176 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



radishes for this purpose. Among the best known 

 varieties are Short Scarlet, Danvers, and Oxhart. 



CAULIFLOWER 



" I own 40 acres in the suburbs of Chicago and 

 value this land at $5,000 an acre," writes Sivert 

 Howelesen of Cook county, Illinois. " The least 

 profit these 40 acres have ever returned me was 

 $3,000 annually. My principal farming has con- 

 sisted in vegetables to supply the Chicago markets, 

 mainly cauliflowers, and also spinach, cabbage, 

 cucumbers, radishes, and other crops in season. I 

 have been particularly successful with cauliflowers, 

 and the following is the way I have managed : 



" The seeds are sown in drills in the hothouse 

 early in March. This hothouse is made into a cold 

 frame after the plants have been out of the ground 

 several days. They are transplanted in May to the 

 fields, where they are placed 23/2 feet apart, the 

 plants themselves being 18 inches apart in the row. 

 When there is any danger of worms of any kind, I 

 place the plants close together, because the loss will 

 then be less in proportion to the acreage planted. 

 When the first crop has been taken out of the hot- 

 house, I immediately sow other seed, generally 

 getting three or four crops each season to keep the 

 market continuously supplied between July and 

 the first frost. 



" My soil is a black loam. I use no compost or 

 commercial fertilizer. Twenty-five loads of manure 

 an acre is about the usual amount applied. I get 

 this manure from the city stables and the cost, 

 when I figure the cost of team and man and the 

 great distance from the sources of supply, amounts 

 to $2 a load. 



