156 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[May. 



be effected, the evil may be partly cured by bringing in a 

 quantity of fresh loam from a common or field, and digging it 

 in; this will greatly benefit the broccoli, and be of much ser- 

 vice to succeeding crops. A proper attention to a rotation of 

 crop will also go far to eradicate this evil. 



In planting broccoli, as well as all the other plants of the 

 brassica tribe, avoid, if possible, planting upon ground which 

 has been under the same crop the preceding season. 



In a communication in the Horticultural Society's Trans- 

 actions, by Mr. M*Leod, Cape broccoli is recommended to be 

 grown without transplanting, and the success of this plan has 

 been proved to be most complete. In the end of May, the 

 ground is prepared and firmly trodden, the seeds are then 

 dropped in, in rows two feet apart, and three or four seeds 

 are put into each hole. When the seeds vegetate, they are all 

 destroyed, excepting the strongest, which are protected from 

 the fly by sprinkling a little soot on the ground. During the 

 time the plants are advancing, the ground is frequently stirred 

 with the hoe, and the plants are only once earthed up during 

 their growth. Broccoli of a great size, cultivated in this way, has 

 been exhibited before the society, and the same mode of culture 

 is recommended by Mr. M'Leod as applicable to spring-sown 

 cauliflower, lettuces, and many other vegetables, avoiding 

 transplanting as much as possible. In this we perfectly concur 

 with him, having experienced the advantage of obtaining better 

 and more certain crops of lettuces, and many other summer 

 crops of vegetables, when matured upon the spot where they 

 were sown. Transplanting during the summer months, when 

 plants are in an active state of growth, obviously gives a check 

 to vegetation ; and it is an established doctrine amongst gar- 

 deners, that such checks tend to produce a disposition, not 

 only in annual vegetables but in fruit-trees also, to attain a 

 state of maturity much sooner than those which have expe- 

 rienced no such check. The longer, therefore, that such crops 

 as broccoli can be kept growing freely, the finer will their pro- 

 durp hp. 



