March.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 201 
The most usual mode of raising the Sea Kale, is from seed; it 
may also be raised from cuttings of the root, and that with the 
greatest certainty, but seedlings make the finest plants. Some find 
a difficulty in making the seeds vegetate; this may be attributed to 
their being old, buried too deep in the earth, or sown too late in the 
spring: the most proper time for sowing the seed is in October, or 
as early in the spring as the ground can be got in a fit condition to 
receive them, and an inch is the proper depth to cover them; they 
rarely vegetate in less than six weeks, after being sown, even in the 
most favourable season, and some will remain in the ground for 
twelve months before they vegetate: should the season prove dry, 
it will be necessary to water the ground where the seeds are sown, 
and the plants after they appear, frequently. 
It is the best practise to raise young plants immediately from 
seed, on the bed where they are intended to remain; by this means 
the plants receive no check in their growth. When you have 
formed your bed, which should be raised somewhat above the level 
of the ground, being previously trenched very deep and enriched 
with the best rotten manure; make each bed wide enough to hold 
two rows of plants, the space between each plant in the row, four- 
teen inches, and between each row, a foot and a half; sow about six 
or eight seeds, as before directed, on each spot where your plant is 
intended to remain; this number is directed, in order to guard 
against accidents, as every seed may not vegetate, or at least not the 
first season, which would be a losing year, besides some of those 
that do, may be destroyed by worms or insects; should all of them 
succeed they are easily reduced to a single plant; this reduction 
however need not be made too hastily: during summer your bed 
of course must be kept perfectly clean from weeds. If for the sake 
of a more certain crop, you are disposed to make your plantation 
of the cuttings of the roots, you may take such as are about half an 
inch or a little more in diameter, and cut them into pieces of about 
two inches in length, burying each in an upright position about 
three inches under ground, in the same kind of bed and at the same 
distances, as you would have sown the seeds; the middle or latter 
end of this month will be a proper season in the middle slates for 
doing this, earlier in the southern states, and somewhat later in the 
eastern. 
Or if, for the sake of forwarding your plantation and gaining time, 
you make use of plants instead of seeds, or cuttings, presuming 
that it is possible for you to procure them, they should be those of 
a year old, and taken up with due care out of the seed bed; trim 
off the extreme part of the root, and let each plant be planted in a 
perpendicular manner so deep, as that its crown will be one inch 
under the surface; the period before mentioned for planting cut- 
lings will be the proper lime for transplanting these; if their flow- 
ering stalks be cut for food the same season, it will weaken the 
plants considerably, and hence even in point of time there is little 
gained by using such, for most of the seedling plants in your bed, 
if they have been properly managed, as well as your plants from 
cuttings, will flower, and of course, be fit to cut the second year, 
2 C 
