178 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



When the spring cutting is completed, having leveled down 

 the ridges, manure the intervals, and cultivate as before, to give 

 it vigor for the next year's taxing. 



It is sometimes planted in rows or hills only eighteen inches 

 or two feet apart each way, and, instead of being ridged, the 

 crowns ai'e slightly covered for winter, and in the spring earth- 

 en pots, known as " sea-kale pots," about fifteen inches deep 

 and twelve inches diameter, are placed over it to force and 

 blanch it, which sometimes, also, are surrounded with stable 

 manm-e to hasten the process. These pots have a hole in what 

 woiUd ordinai-ily be called- the bottom, but which, as inverted, 

 is the top, large enough to admit the hand for cutting the 

 crop, to which a knobbed cover, like the cover of a water-jar, 

 is fitted by the potter. 



Like asparagus, sea kale is a maritime plant, and is, by some 

 persons, very highly esteemed as a delicacy ; but a large major- 

 ity would justly conclude that " it costs more than it comes to." 



SHALLOTS. ■ 



Trench, Echalote. — German, Schalotte. — Spanish, Chalote. 



Plant the sets, from early fall to winter, in very rich soil 

 about three inches deep, in rows fifteen inches wide, and about 

 six inches apai't in the row. Hoe often and deeply, and keep 

 perfectly clean. As early in the spring as practicable, hoe 

 deeply, and top-dress once with poudrette, or guano, or liquid 

 manure, and pull them as soon as sufficiently grown for use. 



The shallot is a Avell-known kind of onion, which increases 

 largely by offsets from the root, used chiefly at the very open- 

 ing of spring, being the earliest of the onion kind that appears 

 in the green state in market. 



SOREL. 

 French, Oseille. — German, Sauerampfer. — Spanish, Acedera. 



The French or garden sorel is a perennial plant, with leaves 

 as large as those of the yellow dock, and of a strong, clear, 

 acid taste. It is raised from seed sown in the spring in a 

 shallow drill, and a few plants may be set out where they can 

 stand pennanently and lie out of the way. 



