MARCH.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 193 



The most usual mode of raising the Sea Kale, is from seed ; it 

 may also be raised from cuttings of the root, and that with the 

 greatest certainty, but seedlings make the finest plants. Some find 

 a difficulty in making the seeds vegetate ; this may be attributed to 

 their being old, buried too deep in the earth, or sown too late in the 

 spring : the most proper time for sowing the seed is in October, or 

 as early in the spring as the ground can be got in a fit condition to 

 receive them, and an inch is the proper depth to cover them ; they 

 rarely vegetate in less than six weeks, after been sown, even in the 

 most favourable season, and some will remain in the ground for 

 twelve months before they vegetate : should the season prove dry, 

 it will be necessary to water the ground where the seeds are sown, 

 and the plants after they appear, frequently. 



It is the best practise to raise young plants immediately from, 

 seed, on the bed where they are intended to remain ; by this means 

 the plants receive no check in their growth. When you have 

 formed your bed, which should be raised somewhat above the level 

 of the ground, being previously trenched very deep and enriched 

 with the best rotten manure ; make each bed^wide enough to hold 

 two rows of plants, the space between each plant in the row, four- 

 teen inches, and between each row, a foot and a half ; sow about six 

 or eight seeds, as before directed, on each spot where your plant is 

 intended to remain ; this number is directed, in order to guard 

 against accidents, as every seed may not vegitate, or at least not the 

 first season, which would be loosing a year, besides some of those 

 that do, may be destroyed by worms or insects ; should all of them 

 succeed they are easily reduced to a single plant, this reduction 

 however need not be made too hastily ; during summer your bed 

 of course must be kept perfectly clean from weeds. If for the sake 

 of a more certain crop, you are disposed to make your plantation 

 of the cuttings of the roots, you may take such as are about half an 

 inch or a little more in diameter, and cut them into pieces of about 

 two inches in length, burying each in an upright position about 

 three inches under ground, in the same kind of bed and at the same 

 distances, as you would have sown the seeds ; the middle or latter 

 end of this month will be a proper season in the middle states for 

 doing this, earlier in the southern states, and somewhat later in the 

 eastern. 



Or if for the sake of for warding your plantation and gaining time, 

 you make use of plants instead of seeds, or cuttings, presuming 

 that it is possible for you to procure them, they should be those of 

 a year old, and taken up with due care out of the seed bed ; trim 

 off the extreme part of the root, and let each plant be planted in a 

 perpendicular manner so deep, as that its crown will be one inch 

 under the surface ; the period before mentioned for planting cut- 

 tings will be the proper time for transplanting these ; if their flow- 

 ering stalks be cut for food the same season, it will weaken the 

 plants considerably, and hence even in point of time there is little 

 gained by using such, for most of the seedling plants in your bed, 

 if they have been properly managed, as well as your plants from 

 cuttings, will flower, and of course, be fit to cut the second year. 



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