CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 29 



Toward spring, the soil must be kept moist. In- 

 stead of hoeing the plants, it is advisable to add 

 earth in the box until it reaches the lowest 

 leaf stalk. In order to give more room to the 

 plants, another frame, twelve to fourteen inches 

 wider and two feet ten inches high, is put on the 

 bed instead of the original one, in the beginning 

 of March. The nearer spring advances the more 

 the plants must be exposed to the open air as 

 much as possible, while care must be exercised to 

 protect with shutters and straw mats, nights, and 

 in severe weather in the daytime. A secondary 

 use may be made of the spaces between the cauli- 

 flower plants by sowing lettuce, radishes, cress, or 

 any other desirable and suitable vegetable. While 

 a limited quantity of cauliflowers may be grown 

 in this way with satisfaction, and probably good 

 profit, as extraordinarily early and fine heads will 

 command fancy prices in almost any market, the 

 bulk of plants for a very early forced crop are most 

 conveniently kept in the cold frames until early in 

 February, when they are transplanted to a hotbed 

 made of fresh horse dung mixed with leaves, to 

 insure a steady, enduring heat. The covering of 

 earth on the manure must be at least ten inches 

 deep. Two parts of ordinary good field soil, one 

 part of leaf mould, one part of sand and one part 

 of rich, old manure, will be a good mixture for 

 this purpose. The plants are set deeply, a depres- 

 sion in the soil being left round each plant, which 

 hollow is later on filled up by adding earth to 



