CAULIFLOWER. 39 



should always be a good winter demand for this vegetable up 

 there, and there is no good reason why the coast country of 

 Texas should not ship in car-load lots to northern cities at a 

 fair profit, after their crops are gone. The cauliflower will 

 stand uninjured a temperature of twenty-five degrees, and 

 younger plants, not yet showing the flower, a little lower. 

 When the flower is three or four inches in diameter, several 

 of the surrounding leaves should be broken down over it to 

 exclude the light, which turns its creamy color to a dull 

 yellow. 



The ground can scarcely be made too rich for this crop, 

 and should always contain a full supply of potash and salt. 

 The latter is a special addition for both cauliflower and cab- 

 bage, and should never be omitted, for though it does not 

 seem to stimulate growth at all, it is for certain plants a won- 

 derful tonic, so to speak. It gives to both the above-men- 

 tioned ones a rich, dark green color, and also very greatly 

 thickens the leaves and enables them to stand much more 

 cold. Cultivating, as I did for many years, ground that was 

 occasionally partly overflowed by the gulf, I had full oppor- 

 tunity to study its effects, and know that salt will render these 

 plants more hardy as well as healthy. While not a full sub- 

 stitute with them for potash, it acts very much like it. It will 

 pay well to apply 1,000 pounds per acre for these crops, while 

 beets, carrots, ruta-bagas and kohl-rabi are also greatly ben- 

 efited by its presence in the ground. Tomatoes, melons, 

 cucumbers, corn, squash and lettuce have no use at all for it. 

 In applying, mix well with the soil some time before planting, 

 or it can be top-dressed without damage, after the plants get 

 well off to growing, and with equally as good effects if rain 

 falls to carry it in. 



In growing cauliflower plants, make a frame with mos- 

 quito-bar, as for cabbage, but as the seeds are so costly, in- 

 stead of raking in, it is better to sow in very shallow drills, 

 or else broadcast rather thinly, to give stout plants, and after 

 watering, cover lightly by hand with fine soil, and shade. 

 The seed will not stand quite as deep covering and come well 

 as cabbage. In this section from the first to the last of July 



