148 ENDIVE. 



hot-bed, will be enough, and the fruit may be ready 

 for market a month earlier. They bring from four 

 to five dollars per dozen when grown in this way. 



The demand is, of course, limited. Early Egg 

 Plants, grown at Norfolk and Charleston, and shipped 

 north would pay very well to a limited extent. 



Endive. 

 Cichorium endivia. 



Endive is but little used in this country except 

 by Germans and French, who consume it freely in 

 the Fall and early Winter in flavoring soups and mak- 

 ing salads. It is a hardy annual ; the seed may be 

 sown in the open ground any time from April until 

 the first of August. The crop will mature in about 

 ninety days from the time of sowing. For the Fall 

 crop the seed should be sown in drills, twelve inches 

 apart and a quarter of an inch deep, early in July. 

 When the plants are up a scuffle-hoe should be run 

 between the rows occasionally, to keep down the 

 weeds. By the middle of August the first planting 

 may be made, setting the plants one foot apart each 

 way, on any kind of ground that is loose and rich. 

 The cultivation needed is to keep the spaces clean 

 between the plants with the common garden hoe. 



When the plants attain their full size the leaves 

 are long and spreading. This vegetable is only in 

 demand when the " hearts " are bleached. To do this 

 the outside leaves are gathered up in a bunch and 

 fastened in this way, with a small quantity of straw, 

 hay, or bass matting. By thus excluding the light, 



