October i8, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



435 



Cultural Department. 



Cauliflower for Winter-forcing-. 



COMPARATIVELY little has been written about forc- 

 ing- vegetables in this country, and since the Cauli- 

 flower is not grown to any extent under glass, except in 

 private establishments, this vegetable has been specially 

 neglected, although it can undoubtedly be forced with 

 profit. We are glad, therefore, that a late bulletin of the 

 Cornell Experiment Station gives an account, both of suc- 

 cess and failure, with this vegetable during three years of 

 practice. The following are the chief points recorded in 

 the bulletin : 



In the winter of 1890-91 seeds were sown in fiats and the 

 seedlings transplanted into pots. They had reached a height 



two-third span facing the south, sixty feet long by twenty wide. 

 The house is on a hill-side and it has three benches, the two 

 lower ones being used for the Cauliflower. The one against 

 the south wall has a board bottom underneath eight inches of 

 soil and is supplied with mild bottom-heat from two one-and- 

 one-quarter-inch steam pipes. The central bench, seven feet 

 wide, has a solid ground bed with no bottom-heat, its eight 

 inches of soil resting on natural subsoil of hard clay. This soil 

 is good garden loam, mixed with well-rotted manure in the 

 proportion of three or four to one. Sand is added to afford 

 good drainage and to prevent the somewhat pasty mass from 

 becoming sour. The plants which iiad bottom-heat did not 

 succeed. They were later and smaller than tiiose in the middle 

 bed, and so few good heads were formed that they did not pay 

 for the labor expended upon them. The seeds of three varie- 

 ties were sown on August 24111, and having been once trans- 

 planted were set in the beds on the 4th of October, aboutsixteen 



Fig. 65. — Victoria legi.T in Clifton, New Jersey. — See page 43 j. 



of ten inches when they were set in eight-inch pots, which 

 were placed on the ground in a cool-house where the temper- 

 ature often went below forty degrees. Although the Cauli- 

 flower likes a low temperature, the plants soon suffered, evi- 

 dently on account of the cold and wet weather. Removal to 

 an intermediate temperature started growth again and small 

 heads began to form again before the plants had reached a 

 proper size. The heads, however, split or " buttoned," being 

 ruptured by the sudden stimulus of a new growth after the 

 plants had been checked. 



The next winter plants were kept in a uniform condition of 

 vigor throughout their lifetime and the altenii)t was success- 

 ful, but they were grown in six-inch pots and the plan proved 

 too expensive. Last winter Cauliflower was grown in a low 



inches apart each way. The plants were given water as it was 

 needed and the ground was frequently stirred. Abundant air 

 was given from ventilators, even in siiar() weather if the sun 

 was bright, and from sixty to seventy degrees, Fahrenheit, in 

 the day-tinie and about fifty at night were considered the 

 proper temperature, although on bright days the mercury reg- 

 istered eighty degrees occasionally lor a short time and the 

 night temperature dropped occasionally below forty. The 

 fresh air and precautions against overwatering seemed to 

 check a tendency of the plants to damp off, which appeared 

 when they were set out, and the few vacancies were filled with 

 new ones. The aphis was kept in ciieck by tobacco-smoke, 

 and the cabbage-worms, which were first noticed late in No- 

 vember, had to be carefully picked off for a couple of weeks. 



