CHAPTER ViIL 
BORECOLE, or KALE.— (Brassica olevacea acephala). 
This is a hardy biennial, and one of the most useful 
vegetables in the garden of the peer or the peasant. Its 
various forms will meet divergent tastes, satisfying alike the 
palate of the epicure and the cravings of the famished. 
If an early supply of this vegetable is required, seed 
should be sown on a warm border about the middle of March. 
The main crop may be sown from the middle to the end of 
April. Sow in drills four inches or more apart, and cover 
with an inch of soil. If birds are likely to be troublesome, 
cover the seed-bed with a net, or, first damp the seeds and 
then roll them in red lead before sowing, this will make them 
distasteful to the birds. This simple preventive will apply 
to most other garden seeds for which our feathered friends 
may exhibit an undue partiality. 
As soon as the seedlings appear above the soil, dust 
them once or twice weekly with fine lime or soot to prevent 
injury from slugs, turnip flea, and the possible deposition of 
eggs in their young stems by the cabbage fly. The latter 
did much injury in the summer.of 1895 to cabbages and 
cauliflowers, by depositing one or more eggs in the tender 
stem of each plant at the surface of the soil. A maggot is 
hatched out otf the egg, which destroys the stem just below 
the surface of the soil, and the plant gradually withers and 
dies. 
As soon as the plants have two or three leaves they 
ought to be pricked out in rows four inches apart each way. 
This will induce a sturdy growth, and tend to form plants 
capable of developing grand heads of splendidly curled leaves 
and of succulent texture. © 
