216 KITCHEN GARDEN. 



March and April. Now, however, the blanching is not 

 only much more completely effected, but simple means 

 have been devised for supplying the table for half the 

 year, includin-g all the winter months. It has within 

 these few years become a vegetable of common oc- 

 currence in the markets both of London and Edin- 

 burgh. 



Sea-kale seems partial to a light dry soil. If manure 

 be added, it should consist of sea-weed or half-rotted 

 leaves of trees. The plants may be propagated by off- 

 sets, or small pieces of the roots having buds or eyes 

 attached to them ; but the most eligible method is by 

 seed. Very tolerable blanched stalks are sometimes 

 produced by plants only nine months old from the seed, 

 and after two summers, seedling plants will have ac- 

 quired sufficient strength for general cropping. The 

 sowing is made in March, the seeds being' deposited in 

 patches of three or four together: the patches are ar- 

 ranged in lines three feet apart, and two feet in the 

 line. In order to secure a succession, and to obviate 

 the bad effects of forcing, it is proper to sow a few lines 

 of sea-kale every year. 



Various modes of blanching the shoots have been re- 

 sorted to. In the first volume of the Memoirs of the 

 Oaledo7iian Horticultural Society^ Sir George S. Mac- 

 kenzie describes a very convenient method. The sea- 

 kale bed is merely covered, early in spring, with clean 

 and dry oat-straw, which is removed as often as it be- 

 comes musty. The shoots rise through the straw, and 

 are at the same time pretty well blanched. Others 

 employ dried 'tree-leaves for -this purpose. Another 

 method, practiced by many gardeners consists ^in 

 placing over each plant a flower-pot of the largest size 



