Brussels Sprouts 1451 



raising the plants 



The seed used at Orient is all locally grown, those who do not 

 produce their own supply procuring it from their neighbors. The 

 strain is very tine ; its origin and characteristics are described 

 later in the section on seed-growing. The seed bed is prepared 

 on one edge of the field, the land it occupies being plowed and 

 set with plants as soon as the rest of the field is finished. After 

 the plot is made fine, and fertilized as for the crop, the seed is 

 put in with a hand drill in rows eighteen to tw T enty-two inches 

 apart, to make horse-cultivation possible. It is not wise to crowd 

 the plants as much as with cauliflower, since any shedding of the 

 lower leaves means loss in the early crop, as a sprout forms in each 

 leaf-axil. With such spacing no hand-weeding is done ; the weeds 

 which grow in the rows are lifted with the plants and rejected as 

 the latter are sorted. 



Allow four ounces of seed per acre, and five weeks from seed- 

 ing to produce plants of the proper size for setting. The sowing 

 for the early crop is made from May 10 to 15, bringing the 

 setting about June 20; and for the late crop from June 15 to 

 as late as July 10. Three sowings are frequently made by the 

 same grower at intervals of two weeks. The plants at the time 

 of setting should be six to eight inches high, and stocky. 



SETTING OUT THE PLANTS 



For the early crop plants are set out in the latter part of June or 

 early July, and for the late from July 20 to August 15, most 

 of them going out about the first of August. Planting by machine 

 has been tried by a number of growers, but practically all have 

 fallen back on planting by hand as more reliable and giving bet- 

 ter results. The machine would succeed under the proper condi- 

 tions, but these it seems impracticable to meet. That is, when 

 sprouts follow early potatoes the ground is very dry at setting 

 time, and needs more thorough wetting than the machine aifords. 

 Then, too, to succeed with a machine one needs a heavy, slow and 

 steady team, a skillful driver, and two careful and accurate men 

 to ride behind. 



The ground is marked in checks 3 x 2y 2 feet, or less commonly 

 3 x 3, or 3 x l 1 /^ feet. The latter distance is too close. At the 



