CULTURE OF SEA-KALE. 



277 



introducing some rank manure, there will 

 be plenty of time for a crop of Cauliflow- 

 ers (in single line) before the increasing 

 loaves of the Seakale require their removal. 

 A caution should be given to avoid a 

 mode of culture highly approved by many 

 who grow or sell, but do not themselves eat 

 Sea-kale. Instead of protecting and blanch- 

 ing the shoots by a covering of sweet earth, 

 they overwhelm their beds with barrowfuls 

 of leaves collected in autumn (oak leaves 

 are most in vogue,) and just shovel them 

 on one side when the crop is fit for the 

 knife. This plan has not a single advan- 

 tage over the earthing system, except in- 

 dulging the laziness of the cultivator ; for 

 any decrepid old woman could sprinkle a 

 few apronfuls of leaves over her garden, 

 but the other requires an able-bodied man 

 to do it properly. The plants are not a day 

 forwarder,unless the leaves heat very much; 

 and then the characteristic of the method 

 is fully evidenced. If the oak leaves were 

 gathered perfectly dry, and remained so 

 during the whole winter, if no grass or 

 weeds were ever intermingled with them, 

 all might be well. But the leaves are 

 damp, there is some green rubbish among 

 them, and consequently a slight fermenta- 

 tation takes place, slight putrefaction fol- 

 lows, and the produce grown beneath, 

 which delights the eye like a beautiful 

 branch carved in ivory, disgusts the taste 

 by a flavor as nauseous as it is undoubtedly 

 unwholesome. I have seen Sea-kale of this 

 kind produced at table that was quite un- 

 eatable. No wonder we now and then 

 meet with people who have tried it only 

 ' once, and do not like it. 



This valuable esculent, so easy of culti- 

 vation, requiring no peculiar advantages of 

 soil, climate or situation, well deserves to 

 be more extensively propagated. Those 

 who form their judgment from the estima- 

 tion in which it is held in and about Lon- 

 don, are little aware how far it is from be- 



ing general in the remoter districts of Great 

 Britain. It is admirably adapted by its har- 

 diness to such countries as Canada, Norway 

 and Sweden, Northern Russia, etc., where, 

 if earthed up before the frost came, it 

 would lie dormant under the thick snow, 

 and be ready on the return of spring to put 

 forth its delicious shoots. It is also fitted 

 for those northern insular situations where 

 the temperature never rises above a mode- 

 rate degree, and where the rains of sum- 

 mer and the constant damps of winter 

 would rot our more tender vegetables. 



To Cook Sea-kale. — After being well 

 washed, tie it in small bundles for the con- 

 venience of taking up, and drop it into a 

 saucepan of boiling water, in which a little 

 salt, according to taste, has been dissolved. 

 Keep it boiling. In about twenty-five mi- 

 nutes it will be done enough, which may be 

 known by trying it with a fork. Sir Hum- 

 phrey Davy tells us that the reason why 

 vegetables and fish should be plunged in 

 boiling salt and water is, that this solution 

 boils at a higher temperature than plain 

 water, and that the sudden scalding fixes 

 the albumen, mucilage, and other nutritive 

 parts of the viand, instead of their being 

 macerated and sodden, and so partly lost in 

 lukewarm water. The most economical 

 mode of serving Sea-kale is to lay it in a 

 vegetable dish with a strainer at the bot- 

 tom, and to send up in a small tureen any 

 sauce that may be desired at the same 

 time. The usual way is to lay it on sip- 

 pets of toasted bread, and pour over it some 

 white sauce or melted butter made with 

 milk instead of water. But if the toast is 

 not intended to be eaten, but only to serve 

 as a draining cushion to the vegetable, and 

 then cast out to pigs, or, in a town, proba- 

 bly to the kennel or dust-hole, such a waste- 

 ful proceeding is, to say the least, culpable, 

 while so many of our fellow-creatures are 

 perishing for want of a like morsel. 



London, 1S47. D- 



Prof. Leibig at Home. — If " republics are un- 

 grateful," some of the European governments are 

 not. The followin<r, which wc cpiote I'rom one of 

 Mr. Horsford's foreign letters to the Cultivator , 

 shows that the distinguished chemist — now Baron 

 LiEBiG — is appreciated at home. 



" The little farm, called Ltibig Heights, com- 

 mands a fine view of Giessen and its surrounding 

 points. Near this little farm the forest director is 

 now laying out a net-work of walks through a 



grove of several hundred acres of pines. The ex- 

 penditures arc made by the city — a tribute of res- 

 pect to the genius whose farm has made this little 

 town known throughout the world. There can be 

 no objection to my mentioning here, that the gov- 

 ernment of Hcssia pays all the expenses of postage, 

 and all tiie cost of transport of matters connected 

 with fhemislry that would otherwise fall upon 

 Prof. Leibig. 



