THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



13 



when they begin to run. They start in a 

 few places, perhaps four or five plants to 

 the acre, and this is liable to be near a 

 tree, and if you destroy these plants you 

 will have very little trouble. 



' ' We take a bushel basket of straw and 

 scatter the straw under the plant and set 



fire to it. We used to try pulling the 

 plants out, and dipping them in coal oil, 

 but in that way we lost an odd insect and 

 concluded that fire is the only sure rem- 

 edy. This year, in about six acres of 

 melons, we destroyed one-eighth of an 

 acre of plants before we got it checked. 



A neighbor across the road did not hunt 

 out the hills, and he had to spray heavily 

 and to use a great deal of tobacco stems 

 and the result of his neglect cost him a 

 good many dollars. There is not as 

 much danger from this pc st on heavier 

 soil." 



The Grow^ing and Marketing of CaulifloAver' 



A. McMeans, Brantford, Ont. 



IN packing cauliflower for market I use 

 barrels and jthose large American 

 berry crates that hold sixty boxes of 

 berries. Use plenty of paper so that the 

 heads do not rub. You can buy waste 

 paper very cheaply from the newsdealer 

 or newspaper offices. The large size 

 crates cost me fifteen cents each, the 

 small size ten cents each, second hand 

 empty salt barrels fifteen cents and 

 empty sugar barrels twenty cents. The 

 cost of the packing I add to the invoice. 

 Don't be afraid to packing too tight. If 

 you pack too loosely you will find that 

 owing to the jar of transportation they 

 will rub worse than if they are packed 

 tight. Sometimes I have to sit on the 

 lids of the crates to get them fastened. 

 The large crates hold on an average 

 about two dozen heads. 



Cut closely and try and have some 

 local place to sell them. If you can't do 

 that then sell them to the pickle manu- 

 facturers. Remember that one poor 

 head in a dozen spoils the appearance of 

 the whole lot. 



Excessive humidity in the atmosphere 

 frequently develops a disease of the stalk 

 known as stem rot, for which we have no 

 known remedy, but if the weather is 

 cold during August, with occasionally a 

 cool rain to keep them coming along, we 

 may expect to see the care and labor that 

 we have expended on these plants well 

 rewarded. In the open field cauliflower 

 will stand a temperature of 24° or 20° 

 Fahrenheit providing it is not long con- 

 tinued. Full-grown heads are much 

 more liable to be damaged by frost than 

 the small ones. 



It often happens that some plants will 

 be left in the field when winter begins to 

 set in. In order to save them and to get 

 the most out of them cut them off at the 

 top of the ground and stick the stump 

 into moist, not wet, sand in a cool cellar, 

 first removing all the leaves except the 

 inner course. By doing this you will be 

 surprised to find how many you can store 

 away in a small space. 



Question. — "Do you not think you 

 would have had better cauliflower if you 

 had left some of the outside leaves on?" 



*The balance of an address on the growing of 

 cauliflower, delivered at the recent convention 

 of the Ontario Vegetable Growers' Association. 

 The first part of this address was published in 

 the December issue of The Horticulturist. 



Answer.— "No, I do not think so. 

 The more leaves you leave on the more 

 you draw the strength from the stump. 

 I remove every leaf except a few on the 

 inner course because a cauliflower wit!.out 

 a leaf does not look nice on the market." 



Question. — "With regard to trans- 

 planting, do you try ploughing in the 

 morning and setting out the plants in 

 the afternoon?" 



Answer. — ' ' It is very seldom I do that. 

 With my cabbage this year and last year 

 I pulled the plants early in the morning, 

 put them in the root-house, and then 

 went to work and manured and ploughed 

 them, and I planted the cauliflower that 

 night and I had a good crop." 



Mr. T. Del worth : — "Watering is 

 quite a labor?" 



Answer. — "Yes; and if you plough 

 twice, and keep the land harrowed and 

 cultivated, you will keep the moisture 

 in the ground." 



Mr. Delworth :■ — ' ' If you plough 

 your ground and put in the plants at 

 once I think it is a good plan. I have 

 adopted that plan and in the last ten 

 years I have not used one can of water 

 in setting out cabbages or cauliflowers." 



Mr. McMeans: — "I have done the 

 same thing; my father brought me up 

 on the idea that the more work you do in 

 doing anything the better the result." 



Question. — "Do you ever pull your 

 plants two or three days before planting 

 them, and leave them in a damp place, 

 and let the little rootlets break out before 

 you plant them?" 



Answer. — "I have done that with 

 celery, but I could not see much came 

 from it. You start the little fibres and 

 then you brake them off, and you have 

 to start them again under harder cir- 

 cumstances." 



Mr. J. Rush:— ",I found wonderful 

 results in the hot weather in Julv. We 

 plant our cauhflower from the fifth to the 

 fifteenth of July, when it is generally hot 

 weather, and I have found that by pull- 

 ing the plants from the seed-bed and 

 tying them up in bundles and putting 

 them in the cellar on the floor and keep- 

 ing them there for two or three days, 

 they usually put on a nice bunch of 

 fibres all ready to take over to the soil." 



Mr.McMeans:— "I have no trouble 

 when I put out a patch of cauliflower. 

 I do not think I miss one in a hundred. 



I am not troubled with the cut worm." 



Question. — "What time do you gen- 

 erally plant?" 



Answer. — "About June 20. The early 

 cauhflowers bring me more money 

 than the later ones ; they may require a 

 little more attention, but ■ I can see 

 but very little difference and if you can 

 get an extra cent on a cauliflower you 

 are making that much more profit. 

 My average net price for the last four 

 years has been $1 a dozen." 



Question. — "Is your soil light or 

 heavy?" 



Answer. — "Black loam with sandy 

 bottom; it was originally a cedar 

 swamp. 



Question. — "You cannot grow early 

 cauliflower there?" 



Answer. — ' ' I have put out early cauli- 

 flower the same time I put out early 

 cabbage, and they were not bothered 

 with the worm any more than the cab- 

 bage were. But your cauliflower will 

 not develop as nice a head as they will 

 later on. If you have a place with a 

 nice cool bottom and of a stiff nature 

 you can produce just as good cauliflower 

 two or three weeks earlier." 



Mr. Rush: — "What has been your 

 experience in regard to seed ? ' ' 



Voice: — "Sometimes we blame the 

 seedsman for having sold us inferior 

 seed untrue to name. I think it is the 

 time of sowing that makes the differ- 

 ence. I have sown May 1, and May 

 15, and June 1, out of the same bag 

 of seed and had different results." 



Mr. McMeans: — "That would be due 

 more to the climatic conditions. We do 

 not get the same weather the first of May 

 as we do the first of June." 



Mr. Rush: — "They all germinate the 

 same, but we do not produce the heads." 



Mr. McMeans :— "I get my best results 

 from sowing May 1 or May 15. I 

 like to sow the first week in May. Seed 

 sown the first of June will not mature in 

 time." 



A Member: — "Can you pick a Snow- 

 ball from an Erfurt?" 



Mr. McMeans: — "I think the Snow- 

 ball is flatter. If you buy D. M. Ferry's 

 Snowball you will get the flat top cauli- 

 flower. If you buy cauliflower seed this 

 year, and you find it is good I would 

 advise you to go back and buy some for 

 next season." 



