276 
THE FLORIST. 
with blanching pots, and both the health and beauty of the crop depend 
upon their standing at equal distances. In the months of May and 
June, if the seeds are sound, the young plants will appear. When 
they have made three or four leaves, take away all but three of the 
best plants from each circle, planting out those you pull up (which by 
a careful hand may be drawn with all their tap root), in a spare bed 
for extra forcing, or to repair accidents. The Turnip-fly and wireworm 
are great enemies. I know no remedy for the latter but picking them 
out of the ground by hand ; the former may be prevented from doing 
much damage, by a circle of quick-lime strewed round the young 
plants. If the months of June and July prove dry, water the whole 
of the beds plentifully. In the following November, as soon as the 
leaves are decayed, clear them away, and cover the beds an inch thick 
with fresh light earth and sand, that have laid in a heap and been turned 
over at least three times the preceding summer ; this, and indeed all 
composts, should be kept scrupulously free from weeds, many of which 
nourish insects, and the compost is too often filled with their eggs and 
grubs. Upon this dressing of sandy loam, throw about six inches in 
depth of light stable litter, which finishes everything to be done the 
first year. 
In the spring of the second year, when the plants are beginning to 
push, rake off the stable litter, digging a little of the most rotten into 
the alleys, and add another inch in depth of fresh loam and sand. 
Abstain from cutting this year, though some of the plants will probably 
rise very strong, treating the beds the succeeding winter exactly as 
before. 
The third season, a little before the plants begin to stir, rake off the 
winter covering, laying on an inch in depth of pure dry sand or fine 
mould. Then cover each stool with one of the blanching pots, 
pressing it very firmly into the ground, so as to exclude all light and 
air; for the colour and flavour of the Kale are greatly injured by 
being exposed to either. If the beds are twenty-six feet long, and four 
wide, they will hold twenty-four blanching pots, with three plants 
under each, making seventy-two plants in a bed. Examine them 
from time to time, cutting the young stems when about three inches 
above ground, carefully, so as not to injure any of the remaining buds 
below, some of which will immediately begin to swell; in this method, 
a succession of gatherings may be continued for the space of six weeks, 
after which period the plants should be uncovered, and their leave's 
suffered to grow, that they may acquire and return nutriment to the 
root for the next year’s buds. The flowers, when seeds are not 
wanted, ought to be nipped off with the finger and thumb, when they 
appear. If the cultivator does not choose to be at the expense 
of blanching pots, the beds must be covered with a larger portion of 
the blanching material; but the time and trouble of taking away this 
from about the plants, to cut the crop, and replacing it, are so great, 
that there is no real economy in it. In this way Seakale has been cut 
which measured ten, eleven, and even twelve inches in circumference, 
and upon an average each blanching pot affords a dish twice in a season. 
No vegetable can be so easily forced as this, or with so little expense 
