70 CAULIFLOWER. 



prepared in the same manner, the seed is sown, and 

 the plants are set in the same way. But the culture 

 usually given the cabbage is not sufficient for the 

 cauliflower, as cabbage will suffer, with impunity, an 

 amount of abuse in cultivation that would be fatal 

 to cauliflower, which insists on thorough tillage and 

 liberal treatment as regards manure, and will not 

 tolerate neglect in any respect. Nevertheless if the 

 same amount of care was given to cabbage that the 

 best growers of cauliflower give to the cultivation 

 of that crop it would be doubly profitable. 



On Long Island, which is a congenial home for 

 the cauliflower, the seed is sown at intervals from 

 the first of May to the middle of June. The farmers 

 usually make three sowings, intended for an early, 

 an intermediate and a late crop. In some seasons 

 the best results are from seed sown as late as the 

 first of July. 



There is no crop about which there is so much 

 uncertainty as that of the cauliflower ; no calculation 

 can be made as to the time of sowing the seed, or in 

 setting the plants, that will insure success. All, or 

 at least much, depends upon that fickle goddess, 

 Luck, whose favors are strangely dispensed. The 

 early, the intermediate and the late plantings are, in 

 turn, profitable. Not unfrequently the slow man — 

 he who is always behind — will reap the greater 

 reward. Hence the necessity of a series of plant- 

 ings, one of which will almost invariably succeed. 

 It is safe to say that when a good crop is secured, 

 it is a very profitable one. 



The character of the soil has generally been 

 supposed to be of the greatest importance in the cul- 

 tivation of this crop ; a heavy loam with a gravelly 



