28 THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES 



always over in time to make way for the glut of the Pea crop. Late 

 Queen may, in average seasons, be cut in June, if sown about the 

 middle of May in the previous year, and carefully managed. This 

 excellent variety may, as a rule, be relied on, both to withstand a 

 severe winter in an exposed situation and to keep up the supplies of 

 first-class vegetables until the first crop of Cauliflower is ready, and 

 Peas are coming in freely. Generally speaking, smallish heads, neat 

 in shape and pure in colour, are preferred, and they are also the most 

 profitable as a crop and the most acceptable for the table. An open, 

 breezy place should be selected for a plantation of late Broccoli, the 

 land well drained, and not particularly rich with manure. But good 

 land is required, with plenty of light and air to promote a dwarf 

 sturdy growth and late turning in. 



Various plans are adopted for the protection of Broccoli during 

 winter. Much is to be said in favour of leaving them to the risk of 

 all events, for certain it is that we get finer crops from undisturbed 

 plants than by any interference with them, provided they escape the 

 assaults of winter frost. But in such a matter we must be guided 

 by the light of experience. In places where Broccoli do not winter 

 well, heeling over may be resorted to. There are several ways of 

 accomplishing this, the one we recommend being managed thus. 

 Open a trench at the north end of a row, and gently push over the 

 plant so that its head may incline to the north, disturbing the roots 

 the least possible. Put a little mould over the stem to settle it, but 

 do not earth it up any more than needful to render it secure. Push 

 over the next, and the next, and so on, finishing off between them 

 neatly and leaving the plants nearly as they were before, save that they 

 now all look northward, and their sloping stems are a little deeper in 

 the earth than they were in the first instance. This should be done 

 during fine weather in November, and if the plants flag a little they 

 should have one good watering at the roots. In the course of about 

 ten days it will be scarcely perceptible that they have been operated 

 on. They may be lifted and replanted with their heads to the north, 

 but this is apt to check them too much. When it is seen that the 

 heads are forming and severe weather is apprehended, some growers 

 take them up with good balls of earth and plant them in a frame, or 

 even pack them neatly in a cellar, and the heads finish fairly well, but 

 not so well as undisturbed plants. It is impossible, however, to cut 

 good heads in winter without some such protective measures. In 

 many gardens glass is employed for protecting winter Broccoli, in 

 which case the plantations are so shaped that the frames will be easily 



