246 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



permanent plantation, the plants often living to ten or 

 twelve years with good management, although if heavily 

 cropped they should be replaced at the end of seven or 

 eight years. Replacing a plantation from cuttings is an 

 easy matter, however, and when properly managed a 

 garden can always have strong plants. Sea-kale likes 

 good cultivation, and requires some care in cutting out 

 weak or superfluous leaf-buds, while unless seed is 

 wanted all flower-stalks should be cut off. In cutting 

 the blanched stalks an inch or so of the root should 

 also be taken, or the plants will stand up out of the 

 ground more . and more each year. It is quite safe to 

 cut at the surface of the ground. 



Sea-kale is always blanched for the table, either 

 under glass by artificial methods as described below, or 

 by earthing-up or covering over in the open field before 

 the plants start in spring. If blanched under glass, heat 

 is generally used; in the field heat may be used for an 

 early supply, and other plants may be left to come on 

 naturally later. By one method and another the Eng- 

 lish manage to stretch their Sea-kale season from about 

 Christmas until late in spring. 



Varieties are few, Vilmorin-Andrieux naming but 

 four. American seedsmen seldom offer more than one, 

 which may be supposed to be the Common Sea-kale. 

 Of this the leaves tinge purple when exposed to light 

 after blanching and before cutting. The Lily-white has 

 not that habit. 



