CAULIFLOWER 



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mild, young Cauliflowers are often 

 wintered in the beds where they are 

 sown, or they are pricked off into 

 raised beds of light soil not likely 

 to be soaked with wet in winter. 

 Here they are sometimes left unpro- 

 tected, and at other times they 

 are covered with hoops and mats. 

 Continued dampness of soil and 

 atmosphere is their worst enemy, as 

 it induces growth so soft that it can- 

 not withstand frost so well as that 

 produced on high and dry ground. 

 Where hand-lights are employed, an 

 open field or quarter is lined off into 

 squares measuring about 6 ft. each 

 way. At every intersection nine 

 Cauliflowers are planted in a suffi- 

 ciently small space to be conveniently 

 covered with cloches or hand-lights, 

 which are immediately placed over 

 them, and a little earth is drawn 

 around the base of the lights so as 

 to shut up all apertures. The empty 

 spaces between the rows of hand- 

 lights are planted with Coleworts. 

 In spring these Coleworts are either 

 thinned out or entirely removed for 

 market, and a crop of Cos Lettuces 

 is planted in their place. As soon 

 as the Cauliflowers have become 

 established they are allowed abun- 

 dance of air, and otherwise treated 

 the same as those grown in frames. 

 When the plants become too thick, 

 they are all lifted from under the 

 hand-lights and planted in open 

 quarters or under other hand-lights. 

 Market-gardeners generally begin 

 to cut from Cauliflower-plants raised 

 in this way some time in the month 

 of May, according to the mildness 

 or otherwise of the season. The 

 best growers seldom make many 

 sowings of Cauliflowers ; one or 

 two in autumn and one or two 

 in spring being the usual number. 

 The first autumn sowing, as before 

 stated, is made out-of-doors some 

 time between the last week in 



August and the third week in Sep- 

 tember; and the second one, in 

 frames, in the last week of Septem- 

 ber or first week in October. From 

 these two sowings Cauliflowers are 

 obtained from the last week in April 

 to the end of June. The first 

 spring sowing, if the autumn one is 

 a failure, is made in a frame in the 

 last week of February or first week 

 of March, or it may be made in 

 the open border any time during 

 the first fortnight of March; from 

 this sowing a crop is obtained from 

 the middle of June till August or 

 September. The third sowing is 

 commonly made in beds, in some 

 open quarter, between the middle of 

 April and the first week in May, in 

 order to furnish an autumn supply. 

 Different market- gardeners have 

 different times for sowing Cauli- 

 flowers, but it is well understood 

 that strong, grossly grown plants do 

 not stand the winter so well as 

 medium-sized ones, and they are also 

 more liable to "button." Moderate- 

 sized plants are decidedly the best 

 for mild winters, but in the event of 

 very severe winters occurring, strong 

 plants are the best. Cauliflowers 

 which have been wintered in frames 

 or under hand-lights are often planted 

 on ground cropped with Radishes 

 before the latter crop is marketable, 

 and by the time it is so and has been 

 cleared off, the Cauliflowers will 

 have gained good strength, when the 

 ground will be intercropped with 

 Lettuces. In other instances, fields 

 are marked off into beds 5 ft. wide, 

 with i -ft. alleys between them, and 

 these beds are sown with Round- 

 leaved Spinach. As soon as this is 

 done, three rows of Cauliflowers are 

 planted along the beds. The Cauli- 

 flowers outgrow the Spinach, which, 

 by continual picking for market, is 

 kept in check until it is eventually 

 exhausted, leaving the Cauliflowers 



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