FORCING SEA-KALE. 173 



heat. The heat of a forcing house, however moist it is 

 kept, does not suit Sea-kale; under such circum- 

 stances it is wanting in crispness and solidity, and the 

 tops only are nice and tender when cooked. But 

 when it is forced, by covering it first with pots and 

 then with fresh-gathered leaves of the same fall of the 

 year, the Kale is of quite a different quality, being 

 solid, crisp, and rich, in which case all of it may be 

 cooked and eaten to the extent of five or six inches in 

 length. 



There is nothing to equal leaves for forcing this 

 vegetable. Hot and fresh stable dung, if put on of a 

 thickness sufficient to cover the pots well, will ferment 

 to a scalding heat, which will last for a week or two 

 and then decline, and the heat will have all passed off 

 without the least benefit to the Kale, for it will not 

 have made the least progress while the manure was hot. 

 Sea-kale will not force, to be fit for anything, under 

 six or eight weeks from the time that the dung is 

 put on the roots. I have tried it, and therefore 

 can vouch for what I say. But leaves act differently 

 if they are put on the covers, filling up the spaces 

 as well, and forming a bed over the whole of the 

 plantation. 



It is much the best and most economical to make 

 Sea-kale plantations consisting of not less than three 

 rows, i.e. three rows three feet apart and three feet 

 from plant to plant. It is far better to make the plan- 

 tation in a square of three rows than to plant one row 

 only through a quarter ; for then, when the fermenting 

 material is put on the pots containing the roots, it 

 forms a solid bed, which makes the best of the heat. 

 The leaves will maintain an equal heat for many weeks 



