The Culture of Vegetables 



lights. An old Cucumber bed scratched over and dusted with lime 

 makes a good wintering-place for Cauliflowers. When all such places 

 are filled, any plants that remain may be planted on an open border 

 near a wall, in the hope that they will pass through the winter and 

 prove useful. These border plants will be worth a little attention to 

 help them through, and one of the cleanest ways of shielding them 

 against frost will be to cover with empty pots and put a little dry 

 litter over. But a severe winter will make an end of them, do what 

 you may, and therefore autumn-sown Cauliflowers must be provided 

 with glass in some way to insure their safety, and only the surplus 

 stock should be put out to run the gauntlet. 



Those wintered under hand-lights need not be transplanted in 

 the spring. Possibly the plants at the corners may be crippled by 

 frost, in which case they must be removed, and the best plants will 

 remain to finish without disturbance. But all, or the chief part, of 

 those wintered in frames must be planted out as soon as the risk of 

 severe frost is past, and should have good cultivation. The plants 

 in pots may be turned out without hurting a fibre. Those in beds in 

 frames must be lifted with care, and it will be good practice to leave 

 enough in the bed to occupy it fairly, and to remove the lights and 

 allow them to finish there. They will turn in early and make an 

 acceptable beginning, and thus from one autumn sowing two summer 

 plantations will be obtained. 



The Cauliflower has been materially improved in recent years. 

 The varieties now in favour are hardier and far more handsome than 

 the older kinds, and they possess the additional merit of being some- 

 what quicker in attaining maturity. For the earliest crops seed can 

 be sown during August, September or October, according to the 

 locality. By planting out in February or March there will be vigorous, 

 healthy growth, capable of producing heads of the finest quality, rang- 

 ing from five to eight inches across, of Sutton's First Crop, and still 

 larger heads, from six to ten inches in diameter, of Magnum Bonum, 

 assuming, of course, that the conditions are favourable and the 

 treatment liberal. 



Those who sow First Crop in heat during January and transplant 

 early in rich retentive land may secure small heads by the end of 

 May or beginning of June. But sowings in spring on poor land, or 

 in dry seasons, are sometimes disappointing, because the heads are 

 too small to please the majority of growers. 



Where, however, the soil is rich and the district suitable there 

 is this advantage in quick cultivation, that while time is shortened 



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