124 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



transplant so well as lettuce ; and they have more of a 

 tendency to go to seed than the August-sown plants. 



Set out house-grown plants when well hardened and 

 the ground is fit. 



For fall crop, sow Endive in late July or in 

 August. 



Pick for salad or for greens at any time after the 

 leaves are four inches tall. Or cut the leaves and allow 

 more to grow. These young leaves are the tenderest. 

 "For eating cooked, we prefer to take the plants quite 

 young, and before they have had time to make heads. 

 With ordinary outdoor culture, they will lose rather 

 than gain in tenderness between this stage and the 

 time when satisfactory heads can be produced." 

 (Waugh, Vermont Bulletin, No. 54.) Once headed, 

 Endive should be 



Blanched by excluding the light from the head of 

 the plant. This is done in a variety of ways : by cover- 

 ing with boards or with hay; by tying the heads; by 

 covering with a drain-tile, or with a flower pot with 

 the hole stopped. Or plant in a trench and earth-up 

 or cover over. In any case, the plants should be dry 

 when covered, and kept so. Blanching is completed in 

 from ten to twenty days, according to conditions, and 

 when it is finished the plants should be used at once, or 

 they will decay. 



Fertilize by liquid manure or nitrate of soda, every 

 week or ten days, in light applications. But see under 



