most of the varieties <5f Broccoli are hardy enough to resist 

 the cold of tolerably mild winters, and some kinds even withstand frosts 

 that are rather severe, yet we occasionally experience winters that cut 

 off nearly every kind. It is, therefore, advisable to adopt such means 

 as will insure at least a portion of the crop. This can be done most 

 effectually by taking up, on the approach of frost, those which have 

 either formed or are just beginning to form a head, and placing them 

 side by side on the floor of a cellar. They should be taken up on a dry 

 day. The temperature of an underground cellar is usually between 45° 

 and 50°, and this will be sufficient to push the plants in flower-heads, 

 the substance for the growth of which is derived from the stem. In 

 this way Broccoli is secure from frost, but the flavour is not so fine as 

 that of plants gi own in the open air. Another mode of protection is to 

 dig a trench at the end of a row, and then incline the plants one after 

 the other, so that the soil may come close up to the bases of the lower 

 leaves ; or, a trench adapted to the size of a transplanter may be dug 

 along the side of a row, and the plants taken up and dropped in, so that 

 their necks may be a few inches above the level of the quarter. When 

 thus transplanted, the soil should be drawn up and pressed close to the 

 necks of the plants, thus forming a slight ridge to throw off the rain. 

 Another mode consists in taking the plants carefully up with balls, and 

 replanting them tolerably close together, with their heads inclined 

 towards the north. All these transplantations should be done in October, 

 or in the end of September in the north, and whilst there is still heat 

 enough in the ground to encourage fresh roots. Means may also be 

 adopted for protecting the plants without removing them. To do this, 

 in planting, mark off two rows 18 inches apart ; then a space of 4 feet; 

 and again other two rows, 18 inches apart, and so on, having a 4-feet 

 space between every pair of rows. The plants may be only 15 or 18 

 inches apart in the rows, according as the sort is large or small, and 

 according to the richness of the soil. In these rows winter and spring 

 sorts should be planted ; but along the middle of each 4-feet space a 

 row of early Broccoli may be planted, such as will be cleared off before 

 protection is required for the winter kind ; or, till that time, it may be 



