CAULIFLOWER. 



625 



cellar. Of these three crops the heads produced by the first, if properly 

 managed, will be by far the largest, on account of the great quantity of pre- 

 pared sap that will be accumulated in the plants, from the prolonged period 

 of their growth. 



The first crop. — When the plants have leaves one and a half inches 

 broad, prick them out at three inches or four inches apart, either in the 

 open garden, for transplanting in October, or under a wall, or in some other 

 warm, sheltered situation, to remain through the winter, and be transplanted 

 in spring. In most parts of Britain, cauliflower requires the protection of 

 glass through the winter, and hence the first crop is almost always planted 

 in patches of four or five plants, placed so as to be covered by a hand-glass 

 or bell-glass (434, 435, 462). The glass remains over the plants through- 

 out the winter, air being admitted every fine day, either by tilting up the 

 glass with a brick or other prop ; by taking it off altogether ; or, if the cover 

 of the glass forms a separate piece from the sides, taking it off, raising it, or 

 changing its position (fig. 77, in p. 152), according to circumstances. The 

 patches for being covered by hand-glasses are put out in rows, about three 

 and a half feet or four feet apart, and about three feet patch from patch in 

 the row ; each patch being of the size of the bottom of the hand-glass, or 

 about eighteen inches square. Put three or four plants under each glass, 

 to allow for deaths during the winter, and for transplanting all, except two 

 or three, into the open ground in the following April. In the last week of 

 April or the first of May, the glasses may be removed, and put over the 

 transplanted plants till they have taken root, and afterwards used for 

 cucumbers, gourds, or other purposes. The soil all round the patches 

 should now be stirred, and, if not already very rich, manure may be added, 

 or the plants may be frequently watered with liquid manure. By keeping 

 on some of the glasses as long as the plants can be contained under them, 

 a part of the crop will come in earlier ; and by frequently stirring the soil 

 and supplying liquid manure, so as to retard the appearance of the flower 

 and keep the plants long m a growing state, a portion of the crop will be 

 later and larger. If some of the patches have been planted in sandy soil, 

 not very rich, the plants will be smaller and forwarder than the others, and 

 will admit of being covered by the glasses till the crop is fit to cut, which 

 will give a very early supply. The same objects will be eff^ected to a certain 

 extent by giving a similar treatment to plants which have stood out through 

 the winter at the base of a wall, or to plants which have been sown in spring. 

 Thus Mr. Falla, in Northumberland, sows in January under a hand-glass, 

 pricks out into a bed of soil mixed with sand ; afterwards removes the 

 plants, with balls, to soils similarly mixed, where they are finally to remain ; 

 and thus he attains as early a crop as if he had sown in August, and trans- 

 planted in October under hand-glasses in the usual way : with this diff*er- 

 ence, however, that the heads are much smaller, the plants by the sandy 

 soil being brought prematurely into flower {Gard. Chron. 1842, p. 54, and 

 G. M. 1842, p. 327). 



The second crop. — Prick out the plants as soon as they admit of it into 

 beds, six inches apart every way, so as to admit of their being taken up 

 with balls, and planted in rows, four feet by three feet, in rich soil, in the 

 end of April or the beginning of May. 



j, The third crop. — Proceed in the same manner, and transplant into rows, 



( three feet by two feet, about the middle of July. 



