7 
be protected against severe freezing ; or the seed may be sown 
im February in a hot-bed and the plants when about two inches 
high pricked out into a cooler bed or potted and placed in a 
sheltered cold frame to harden them before setting in the open 
ground, which can ordinarily be done early in April in the vi- 
cinity of New York, and of course these dates as well as all 
which have been or may be given in this work must be amended 
or modified according to locality, In the south less protection 
will be required, and below the frost-line they may be grown 
In open fields during the winter as readily as cabbages are now 
grown as far north as Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore, Md. The 
best plan of growing the plants early is to have a small green- 
house such as gardeners use for forcing Lettuce, &c., wherein 
the seed may be sown in February, and in due time the plants 
potted in half-pint pots and forced or retarded as circumstanees 
may require; but it is best to give them a moderate and even, 
healthy growth, having them strong and vigorous but hardy at 
the time of out-door planting, when the pots may be inverted 
and the plant with ball of earth about the roots, set out without 
checking. This last point is very essential, and great care 
must be exercised in transplanting early plants for if 
growth is materially checked or the plants stunted they 
will form buttons—that is very small premature heads—and be 
of no further use. In this locality efforts to grow Cauliflower 
very early have not been attended with good results, partly be- 
cause our people have had but little experienee with glass, but 
mainly by reason of the ravages of the root maggot, and in 
many cases by reason of using seed ofvarieties entirely unsuit- 
ed for that purpose, matters which are treated upon in proper 
place. The great crop with us is during the months of Octo- 
ber and November, for which seed is sown from May 15 to 
June 25, and the plants set from the middle of June to the last 
of August, according to the kind, which is further explained 
under the head of “Varieties.” 
Occasionally, by reason of drouth and frequently by rea- 
son of the ravages of insects great difficulty has been exper- 
ienced in growing plantsin the Spring and early Summer, which 
seldom occurs in the Fall, at which time, however, the same 
precautions may be used. Time was when we could circum- 
