244 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Oct. 



STORING CAULIFLOWERS. 



Cauliflowers may be preserved for a considerable time by 

 various methods. About the end of the month, pick out all 

 those which are close, and well shaped; lift them carefully 

 with a spade ; dress off most of the leaves above the flower ; 

 remove them to an open shed, and lay them in by the heels, 

 as it is called, among rotten tan, or dry mould, place them 

 closely together, but not so as to touch one another. In this 

 state, if kept free of damp, they will continue good for some 

 time after those in the open air are exhausted. They may 

 also be carefully taken up, and stored in the same way in the 

 borders of any peach-house, or vinery, observing to shut up 

 the lights during rain, and also on frosty nights. They may 

 be also protected in deep garden-frames, or they may be taken 

 up in a dry day, and carried to an airy shed, and tied in pairs, 

 and hung up on poles or strong nails, with their heads down- 

 ward ; or they may be cut over about six inches below the 

 flower, and a few of their leaves lefl to be wTapped round 

 them, and buried about eighteen inches below the surface in 

 a dry bank, or among sand in a cellar, or other house. 



The most successful method we have practised for preserving 

 cauliflower in perfection through the winter months, is to 

 cut them in dry weather ; dress off all their leaves, place them 

 in an airy place to dry for a day or two, then bury them in 

 casks, or boxes, amongst bog-mould. The best sort of bog- 

 mould for this purpose is that, which is composed of vegetable 

 matter, principally such as is generally dug for fuel. This 

 sort is antiseptic, and capable of resisting putrefication, par- 

 ticularly when excluded from atmospheric air. A stronger 

 proof cannot be adduced, than the many vegetable bodies 

 which we see constantly dug out of this matter in a state very 

 little changed from their original; although, in many cases, 

 they may have been deposited there some hundred years ago. 

 The mould which is used for cultivating heaths, and other 

 tender-rooted plants, and which is generally called bog-mould, 

 is not so fit for this purpose as the former, probably this sort 

 should be denominated heath-mould, being always found on 

 the surface of uncultivated heaths, &c. The heads or flowers 



