VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 201 



until again established, or, if the weather is too dry and 

 hot, thinned to that distance in the seed-bed. They should 

 be taken up with balls of earth in a transplanter and 

 planted out at the same time with winter cabbage, in 

 rows 20 by 24 inches apart. Protect them from the cut- 

 worm and insects in the same manner. If possible, give 

 them a plot of moist bottom soil, made very rich with 

 well-decomposed manure. Water freely when needed, 

 which, in dry weather, is every other day at least ; if with 

 liquid manure, so much the better. Let them never suf- 

 fer from drought ; they will show when they need water 

 by their drooping leaves. Soapsuds is an excellent appli- 

 cation. Keep the ground hoed thoroughly about them, 

 especially the day after each watering, that it may not 

 bake. 



The hills should be hollowed about the cauliflower like 

 a- shallow basin, to retain moisture. The head may be 

 blanched by bending the leaves and confining them loosely 

 with a string. They will head in succession during the 

 autumn. To protect them from insects, see cabbage. 



When a cauliflower has reached its full size, which is 

 shown by the border opening as if about to seed, the plant 

 should be pulled, and if laid entire in this state in a cool 

 place, may be kept several days. It should be pulled 

 in the morning, for if gathered in the middle or evening 

 of a hot day, it boils tough. When there is danger of 

 severe frost injuring the cauliflowers that have not already 

 headed, they may be protected by pine boughs or empty 

 boxes or barrels where they stand, or pulled up with the 

 earth attached to the roots, and removed to a cellar or 

 out-building, where they will flower in succession. In the 

 low country this will hardly be necessary, and the spring 

 crop is, I believe, more certain with them. 



For Seed. Set out, in spring, some of the finest heads, 

 with fine, close flower-buds, and proceed as with cabbage. 

 It is very liable to intermix w r ith the other Brassicas ; so 

 9* 



