EXPERIENCE WITH CAULIFLOWER. IOQ 



in a cool lean-to house, where the temperature often went 

 below 40. The floor of this house was cold and wet, 

 and it was soon evident that the plants were suffering. 

 They were removed, therefore, into an intermediate tem- 

 perature. Growth soon began again, and small heads 

 began to form before the plants had reached the proper 

 size. These heads, however, soon split or "buttoned," 

 and none of them were merchantable. The lesson was 

 evident. The plants had been checked, and under the 

 sudden stimulus of a new growth the premature heads 

 were ruptured. The experiment was repeated the follow- 

 ing winter in a small way, the attempt being made to 

 keep the plants in a uniform condition of vigor and 

 growth throughout their life time. This attempt was 

 successful, and it led to two larger experiments. In this 

 second trial, the plants were grown in 6-inch pots, but 

 this was thereafter abandoned as too expensive and 

 troublesome. 



The successful crops. The house in which the two 

 first successful crops were grown is a low two-thirds span, 

 facing the south, 60 ft. long by 20 ft. wide. It is built 

 upon a side hill, and it has three benches, the two lower 

 ones being used for the cauliflowers. The lowest bench, 

 against the south wall, has a board bottom underneath 7 

 or 8 inches of soil, and is supplied with mild bottom heat 

 from two i^-inch steam pipes. The main or central bench, 

 7 feet wide, is solid : that is, it is a ground bed, and has no 

 bottom heat. The soil in this bed is about 8 inches deep, 

 and it rests upon a natural subsoil of very hard clay. 

 The soil in both beds was placed upon them in the pre- 

 ceding fall, and it was made of good garden loam with 

 which a very liberal supply of old manure was mixed. 

 One load of manure mixed with three or four of the 

 earth makes a good soil ; and if it is somewhat .heavy 

 or pasty, sand must be supplied to it to afford perfect 

 drainage and prevent it from getting "sour" or hard. 

 The lower bed, which had bottom heat, did so poorly 



