54 



BROCCOLI. 



dens much exhausted by reiterated croppings, if this mode 

 cannot be adopted, a good quantity of fresh loam from a 

 common field, dug in, would materially improve the broc- 

 coli, and be of lasting use in future crops. Broccoli, in 

 general, succeeds best in a fresh, loamy soil, where it comes, 

 I think, more true in kind, and is hardier without dung ; 

 but if this situation cannot be had, deep digging, with plen- 

 ty of manure, is the only remaining alternative to produce 

 good crops. I believe soap ashes, dug into the ground in 

 considerable quantities, to be a good preservative from the 

 club ; and if the roots of the plants, just previously to 

 planting, are dipped and stirred well about in mud of soap 

 ashes with water, its adherence will, in a great measure, pre- 

 serve them from attack ; perhaps a mixture of stronger 

 ingredients, such as soot, sulphur, tobacco, &c. would be 

 still better." — Hort, Trans, vol. iii. — See Cabbage. 



Wood, a writer in the Caledonian Horticultural Memoirs^ 

 says, he has paid a considerable degree of attention to the 

 culture of broccoli, and has made considerable progress 

 therein. He found that manuring with a compound of 

 sea-weed and horse-dung produced the largest and finest 

 heads he had seen for many years. 



Culture without transplanting. — " M'Leod grows cape 

 broccoli, in a very superior manner, without transplanting. 

 In the end of May, after having prepared the ground, he 

 treads it firm, and, by the assistance of a line, sows his 

 seed in rows two feet apart, dropping three or four seeds 

 into holes two feet distant from each other in the row. 

 When the seeds vegetate, he destroys all except the strong- 

 est, which are protected from the fly by sprinkling a little 

 soot over the ground ; as the plants advance, they are fre- 

 quently flat hoed until they bear their flowers ; they are 

 once earthed up, during their growth. A specimen of 

 broccoli, thus grown, was exhibited to the Horticultural 

 Society ; the head was compact and handsome, measuring 

 two feet and nine inches in circumference, and weighing, 

 when divested of its leaves and stalks, three pounds ; the 

 largest of its leaves was upwards of two feet long. M'Le- 

 od adopts the same mode in the cultivation of spring-sown 

 cauliflowers, lettuces, and almost all other vegetables, avoid- 

 ing transplanting as much as possible." — Hort. Trans, vol 

 iv p. 559i 



