628 BRASSICACEOUS ESCULENTS, OR THE CABBAGE TRIBE. 



mostly withered and rendered useless before they are restored to the soil : 

 but where they are to be transplanted with balls the fibrous roots are pre- 

 served, and in order that these may be produced in abundance by the seed- 

 lings, the seed should be sown very thin in soil mixed with sand, or pricked 

 out into such soil. As pricking out greatly strengthens the plants before 

 their final removal, it should not be neglected where an abundant produce is 

 the object. All the cabbage tribe that produce sprouts may be propagated 

 readily by taking off these sprouts as cuttings ; and this mode is said to be 

 generally adopted in Brazil, and it has been tried successfully in Suffolk. 

 (G. M. vol. ix., p. 227.) The ends of the cuttings are exposed to the 

 atmosphere for 20 or 30 hours to cauterise the wounds ; and this exposure 

 is also found useful, on the same principle, to very vigorous seedlings, when 

 the points of the tap-roots are taken off, and the plants are to be planted with 

 the dibber. In transplanting, the great art to insure success, is to make sure 

 that the earth is pressed moderately close to the lower extremity of the 

 root, and afterwards giving a plentiful watering, which will have the effect 

 of washing down the finer particles, and thereby filling up interstices better 

 than could have been done by any other means, and without bruising the 

 tender fibres of the root (701), because without this closing in of the soil 

 the spongiole would not be renewed there ; and that being the growing point 

 of the root, it is of more consequence that it should be renewed there than 

 anywhere else, since it insures vitality and circulation to all above it. In 

 making every plantation, there should be a small reserve of plants retained 

 in the seed-bed, or pricked out in the general reserve-ground of the garden 

 (p. 418), to supply any losses that may occur from deaths or running to 

 flower ; or the plants may be placed thicker in the rows, and afterwards 

 thinned out. As all the kinds have the property of rooting freely from the 

 stems, the plants, excepting the few that are stemless, are strengthened by 

 being earthed up ; and to increase the depth of this earthing, they are 

 planted in drills two or three inches deep. All the varieties require 

 an open, airy situation, for no one ever found the cabbage in a wild state in 

 hedges or woods ; but it should be sheltered from high winds, as plants on 

 the sea-shore, whether among cliffs or on the beach, generally are. The 

 soil should be deep, well pulverised, and it can hardly be too rich ; unless 

 the object be to hasten maturity, when it should be comparatively poor and 

 sandy. It is highly probable that the plants would be benefited by a 

 slight sprinkling of common sea-salt given once to each crop in an early 

 stage of its progress. The soil should always be more or less calcareous ; not 

 only as the plant grows naturally on limestone or chalky cliffs and shores, but 

 because the finest-flavoured cabbages and broccolis in England are produced 

 in gardens in Kent on the south bank of the Thames, made in old chalk- 

 pits. As the leaves of all the kinds are naturally large and succulent, they 

 present a large perspiring surface, and therefore, to maintain this succulency 

 in long-continued droughts, the plants should be liberally supplied with water; 

 and as they are all gross feeders, they may all be watered with liquid manure. 

 In all the sprouting varieties, when the stem is to be preserved for this 

 purpose, the leaves should be taken off, that the sap may be thrown into the 

 buds ; and when these do not break freely, it will be facilitated by slitting 

 the stem from an inch or two below the top to within an inch or two of the 

 bottom, keeping the slit open with a bit of stick or a small stone ; or the 

 same object may be effected by cutting a notch above the buds (617). A 



