524 



FORCING THE CAULIFLOWER. 



twine. The engra^dng will show this simple contrivance 

 and the mode of using it at a glance. The workman 

 standing at a safe distance pushes the two handles under 

 the plants and then going to the other side and seizing them^ 

 soon gathers up the fiercely armed leaves. Another work- 

 man then ties it up in three places^ and then the straw is 

 placed around so as to quite exclude the lights and also tied 

 up like the Cardoon itself. In three weeks the vegetable is as 

 well blanched and as tender as could be desired. To blanch 

 the Cardoon properly and render the leaves perfectly tender, 

 it should be deprived of light and air for at least three 

 weeks. It is then cut just below the surface of the earth, 

 and divested of its straw covering ; the withered leaves are 

 sliced off and the root trimmed up neatly. If it is desirable 

 to preserve the Cardoon for winter use it should be simply 

 tied up, as before directed, in the month of November, and 

 uprooted carefully with a ball of earth attached to it, and 

 plunged in fine rotten manure or leaf-mould in a dark 

 cellar. The decayed leaves should be removed every week 

 or so. Under this treatment they become sufficiently 

 blanched in a fortnight, and may be preserved in a good 

 condition for at least two months. 



Forcing the Cauliflower. — The best Cauliflower forced 

 around Paris is the Petit Salomon. It is sown in the 

 open air during the first ten days of September on very rich, 

 light, and fine earth. When the young plants are well up 

 — that is to say, commence to show the first two leaves — 

 they are pricked out into shallow frames, surfaced with a 

 couple of inches of thoroughly rotten manure. They are 

 very particular about transplanting them when very young, 

 and before they are drawn, watering before moving the 

 young plants, so that they may be removed with the least 

 possible mutilation of the roots, and they are pricked in 

 with the finger at about three inches one from the other. 

 At the end of November the plants are strong and hardy, 

 but they must not be allowed to grow too quick, and 

 therefore they are again transplanted, leaving a little more 

 space between them. This second transplanting is to pre- 

 vent the too rapid growth of the plant, and to enable it 



