CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



33 



luxuriantly and formed fine heads, ten to twelve 

 inches in diameter, and but four or five per cent, 

 of the plants failed to produce heads, while on the 

 patch that received the compost manure, twenty- 

 five or thirty per cent, failed, and the rest of the 

 plants developed slowly, comparatively, and only 

 yielded heads of six to eight inches diameter. It 

 is, probably, in a great measure owing to this 

 strong effect of phosphoric acid that poultry and 

 pigeon dung, which contain considerable quan- 

 tities of this element, are so very beneficial for the 

 development of the cauliflower. 



Cauliflowers may be had until New Year's by 

 sowing seed of the dwarf Erfurt variety in the 

 latter part of July or early in August. The plants 

 will then begin to form heads in October, and 

 when transplanted, with a lump of soil adhering, 

 into a light place in a vegetable cellar, the heads 

 will develop in the course of a month or two. The 

 heads will not be large, but solid and of good 

 quality. 



A new variety of large, late cauliflower, originated 

 in these northern regions, and which I propose 

 to name Baltic Giant, is very hardy, of robust 

 growth, and produces very large and solid, 

 dazzling white flower heads. A friend of mine 

 writes from the Baltic island of Bornholm that 

 in mild seasons he has left this splendid late 

 variety in the open ground as late as Christmas, 

 only protected by a leaf or two bent over the 

 heads to keep them from exposure to the light, in 



