March.] THE KITCHEN GARDEN. OQ1 



In November cover your beds with a thick coat of rotten dung 

 or leaves; this, at the same time that it protects your plants from 

 frost, will bring them more forward, and add to their luxuriance; 

 about the middle of March, in the middle states, it will be necessary 

 to cover your plants for blanching; the most ready mode of doing 

 which, is to draw the earth up with a hoe over the crown of the 

 root, so that each plant shall be covered to the depth of ten or 

 twelve inches; some blanch it by heaping on it sea sand, some 

 common sand and pebbles, and others with large garden pots in- 

 verted, and placed immediately over the plants, stopping up the 

 holes at the bottoms; this last is the neatest and cleanest mode. 



The finest or at least the largest Sea Kale, is that which is pro- 

 duced from seedling plants the first year of their flowering, as the 

 great produce of the plant then centres in one flowering stern; after- 

 wards the crown of the root ramifying into many heads, a greater 

 number of stalks are produced, which are more slender but not less 

 delicate. 



When your plants have been covered in either method, three, 

 four, or five weeks, according to the early or late period of cover- 

 ing, examine them, and if you find that the stalks have shot up 

 three or four inches, you may begin cutting; should you wait till 

 all the shoots are of a considerable length, your crop will come in 

 too much at once, for in this plant there is not that succession of 

 growth which there is in asparagus; you may continue cutting till 

 you see the head of flowers begin to form, and if at this time you 

 uncover it entirely, and let it proceed to that state in which Brocoli 

 is usually cut, and use it as such, you will find it an excellent sub- 

 stitute; and this greatly enhances the value of the plant, as Brocoli 

 does not stand our winter frost, and can only be had when care- 

 fully protected as directed in November, but this plant is sufficient- 

 ly hardy to bear our severest frost without much injury. You are 

 not to weaken the roots too much by over cutting, for in that case 

 you would injure their next year's bearing; they are to be indulged 

 as you do asparagus with several uncut shoots to grow up during 

 summer, to carry on a proper vegetation, to strengthen and enlarge 

 the roots. 



Such as are partial to this plant may force it in any of the winter 

 or early spring months, nothing more being necessary than to place 

 over each plant a large garden pot, as in one of the modes of blanch- 

 ing already recommended, and cover the pots with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of hot horse-dung; the heat of the dung brings forward the 

 plant, while the pot keeps it from coming in contact therewith; 

 and as the growth of the plant is by this means greatly accelerated, 

 it is of course rendered more tender as well as sweeter. 



These plants may also be forced in frames as directed in January 

 and February for asparagus, observing to take up such plants for 

 this purpose as are sure to flower; trimming their side roots and 

 shortening their long tap-roots to the length of nine or ten inches, 

 or twelve in very large plants, and placing them in a frame on a 

 hot-bed, and in a suitable depth of earth, at the distance of four to 

 six inches asunder; as the plants used thus, will be rendered of 

 £B 



