WINTER VEGETABLES. 



It is scarcely desirable to attempt protecting Brussels Sprouts 

 as it is not often this serviceable variety fails. By all means 

 grow a comparatively large breadth of them, selecting those 

 lands which form small close " buttons," rather than any of the 

 Aigburth type, raising the plants under glass early in the spring 

 and planting them out among dwarf-topped Potatos in rows three 

 feet apart, soon after the latter are moulded up. Thus treated 

 Brussels Sprouts usually prove exceptionally productive, and are 

 quite indispensable. 



Borecoles, again, are of great value, and with but few excep- 

 tions are very hardy. The Scotch or green curled forms are 

 among the best that can be grown, Eead's Improved Hearting 

 being my favourite, forming a good-sized blanched heart, which, 

 when cooked, is very mild in flavour and most tender. This 

 variety suffered badly last winter, and it would have paid w r ell to 

 have bedded a portion of the crop, either in frames or together 

 in the open where they could have been protected with mats, 

 litter, or bracken. The Buda (or Asparagus) and Cottager's Kales 

 are among the hardiest that can be grown, but must be classed 

 as spring rather than as winter vegetables. 



Broccoli are usually very scarce during the winter months, 

 though they need not be so if there are any conveniences for 

 protecting the varieties that "heart " early. As it happens, the 

 best of these — viz. Veitch's Self -protecting Autumn— is also one 

 of the most tender varieties in cultivation, but all the same it 

 has rightly supplanted the old Walcheren, White and Purple 

 Cape, and Backhouse's Winter— the three former of which are 

 also anything but hardy. Plants of Veitch's Autumn Protecting, 

 raised under glass in the spring and got out early on good ground, 

 grow to a great size and form hearts during the autumn ; but in 

 order to have a good supply more seed should be sown in April, 

 or not later than the first week in May, in the open, the plants 

 being put out on good ground, not less than tw T o feet apart each 

 way, before they become leggy. This should result in the growth 

 of a large batch (two or three hundred plants are none too many 

 for large establishments), and if the bulk of these are lifted with a 

 moderately good ball of soil, and, after being cleared of the very 

 oldest leaves, replanted somewhat thickly in deep frames, pits, 

 or cool vineries, the roots being firmly surrounded by rich soil 

 and kept moist, protection from frosts being afforded, a long 



