CAULIFLOWER ON PUGET SOUND. 119 



I ever grew. We usually set a Fottler cabbage in 

 the place from which the poor plant has been cut, 

 and it makes a fine head by fall. 



"By the middle of June we have the field clear of 

 all inferior heads, and their places filled with late 

 cabbages. About this time all the heads saved for 

 seed are ' sponging out ' preparing to throw their 

 seed- stalks. Now is our time to help them. On 

 the upper side of the field, we have wooden water 

 tanks, each holding about 20,000 gallons of warm 

 water. The water is run into the tanks in the 

 middle of the day through flat open troughs, which 

 heat it up to about 70 Fah. It is taken through 

 canvas hose over the field, and the soil is soaked to 

 the subsoil. Now our underdrains come into play, 

 for all of the surplus water is drained off in about 

 three days, and we can start the cultivator. We 

 cultivate close up to the plants. If we break the 

 leaves off it doesn't matter, for they fall off any- 

 way as soon as the seed stalks start. This water- 

 ing gives the plants new life and they start off for 

 a second crop, or become biennials the first year. 

 The watering and cultivation are kept up once in 

 10 days until the seed- stalks are so large that they 

 cannot be run through without breaking the plants. 

 The seed ripens from the middle of September to 

 the last of October, according to how good a start 

 was made in the spring. 



