28 PICTOBIAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



respectively, applied at the rate of 3 oz. per square yard, would 

 do equally as well ; but if I mentioned this alone, it would be 

 scuffled in about 6 inches deep, and little good done. 



Cabbages and Greens Generally.— Borecole, Broccoli, Brussels 

 Sprouts, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, and Savoys constitute a group of 

 the highest value. Collectively they come next to the Potato in 

 importance, for they give us an all-the-year-round supply of delicious 

 and wholesome food. The judge at the flower show cuts open the 

 Cabbages on view, sees one pair with a considerable amount of close, 

 white "grain," and another that is largely composed of stalk, and 

 gives first prize to the former ; it is hard to disagree with him, for 

 the white-grained Cabbage is the better cultural example. But — 

 such is my vicious taste — it is the tender, melting, marrowy stalk 

 which, on the table, aflords me the real temptation. The mellow 

 pulp in the very heel of the stem is to me what I suppose the G bone 

 (or is it the H bone ?) is to the beef lover. Eich yard dung will give 

 you very fine Greens, because the nitrogenous elements foster leaf 

 growth. So, however, will nitrates in concentrated artificial form, 

 such as nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. I am a great 

 believer in the latter for Cabbages. It is a splendid fertiliser for 

 Greens, encouraging the plants to make vigorous growth, and 

 impartiug a fine burnished hue to the leaves. But if, like myself, 

 you love pith in your Cabbages, think of potash. By increasing it 

 and reducing nitrates, yoM get less foliage, but more " bone." In a 

 well-tilled soil 3 parts of kainit and 1 part of sulphate of ammonia, 

 3 oz. per square yard, give good Cabbages, not large, but remarkably 

 nice in flavour. 



Carrots. — The remarks as to Beet apply, and need not be 

 repeated. I shall, however, have some fresh points about Carrots 

 to discuss when I come to general culture. 



Celery. — I am at hopeless war with the manure cart champions 

 in connection with this vegetable. They would not eat an oyster if 

 fchey knew that the succulent bivalve came from a bed wdthin a 

 hundred miles of a town drain, but they will eat Celery out of a 

 trench which they themselves have packed with dung and drenched 

 with sewage ! Visions of typhoid fever appal them in the first case, 

 but have no terrors at all in the second. It is all very odd to me. 

 Now, Celery happens to be a crop which I grow in quantities quite 

 out of proportion to the amount in the average garden, largely 

 because in my household it is esteemed as a cooked vegetable ; but 

 even cooked I cannot appreciate dung-grown Celery. It is rank and 

 coarse, to my taste, and entirely lacks the tender sweetness of 

 artiticial-fed produce. As to eating Celery raw that has come out of 

 a richly manured trench, and, highly fed with sewage, has grown to 

 huge and bloated proportions — faugh ! I want very badly to fight 

 the hoary and anticpiated belief that respectable Celery cannot be 

 grown without loads upon loads of dung. It can. it has been, it will 

 be again. I grant that Celery, from its nature and its extremely 

 fibrous root action, revels in manure, especially of a liquid nature. I 



