The Culture of Vegetables 



has been deeply tilled. If the soil is poor, draw deep drills, fill them 

 with fat manure, and plant by hand, taking care to press round each 

 root crumbs from the surface soil. This will give them a good start, 

 and they will take care of themselves afterwards. When they show 

 signs of heading in, run in shallow drills of Prickly Spinach between 

 them, and as this comes up the plants will be drawn, leaving it a fair 

 chance of making a good stolen crop, needing no special preparation 

 whatever. Another sowing may be made in May, but the early 

 sowings, if a little nursed in the first instance, will pay best, because 

 early Broccoli are scarce, whereas late Broccoli are plentiful. 



Winter Broccoli such as Button's Christmas White, Vanguard, 

 Superb Early White, Snow's, &c. should not be sown before the 

 end of March and thence to the end of April. As a rule the April 

 sowing will make the best crop, although much depends on season, 

 soil, and climate. Begin to plant out early, and continue planting 

 until a sufficient breadth of ground is covered. Within reasonable 

 limits it will be found that the time of planting does not much affect 

 the date when the heads turn in, and only in a moderate degree 

 influences the size of them. 



Spring" Broccoli are capricious, no matter what the world may 

 say. It will occasionally happen that sorts planted for cutting late in 

 spring will turn in earlier than they are wanted, and the sun rather 

 than the seedsman must be blamed for their precocity. In average 

 seasons the late sorts turn in late ; but the Broccoli is a sensitive 

 plant, and unseasonable warmth results in premature development. 

 Sow the Spring Broccoli in April and May, the April sowing being the 

 more important. It will not do, however, to follow a strict rule save 

 to this effect, that early and late sowings are the least likely to 

 succeed, while mid-season sowings say from the middle of April to 

 the middle of May will, as a rule, make the best crops. Such sorts 

 as Sutton's Snow-white, Pearl, Perfection, Safeguard, and Reading 

 Giant may be sown as early as March and as late as the end of 

 May, and where there is a constant demand for Broccoli in the early 

 months of the year, two or three small sowings will be better than 

 one large sowing. 



Summer Broccoli are useful when Peas are late, and they are 

 always over in time to make way for the glut of the Pea crop. Late 

 Queen may, in average seasons, be cut in June, if sown about the 

 middle of May in the previous year, and carefully managed. This 

 excellent variety can, as a rule, be relied on, both to withstand a 

 severe winter in an exposed situation and to keep up the supplies of 



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