GARDENING For ALL. 67 
Either of the three kinds of cabbage mentioned, are 
usually a profitable crop to grow for market; but much 
depends upon the season, the distance from market, the 
market itself, and the number and wealth of the population ; 
and, above all, the earliness or otherwise of the crop. 
An acre of cabbage in the middle of April may be worth 
£30, a fortnight later it may not be worth more than £10. 
CAULIFLOWER.— (Brassica oleracea botrytis). 
The cauliflower is the most delicate variety of the 
cabbage tribe. It was first brought into England from 
Cyprus, and it was cultivated, though as a rarity, in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. 
By the end of the following century its cultivation had 
become so common and extensive that English cauliflowers 
were exported into Holland, Germany, and France. 
It requires a richer soil than, and as much space as 
cabbage ; and as a much smaller portion of the plant is used 
as food, it can never become so cheap an esculent. 
The best crops are obtained by planting upon well 
manured and deeply-dug soil. It will not bear our English 
winter, therefore, on the approach of frost, protection must 
be afforded. 
For the production of the earliest crops, seed may be 
sown from the fifteenth to the twenty-fifth of August. The 
seedlings should be pricked out, either into cold frames, or 
on a sheltered and warm border. These require much 
attention during the winter months, in the matter of 
protection from frost, and destruction by slugs, mice, and 
rats; and from decay through excessive moisture. Constant 
care must be given in regard to ventilation, and also to make 
firm the plants as often as they become loosened or thrown 
out of the soil by the action of worms. It will thus be seen 
that these autumn sown cauliflowers are a never-failing 
source of trouble and anxiety, from the end of October until 
the middle of the following June, when we may reasonably 
hope to be secure from frost, and commence to cut some 
cauliflowers as a reward for our labour. 
