SUPPLY OF FRESH VEGETABLES 375 



can be got much earlier than from protected roots in 

 the open air. 



Radishes. We have seen under Carrots and Potatoes 

 how easily this useful salad can be grown, and it only 

 remains to indicate one or two appropriate sorts. The 

 following are all distinguished by quick root-formation 

 and small tips, so that they possess the two principal 

 qualifications : Earliest of All Rose Turnip, Red Forcing, 

 White Forcing, Red white-tipped Forcing. 



Seakale. Perhaps the most esteemed of all early 

 vegetables, Seakale is easily forced when there is a 

 supply of strong crowns, but these are essential to a 

 start. It is little satisfaction to begin with small bits 

 barely an inch thick and four or five inches long ; what 

 are wanted are pieces nearly two inches thick and eight 

 or nine inches long, for these will give solid, succulent 

 sticks that will cook beautifully and be of delicious 

 flavour when put on the table. The forcer may not be 

 able to grow such good crowns as these if his soil is shallow 

 and poor, or, on the other hand, if it is very stiff, for 

 Seakale enjoys a light, friable, but deep and fertile soil; 

 but he should try. He should dig his ground as deeply 

 as possible, manure it liberally, and plant pieces of root, 

 half an inch thick and six or eight inches long up to the 

 tip, eighteen inches apart all ways in spring. They will 

 be large enough to force, all going well with them, the 

 following winter. In default, he must buy crowns ready 

 for forcing from his seedsman or nurseryman. If a 

 complete start has to be made from seed three years will 

 be required to get crowns strong enough for forcing 

 satisfactorily. A person who has a Mushroom house may 

 pack the Seakale in crowns in boxes with soil between, 

 and set them in a warm dark part of it. Or the forcing 

 may be done in a hotbed frame kept dark. The Seakale, 



