CHAPTER XIX. 
CAULIFLOWER. 
For a picture of cauliflower the reader is referred to the 
frontispiece. The same vegetable, in growth, is shown in 
the interior view of the Reichner forcing house, in Chapter 5. 
It is a crop of no small importance, both under glass and in 
the open air. 
Cauliflower is worth from 25 to 50 cents per head, 
wholesale, in the Philadelphia markets in winter. It is a 
member of the cabbage family, requiring a comparatively 
low temperature. Its cultural requirements are quite the 
same as in the case of the radish, the beet, etc. Well started 
plants set in the forcing house will produce heads in twelve 
or thirteen weeks. 
Cauliflower is a good under-glass crop, but one which 
requires much room, on account of the size of the plants, 
which must be set two feet apart each way, in order to 
secure proper development. Seed sowing may be done at 
any time in heated structures by amateurs; but market 
gardeners plan to have their crops mature at certain dates, 
when good prices are reasonably certain. 
The Reichner plan is to sow the seed about the roth of 
October, and pot off into 3-inch pots. This makes the 
plants ready for the forcing beds between Christmas and 
New Vear’s, and brings the cauliflower into market in 
February or March. The Snow Storm variety is used. 
The plants are set 18 inches by 2 feet in the beds. Other 
growers favor Snowball, Erfurt, &c., and prefer to set 2 x 2 
feet, as above stated. -Some of the Boston growers choose 
to transplant twice, rather than use pots. 
Mr. Reichner, who is a successful grower, says: ‘‘ Lots 
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