CAULIFLOWER. 51 



CAULIFLOWER. 

 CHOUPLEUR. Brassica oleracea botrytis. 



VARIETIES. 



Early White. I Late White. 



Hardy Red, or Purple Cauliflower. 



THIS is a first rate vegetable, to obtain which, great pains 

 must be taken in every stage of its growth, the extremes of 

 heat and cold being very much against it : which circum- 

 stance accounts for good Cauliflowers being scarcely attain- 

 able in unpropitious seasons, and which the novice falsely 

 attributes to defectiveness of the seed. 



To produce early Cauliflower, the seed should be sown be- 

 tween the sixteenth and twenty-fourth of September, in a 

 bed of clean, rich earth. In about four or five weeks after- 

 ward, the plants should be pricked out into another bed, at 

 the distance of four inches from each other every way ; this 

 bed should be encompassed with garden frames, covered 

 with glazed sashes, and boards or shutters ; the plants should 

 be watered and shaded a few days till they have taken root ; 

 they will afterward require light and air every mild day 

 throughout the winter; but the outsides of the frames musl. 

 be so lined and secured, and the tops of the beds so covered, 

 as to keep out all frost. 



The plants should be well attended to until the time of 

 transplanting in the spring ; and those who have not hand or 

 bell glasses, so as to enable them to set some out by the latter 

 end of March, should have a frame ready about the last week 

 in February, in order that they may be transplanted to the 

 distance of eight or nine inches apart ; this would prevent 

 them from buttoning or growing up weak ; if this be not 

 done, some of the strongest plants should be taken out of the 

 beds and planted in flower pots, which may afterward be 

 placed in a frame or greenhouse, until the weather be warm 

 and settled, which may be expected soon after the middle of 



