BEASSICACEOUS PLANTS.— THE CAULIFLOWER. 



101 



to an open part of the ground, will come in 

 a fortnight or three weeks after those left 

 to enjoy the reflected heat of the wall. 

 In preparing the space for them at the 

 bottoms of walls, which need not be more 

 than 9 or 12 inches in breadth, no great 

 fear need be apprehended of injuring the 

 roots of the wall-trees, as these are, for 

 the most part, progressing outwards. The 

 soil may, therefore, be loosened up with 

 a fork, and a good supply of stable- yard 

 manure added, the plants set about 6 

 inches apart, to be afterwards thinned in 

 spring to a foot distant. All the care 

 required is to remove the leaves fallen 

 from the trees, to dust the plants fre- 

 quently for the suppression of slugs, and, 

 in cold and damp localities, to cover the 

 surface between them with finely-sifted 

 coal-ashes to counteract damp. 



Frame protection,. — Plants for this pur- 

 pose should be taken up from the nur- 

 sery-beds : the taking up we consider 

 essential, and much more than adequate 

 to the saving of time which would result 

 from placing the frames at once over the 

 plants still growing in the beds. About 

 the end of October or beginning of No- 

 vember transplant these into a bed of 

 moderately conditioned soil, setting them 

 6 inches apart, so that the air may circu- 

 late freely through them. One precau- 

 tion necessary in cold, damp, strong soils, 

 is to elevate this bed 6 or 7 inches above 

 the ground-level, to insure freedom from 

 damp ; cover with glass-lights at first till 

 the plants take root, and afterwards, 

 upon all occasions when frost or snow is 

 apprehended, giving abundance of air 

 at all other times. Cover the glass with 

 canvass during severe frosts, keep the soil 

 dry, and introduce between the plants, 

 stiU further to insure this, an inch in 

 thickness of finely-sifted coal-ashes ; re- 

 move decaying leaves, pull up weeds, 

 and leave till spring arrives, when more 

 copious supplies of air must be given, and 

 the plants gradually inured to stand the 

 common atmosphere, when they may be 

 transplanted out for good, which, accord- 

 ing to climate, will be about the end of 

 March or beginning of April, setting the 

 plants in a warm place and in a highly- 

 enriched soil, in rows 2| feet asunder, and 

 18 inches plant from plant. In trans- 

 planting, remove with as much soil as 

 possible about the roots, for which the 



VOL. II. 



transplanters, figs. 29, 30, and 31, will be 

 found useful. 



Winterinci in pots. — Where very early 

 crops are wanted, and where there is fit 

 accommodation, a set may be planted in 

 48-sized pots in October, and kept under 

 a glass frame, cool peach-house, or the 

 like, till February, when they may be 

 turned out of the pots with their balls 

 entire, and planted in a pit covered with 

 glass in a richly-prepared bed, and there 

 allowed to produce their heads or flowers. 

 Cauliflowers, at so early a period of the 

 season, will only be regarded by those 

 who profess to distinguish a superior 

 quality in the cauliflower over a fine 

 well-grown broccoli, which, at the same 

 season, will be in high perfection in the 

 open garden. This we, however, know 

 to be the case with some persons, and 

 therefore, to provide for such a taste, 

 it will be advisable to adopt the potting 

 system. 



Spring-sown crop. — Plants originated 

 from seeds sown in February or March 

 should be also transferred to nursery-beds 

 to harden and gain strength; in these 

 they should be allowed 6 inches apart 

 plant from plant, to facilitate the opera- 

 tion of lifting with balls by the trans- 

 planter. About the end of April or 

 beginning of May (all, however, depend- 

 ing on the weather, which, of late years, 

 seems to put all nice calculations of this 

 kind completely out of the question) they 

 may be transplanted into the open quar- 

 ter, setting them in lines 3 feet apart, 

 and the plants 2^ feet apart in the rows. 



The summer-sown crop is to be treated in 

 a similar way to the last, and transplanted 

 about the middle of July at the same dis- 

 tance as the last. 



Throughout their season of growth the 

 same management is required as already 

 detailed for other Brassicee, taking care 

 that every one that begins to flag or 

 droop its leaves, showing very evident 

 symptoms of being attacked at the root, 

 be taken up, and without further cere- 

 mony consigned to the nearest hothouse 

 furnace, and, in default of that, to the 

 nearest fire ; for by this means such insects 

 as are the cause of these disasters may be 

 greatly limited in their future operations. 



Some excellent cultivators contend that 

 the middle of August is not the proper 

 season for sowing, and that the whole 



o 



