March.] THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 201 
In November cover your beds with a thick coat of rotten dung 
or leaves; this, at the same time that it protects your plants from 
frost, will bring them more forward, and add to their luxuriance; 
about the middle of March, in the middle states, it will be necessary 
to cover your plants for blanching; the most ready mode of doing 
which, is to draw the earth up with a hoe over the crown of the 
root, so that each plant shall be covered to the depth of ten or 
twelve inches; some blanch it by heaping on it sea sand, some 
common sand and pebbles, and others with large garden pots in- 
verted, and placed immediately over the plants, stopping up the 
holes at the bottoms; this last is the neatest and cleanest mode. 
The finest or at least the largest Sea Kale, is that which is pro- 
duced from seedling plants the first year of their flowering, as the 
great produce of the plant then centres in one flowering stem; after- 
wards the crown of the root ramifying into many heads, a greater 
number of stalks are produced, which are more slender but not less 
delicate. 
When your plants have been covered in either method, three, 
four, or five weeks, according to the early or late period of cover- 
ing, examine them, and if you find that the stalks have shot up 
three or four inches, you may begin cutting; should you wait till 
all the shoots are of a considerable length, your crop will come in 
too much at once, for in this plant there is not that succession of 
growth which there is in asparagus; you may continue cutting till 
you see the head of flowers begin to form, and if at this time you 
uncover it entirely, and let it proceed to that state in which Brocoli 
is usually cut, and use it as such, you will find it an excellent sub- 
stitute; and this greatly enhances the value of the plant, as Brocoli 
does not stand our winter frost, and can only be had when care- 
fully protected as directed in November, but this plant is sufficient- 
ly hardy to bear our severest frost without much injury. You are 
not to weaken the roots too much by over cutting, for in that case 
you would injure their next year's bearing; they are to be indulged 
as you do asparagus with several uncut shoots to grow up during 
summer, to carry on a proper vegetation, to strengthen and enlarge 
the roots. 
Such as are partial to this plant may force it in any of the winter 
or early spring months, nothing more being necessary than to place 
over each plant a large garden pot, as in one of the modes of blanch- 
ing already recommended, and cover the pots with a sufficient quan- 
tity of hot horse-dung; the heat of the dung brings forward the 
plant, while the pot keeps it from coming in contact therewith; 
and as the growth of the plant is by this means greatly accelerated, 
it is of course rendered more tender as well as sweeter. 
These plants may also be forced in frames as directed in January 
and February for asparagus, observing to take up such plants for 
this purpose as are sure to flower; trimming their side roots and 
shortening their long tap-roots to the length of nine or ten inches, 
or twelve in very large plants, and placing them in a frame on a 
hot-bed, and in a suitable depth of earth, at the distance of four to 
six inches asunder; as the plants used thus, will be rendered of 
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