346 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



CAULIFLOWER AND LETTUCE COMBINED. 



Well grown cauliflowers will always bring a good price in April, and this 

 is about the only crop of cauliflowers that can be well grown in the South, 

 as it is difficult to get summer plants through our long, hot seasons; hence 

 it is necessary to call in the help of the frames to forward the crop for the 

 early spring market. The seed for this purpose is sown early in September, 

 and in a rich and moist bed, and the plants are grown on rapidly by abundant 

 watering in dry weather. The frames are prepared in the same careful man- 

 ner as are those in which the lettuce crop is grown alone. Six plants of the 

 cauliflower are set at uniform distances in each sash, and the spaces are then 

 filled in with Tennis Ball or Boston Market lettuce ; the Big Boston not being 

 suitable for this purpose on account of its size. This lettuce is from seed 

 sown at the same time with the cauliflower, and is intended to be ready for 

 market during the month of January and in early February. By the time the 

 lettuce is cut out, the cauliflower plants are beginning to crowd to the glass, 

 and to carry the crop on with success it is necessary to have an extra set of 

 frames. The cauliflowers are gradually hardened off till the second week in 

 March the sashes are entirely removed; these are then placed on the extra 

 frames and are used either for the forwarding of the tomato plants and other 

 things from the greenhouse or hotbed, or for growing a later crop of lettuce, 

 and in this case the later crop should be of the Tennisball, too, as it will get 

 into head before the weather is too warm. The cauliflowers will generally 

 head well in April, and at that time well grown cauliflower sells very well. 

 The important thing so far as the success of the cauliflower is concerned 

 is to never let the plants have the least check in their growth, but to keep them 

 steadily growing without keeping them so close as to make them tender. Any 

 serious check will cause them to form heads prematurely and make "buttons," 

 as the gardeners call them, instead of large and fully developed heads. 



RADISHES AND BEETS IN FRAMES. 



The Southern gardener, who realizes the great advantage his sunny cli- 

 mate gives him for frame culture, will not be satisfied with the growing of a 

 single crop. There will always be a great advantage in having fully double 

 the space in frames that he has glass to cover, so that when a half hardy crop 

 can be exposed to outer air towards spring he can transfer the glass to other 

 frames, and for the growing of other crops and the hardening off of the plants 

 that are to go into the open ground later. But there are two crops which he 



