70 THE CAULIFLOWER. 



Any practical man, with strong ground well ma- 

 nured, can every now and then raise a crop of cauli- 

 flower. But this partial success one year does very 

 often prove a decided loss in the long run, for the 

 reason that it often happens three times the amount 

 realized from this crop will be spent in the attempt 

 to raise another just like it, with the determination 

 not to give up. This has been my experience, 

 although the experiments are made now on a much 

 smaller scale than formerly. Last year I set out 

 2,500 plants, and only marketed 500 from the patch; 

 the failure was owing to late planting. To avoid 

 any such mistake this year, the ground was made 

 ready for planting early in July, and by the middle 

 of the month some 1,800 plants set out. The 

 ground in this case was richer and more mellow at 

 the time of planting than last year, and the culti- 

 vation was about the same. At first these plants 

 grew vigorously, but late in August they were 

 checked from some unknown cause, and from this 

 check they did not recover. Some of the lower leaves 

 had turned yellow and dropped off, leaving the 

 stalks almost bare, while others have made no new 

 growth since. Judging from present appearances, 

 there will not be twenty- five sizeable heads out of 

 the 1,800 planted. This is rather discouraging, 

 but one has to take the good with the bad in farm- 

 ing or gardening. Too late to remedy the error it 



