KITCHEN-GARDENING. 129 



rows in each bed, about eighteen inches apart.. The best way 

 is to make two drills three inches deep, and with a dibble set 

 in the plants fifteen or sixteen inches from each other ; when 

 these drills are filled, the crowns of the plants will be covered 

 nearly two inches, but they will soon push through the earth. 

 The plants left in the seed-bed may form a permanent bed, 

 which should be forked or dug between the rows. Previous to 

 this being done, lay on an inch or two of good rotten manure, 

 and incorporate it with the earth around the plants. Some 

 make new plantations of the old roots, which should be cut up 

 into pieces of about two inches in length, and planted three or 

 four inches deep, at the distance before directed for the plants. 

 At the approach of winter, the leaves will die away and disap 

 pear. The beds should then be thickly covered with dung, 

 leaves, or sea-weed. This will not only protect the plants from 

 frost, but will cause them to shoot up early in the spring. As 

 soon as the frost is out of the ground, this may be taken off ; 

 or, if well rooted, it may be mixed up with the earth. The 

 crowns of the plants should then be covered to the depth of ten 

 or twelve inches for blanching. 



Some blanch it by heaping on it sea-sand ; some common 

 sand and gravel ; and others with large garden-pots, inverted 

 and placed immediately over the plants. If these pots be 

 covered up with fresh horse-dung, it will forward the shoots in 

 growth, and make them sweeter and more tender. When the 

 plants have been covered in either method three or four weeks, 

 examine them, and if you find that the stalks have shot up 

 three or four inches you may begin cutting. Should you wait 

 till all the shoots are of considerable length, your crop will 

 come in too much at once, for in this plant there is not that 

 successive growth which there is in Asparagus. You may con^ 

 tinue cutting until you see the heads of flowers begin to form ; 

 and if at this time you uncover it entirely, and let it grow to 

 that state in which Broccoli is usually cut, and use it as such, 

 you will find it an excellent substitute ; and this greatly en 

 hances the value of the plant. Sea-Kale is sufficiently hardy 



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