CAULIFLOWER. 213 



from the farm-yard, yet the occasional use of these will be found 

 exceedingly beneficial, and especially on land that has been long 

 tiUed. Common salt is said to be valuable as a fertilizer for the 

 Cauliflower, but we have never tested its worth. 



K early Cauliflowers are desired, the seed should be sown in 

 a hot-bed in March or very early in April, according to the 

 season. As the plant is almost hardy, care should be taken not 

 to keep the young plants too close, but raise the sash and admit 

 air in moderate weather, gradually ' increasing the quantity of 

 air imtil the plants are so well hardened as to need covering 

 only in extreme weather. If they have been judiciously treated 

 they will endure safely ten degrees of frost, and may be set out 

 in the open ground as soon as the soil is sufficiently settled 

 to be worked. The secret of obtaining good early Cauliflowers 

 lies in getting them well forward before hot and dry weather 

 sets in. During the cooler and usually showery weather of 

 April and May, such growth will be secured as to ensure a 

 well-formed head or flower. But if they are not set out until 

 nearly all danger of frost is passed — which, in this country, is 

 usually from the first to the fifteenth of June — they will very 

 surely be overtaken by hot weather, and possibly dry as well as 

 hot, and then the flowers wiU be small, tough, and strong- 

 flavored. The only remedy we have seen suggested for this 

 state of things, is to mulch the groxind heavily with strawy 

 manure, and sprinkle that with salt. This will tend to keep the 

 son cool and moist, and mitigate the effects of the heat and 

 drought. But the better way is to get the plants early into the 

 ground, and then they are sure to form good heads, unless the 

 weather in May be unusually dry. 



For late Cauliflower, the seed may be sown in May or June, 

 in the open air, in a prepared bed, on the north side of some 

 building or tight board fence, where they will be least exposed 

 to the depredations of that little black beetle, familiarly known 

 as jumping Jack. K he should make his appearance, a liberal 

 dusting of soot, or plaster, or ashes, will be found o£ benefit. 



