KALE, BORECOLE, OE SPROUTS. 



179 



Kale is rarely grown at the extreme South for the 

 Northern markets, its extensive cultivation being con- 

 fined to Norfolk, Va. The price in the New York 

 market rarely exceeds two dollars and twenty-five cents 

 per barrel. The varieties cultivated are: a local one, 

 called the " Blue Curled," and the " Green Curled 

 Scotch;" the former by far the most extensively. 



The preparation and character of the soil, quantity 

 and kind of manure, and 

 the cultivation of the crop 

 must be similar to that of 

 the other varieties of cab- 

 bage. The " Blue Curled " 

 is sown from August 10th 

 to September 15th, at Nor- 

 folk, in drills thirty inches 

 apart, at the rate of a 

 pound and a half of seed 

 to the acre; the plants are 

 eventually thinned to a 

 stand of from four to eight 

 inches in the row. The 

 " Scotch Curled," to a 

 much smaller extent, is 

 sown in seed-beds early in 

 August, and transplanted 

 in September from eight to ten inches apart in the row.. 



The crop is cut for shipment in March. The size of 

 the plants, when cut, varies from six inches to two feet 

 across, and, therefore, the number which will fill a barrel 

 varies greatly. It must be very firmly packed in well- 

 ventilated barrels, as with the best care, it will shrink in 

 consequence of its loose growth. It is subject to the 

 same insects as the cabbage, and, sown as it is in the 

 open field in the fall, is affected by the young cut-worms. 

 See chapter on "Insects." 



Fig. 46. KALE. 



