CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



substitute for the others. The large or Dutch red 

 is the best. 



The Savoy is very hardy, and, like the cabbage, 

 forms a close round head, but the wrinkling of the 

 leaves serves to distinguish it. Its leading vari- 

 eties are the Cape, Drumhead, Ulm, and Little 

 Pixie. Choose the ground, and sow as directed 

 for cabbages, making the first sowing in February, 

 a second in March, a third and this is for the 

 main crop in April, about the middle of each 

 month. Repeat, for the fourth time, in August. 

 The plants of this last sowing will attain a large 

 size by the following August and September, if 

 planted out in April. Moist weather should be 

 chosen for planting, and the savoys should stand 

 two feet apart. Keep the ground clean, stir it 

 occasionally, and draw the earth towards the 

 stems on each side, leaving a sort of furrow three 

 or four inches wide on the top, to receive the rain, 

 and convey it to the roots. 



Brussels Sprouts produce stems from two to 

 four feet high, each of which supports ahead some- 

 what resembling an open savoy, of little value. 

 But lateral buds down the stem develop into a 

 succession of little green heads, like small savoys, 

 of delicate flavour. The most noted kinds of this 

 delicious winter vegetable are the improved tall, 

 dwarf, Scrymgeour's giant, and the Dalmeny 

 hybrid. Sow in spring and August, as with 

 savoys, planting out the dwarf kinds about 

 eighteen inches, and the tall sorts twenty to 

 twenty-four inches apart. 



Kale and German Greens. These are raised by 

 sowing the seeds either in beds or single drills late 

 in February, or early in March ; to be first thinned 

 out to three inches apart, and finally transplanted 

 to beds or rows, wherein the plants are to stand 

 thirty inches asunder. The plants may go out in 

 succession from June to the middle of July. The 

 heads are cut first, and subsequently side-shoots 

 arise, which produce excellent winter greens till 

 early cabbages come in. The kinds are : Scotch, 

 Kilmaurs, Siberian or Lapland, cottagers' and 

 asparagus kales ; tall and dwarf German greens. 



Cauliflower, which is grown only for its rich 

 white heads of metamorphosed flower-buds, is one 

 of the most delicate and highly appreciated pro- 

 ducts of the culinarium, and requires protection 

 from hard frosts. The kinds are : Asiatic, early 

 London, late London, Frogmore early forcing, 

 Veitch's autumn giant, and Walcheren. 



Spring sowing, for a first crop, may be made in 

 March, over a temperate hotbed. The seedlings 

 are to be pricked out under shelter when the 

 leaves are an inch broad ; and from this nursery- 

 bed they are moved to the garden in May, to 

 stand fully two feet asunder, the ground being 

 made extremely rich. The plants, after they begin 

 to grow, are occasionally watered with the liquid 

 manure collected from the drainage of dunghills. 

 A second spring sowing is made in the open 

 border in May, to obtain plants from September 

 to November, by a similar mode of treatment. 

 The last sowing occurs in the middle of August, 

 and its plants, when about four or five weeks old, 

 are to be thinned out to two or three inches apart, 

 the best to go into nursery-beds of rich earth, three 

 or four inches asunder. Here they must grow till 

 November, when 1 the strongest are to be set out in 

 rows, to be preserved under bell or hand glasses. 

 Dig a piece of rich ground in an open situation, 



550 



making it still richer with manure ; set three or four 

 plants together, five inches apart, in patches, each 

 patch a yard asunder ; give water, and cover close 

 with a hand-glass till the plants begin to grow. 

 When fairly taken with the soil, tilt the glasses on 

 the sunny side with a brick, and thus continue to 

 give air on mild days during the winter, and on 

 some occasions take the glasses quite off, but re- 

 place them, and cover close every night. In the 

 spring, thin the plants to two under each glass, 

 making good any deficiencies with some of the 

 best plants thus taken up, and plant the surplus 

 in a warm spot of ground two feet apart. Keep 

 the glasses on the other plants, raising them more 

 and more, occasionally exposing them to mild 

 rains till about the middle of May, when the 

 glasses may be finally removed. 



Other August-sown plants should, in November, 

 be placed in frames four inches apart, in a bed of 

 rich dry loam, over a very slight hotbed : give 

 water, close the lights, and be guided as respects 

 the admission of air by the directions for the 

 hand - glass division. The lights should be 

 covered with mats and boards during severe 

 frosty nights. In March, April, and May, these 

 plants are removed in succession to richly pre- 

 pared ground, and the cauliflowers will come into 

 perfection during July and August. In earthing 

 up it is a good practice to leave small basins 

 around the stems for holding liquid manure, and 

 this, with hoeings between the rows, comprises 

 the general treatment. 



Broccoli is one of the best vegetables of the 

 cabbage kind, and is valuable for coming at sea- 

 sons when not liable to be affected by caterpillars, 

 and when culinary vegetables are comparatively 

 scarce. There are various kinds of broccoli, but 

 all may be arranged under two heads those for 

 spring use, and those for use from September to 

 Christmas ; the latter are termed ' Cape ' or 

 autumn broccolies, of which may be named the 

 white and purple Cape, Dancer's pink Cape, and 

 Grange's early white. The most approved vari- 

 eties for spring use are the ' protecting' broccolies 

 of different kinds, so called from their leaves 

 being folded cabbage-like over the head ; Miller's 

 dwarf, white sprouting, purple sprouting, Wil- 

 liams' Alexandra, late purple, Cattell's eclipse, 

 Chappel's cream, Dalmeny Park, Shearer's late 

 white, and Portsmouth cream or buff-coloured. 



The soil should be a fresh and rich sandy loam, 

 and the season for sowing will be comprised 

 between April and July. The plants of the Cape 

 kinds are finally set out in beds made rather rich 

 with manure, at any time when they have leaves a 

 few inches long ; two feet distances, plant from 

 plant, will be sufficient. These will come in sea- 

 son in August, and continue to produce a supply 

 throughout the autumn ; in mild seasons, some 

 heads may be cut even so late as the end of the 

 year. 



The spring hardy varieties are treated in the 

 same way as the Cape that is, the plants, 

 when they are six or eight inches high, are trans- 

 planted as they become ready, between the first 

 week of July and that of September, into richly 

 manured ground, and set in rows two to three 

 feet apart, the largest sorts, as the Portsmouth, at 

 thirty inches, and the dwarfest, as Miller's, at 

 eighteen inches. If the seasons be favourable, a 

 successional supply of broccoli is thus obtained 



