318 How THE FARM PAYS. 



from the same bag of seed. Some time about the end of June one 

 of the men wrote, saying that he had evidently got some spurious 

 kind of cabbage from us, as his neighbor was marketing his crop, 

 while in his field of ten acres he had not a head fit to cut, nor was 

 there any appearance of their ever doing so, he thought. Investiga- 

 tion showed that no maggot, " club root " or other insect was affecting 

 the roots; the land w r as nearly identical with that which had made a 

 successful crop, and had been equally well manured and cultivated. 

 So the only probable solution of the matter was that the plants in the 

 case of failure had been loosely planted and had failed to make a 

 prompt start, as in the other case, where the planting had been 

 properly done, so that while the one lot advanced without a check, 

 the growth of the other lot was arrested. This was undoubtedly the 

 case, for there could be no cause for the difference unless on some 

 such hypothesis. But there was a fortunate sequel to the case. It 

 luckily happened that a heavy rain storm occurred while the cab- 

 bages were yet in this unheaded condition. This started, as it were, 

 a second growth, which resulted in their forming splendid heads by 

 August 1st, at a time when cabbages were scarce, which, luckily for 

 the owner, brought a much higher price than had they matured at 

 the proper season, in June or July. The result was fortunate for us, 

 who had sold the seed, for had not rain come so opportunely, the 

 crop might never have headed up, and it would then have been hard 

 to have convinced the man that he had not been furnished with 

 spurious seed. What has been advised for cabbage crops, either 

 early or late, is exactly the culture necessary for a crop of 



CAULIFLOWER. 



Cauliflower being a plant of more delicate constitution than cabbage, 

 it requires to be more carefully handled ; for instance, where the cab- 

 bage plants in the cold frames will keep safely over winter in this 

 latitude, with no covering but the glass sash, cauliflower plants require 

 the use of straw mats over the sashes, as the plant is much more 

 easily hurt by frost. In fact, it is better never to keep the plants 

 through the winter ; those sown in February, and transplanted into 

 cold frames in March, and planted in the open ground in April, as 

 recommended for spring sown early cabbage, being better. The 

 plants, however, must be started early enough so that they can be 

 set out not later than middle of April, for if not rooted well before 

 warm weather sets in, they will either "button" that is, form small, 

 stunted flowers or else fail entirely to head up. Cauliflower delights 



