Cultivation of Sea-kale at Bath. 4.5 



Art, XVII. Remarks on the Cultivation of Sea-kale, as practised by 

 the Bath Gardeners. By Walter William Capper, Esq. 



Sir, 



Perhaps the following peculiar method of cultivating sea-kale 

 by the Bath gardeners may be acceptable to some of your 

 readers. As this manner is apparently very unnatural, 1 am 

 induced to preface it by describing the habits of growth of the 

 plant, which grows naturally on the sandy shores of Sussex and 

 Hampshire, and also many other places round the coast of Eng- 

 land. The buds of some of these plants, during the winter, are 

 subject to be covered several inches deep with the drifted sand, 

 so that, in the spring, the young heads which push through it 

 have their leaves quite close together. Their appearance, when 

 in this state, being like small cabbages, must have first induced 

 the inhabitants to eat them ; and their delicacy and succulency, 

 added to their precocity, must have ultimately led to their culti- 

 vation in gardens. This took place probably about the middle 

 of last century. (See Encyc. ofGard. new edit. § 4299.) During 

 my visit to Southampton last year, I saw sea-kale several times 

 in the market which had been taken from the shore, but it was 

 very inferior to that raised by the gardeners there. 



In the first volume of the Transactions of the Horticultural 

 Society it is recommended, in a paper dated 1803, to grow sea- 

 kale under large earthen pots : but these are very expensive, and 

 difficult to manage; besides, the plants thus treated are not so 

 productive as they are by the Bath method. My instructor in 

 this method was Mr. M'Pherson, who cultivated a large garden 

 opposite the South Parade at. Bath ; and, although it is upwards of 

 thirty years since he taught me, I do not find that his method 

 has bee" improved upon. 



The seed is to be sown very thin early in April, on a bed of 

 4 ft. wide, which is to be kept clear of weeds during the summer. 

 It is certainly the best way to raise your own plants ; but, as a 

 year is lost in so doing, I should recommend the owners of small 

 gardens to procure them from some neighbouring nursery, as 

 they will cost there only from 35. to 5s. per hundred, and a 

 season is saved. In taking them up, be careful that their roots 

 are not broken, or dried by exposing them to the atmosphere ; 

 for in either case the plants will not thrive with so much vigour 

 the following summer. 



Having procured the plants in the month of March or April, 

 select a part of the garden sloping to the sun : its breadth from 

 east to west should be wider than its depth frpm north to south, 

 that the rains may the sooner run off the ground. The soil 

 should be light, and dug two spades deep, with a moderate 

 quantity of rotten dung well intermixed. Particular attention 

 should also be paid that every clod is well broken ; for the roots 



