99 



THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



they are forked, is sufficient. If packed firmly in rows 6 inches apart, 

 and ahnost as close as tliey can be put in the rows, a very small 

 space holds a great many roots, and the best way to keep up the 

 supply in good condition is to put in a quantity according to demand 

 every eight or ten days. To blanch it properly absolute darkness is 

 necessary ; if a ray of light gets to it Avhen growing, it will colour it, 

 and make it rank in taste. It is better to begin forcing early, and to do 

 it gently at a moderate temperature, than to delay and force it rapidly, 

 which latter produces weak and comparatively worthless crops. 



Seakale can be successfully forced early by packing a number of 

 roots in large pots, plunging them in a bed of leaves with a gentle 

 heat, covering the pot with another of the same size, and throwing 

 some litter and a few old mats over all to completely exclude light. 

 To force after the old-fashioned way with cans and fermenting leaves 

 and stable litter in the open ground is attended with much more labour 

 and trouble ; and to pounce upon the crowns that are in the best 

 state for the table is of course not so easy ; so that this method is only 

 to be recommended for later crops requiring next to no forcing, and 

 consequently less covering. We have often wondered that farmers who 

 have so good a command of litter do not more generally supply them- 

 selves with fine Seakale in the spring months in this way. 



Market-gardeners who grow extensively for the market generally 

 force it in trenches 5 to 6 feet wide and 2 deep, where they grow 

 Cucumbers in the summer months. When the Seakale is ready to 

 lift, they clear out the old material on which the Cucumbers were 

 grown, fill the trenches with stable-manure, and cover it with about 

 9 inches of light soil, in which to put the roots in rows about 6 

 inches apart, and as close in the rows as they can lay them. In lifting 

 the plants they break off all the roots, or, as they call them, thongs, 

 carefully saving them for planting for next year's crop, as they 

 rarely ever raise it from seed. All small side-crowns they carefully 

 cut off, which should always be done where they are allowed to grow, 

 leaving just the one main crown, knowing that one good head of Kale 

 is worth more than several slender ones. They cover over the crowns 

 with 8 or 9 inches of straw, then hoop over the trenches, cover with 

 mats, and over all with a good covering of straw. In this way some 

 of the great market-gardeners have been in the habit of forcing well on 

 for 100,000 crowns annually j and sinq^le as are the means, their produce 

 is second to none ; but they are in most cases much indebted to their 

 deep alluvial soils, which not many gardens can command. It is now, 

 however, becoming more common for market growers to force their 

 Seakale and Rhubarb in long heated sheds, which no doubt they find 

 less laborious and more convenient. 



