July 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
299 
extremely eligible; of course, if such are selected no 
manuring will be requisite,—a good salting, the salt 
well-incorporated some weeks before planting-time, will 
alone be necessary. In ordinary cases, the manure is 
chopped to pieces out of the old beds with a sharp 
spade: this plan I practice with all such manure before 
it is filled in the barrows, as it is double labour on the 
ground, and is not half so well performed. Before 
chopping for the Sea-kale, however, a thick coating of 
salt is spread over the manure to be chopped, and this 
in order that it may blend thoroughly with the mauure, 
affording a ready means of dividing the particles of salt, 
over which much care should be taken, as it is by far 
too powerful unless thus separated. The mauure is 
spread on the ground about three inches in thickness; 
and before trenching another thin sprinkling of salt is 
given. Our readers, even those who are not old gardeners, 
must know that the Sea-kale is a marine plant, thriving 
in the saline sands and alluvium of the ocean; this will 
readily account, in their minds, for such a liberal appli¬ 
cation of salt. 
As to the trenching, I must here protest, on general 
grounds, against the too common practice of spreading 
the manure, and then paring, as it is called, the manure 
iu a thick coating into the bottom of the trench. Here 
we have a stratum of manorial matters buried, and it is, 
of course, mouths before three-fourths of the roots of 
almost any crop can reach the nourishing mass. My 
general practice in trenching—the surface-soil being a 
little over two feet in depth—is to trench three spits, 
which may be said to average eight inches each. The 
operator chops out his parallel lines for the trenches, at 
oue yard apart, after the manure is spread. The first 
yard, or commencement of the trenching, is then, of 
course, wheeled out to the other end, and he commences 
by digging one spit (no paring) into the bottom of the 
trench ; a little manure is then spread over the surface 
before the second spit is taken, when it, iu turn with 
its manure, is dug down. The last is generally dug up 
without manure, but it is dug a little shallower—say 
six inches—and this is in part subsoil, which, with us, 
is about intermediate between red sand and clay, rather 
adhesive, whilst the surface-soil can scarcely cohere. 
The bringing-up this subsoil about every three or four 
years we find of the utmost benefit to the crops, doubt¬ 
less from placing fresh inorganic materials within reach 
of the roots. 
Thus, then, is the Sea-kale grouud prepared : and now 
I must stay a moment to show the position of the young 
roots about to be planted. These aro sown in drills 
every spring, about the end of March, and thinned-out 
to about three inches apart; the drills, if parallel, being 
about fifteen inches asunder. Good soil and clean cul¬ 
ture are all that is requisite the first season; and by the 
approach of winter they are nice little crowns, with 
roots a foot or more in length. Now, it is a well-known 
fact, that you may propagate Kale abundantly with less 
trouble than this ; but 1 have so frequently found it to 
canker when propagated from sections of the old roots, 
that I found it expedient, years since, to adopt the seed¬ 
ling plan. It is also well-known, that if a lot of old 
Sea-kale roots are chopped to pieces, and the pieces 
inserted in soil, almost every section will grow. Seed¬ 
lings, then, as above, I find make a much safer stock ; 
and these trenched out in the end of February, which 
is my planting period, are used. 
The ground is marked out in lines, or drills are 
drawn, at three feet apart, and the crowns are planted 
in pairs instead of singly, the centre of each pair being 
about thirty inches distant, and the pair within four 
inches of each other on either side such centres. Now, 
this may seem a good deal of room to those unaccus¬ 
tomed to the production of fine crowns, but it is certain 
that inferior crowns, which must be the result from a 
crowding system, can never pay so well.nor give such a 
degree of satisfaction. 
Having alluded, in my former paper, to the pinching 
away the blossoms, and the thinning-out of the shoots 
on the crowns, I may pass on, merely observing, that 
it is seldom they produce too many shoots the year of 
planting. We generally have a surplus of roots, how¬ 
ever, and, consequently, have a row or two of roots in 
hand which have stood a second year. The gist of the 
plan, nevertheless, is to produce first-rate crowns at two 
years of age; that is to say, Kale saved last March, and 
transplanted next March, will be in first-rate order for 
forcing in November twelvemonth. As a market specu¬ 
lation, indeed, it would not prove sufficiently remunera¬ 
tive if it stood longer. 
With regard to the latter view of the question, it is 
quite obvious that our market gardeners are not so 
famous in the production of this delicious esculent as 
in most of their other productions, or forced Sea-Kale 
would be within reach of the middle classes of society, 
which it cannot be said to be in January or February 
at present. Not every tradesman, for instance, will 
choose to give half-a-crown for a dish of Kale, and there 
is really no reason why good Kale should not be obtain¬ 
able at one shilling the dish at such periods. I will 
endeavour some day to show how this could be effected 
as a mercantile affair; for to accomplish this would 
require a mode of procedure somewhat different from 
the ordinary gardener: not, however, in principle, but 
in the relation which the mode of forcing should bear to 
the rest of the system. 
And now I may just advert to the best mode of 
producing good Kale from those crowns which remain a 
surplus after the forcing stock has been amply supplied. 
When we reach the end of March, it is time to think of 
bringing the forcing of Kale to a close; and between 
that period and the advent of Asparagus, good Kale is 
still wanted, and this must mainly be supplied from the 
open ground. As I before observed, I always take care 
to have a surplus of roots, and having, by a calculation 
based on experience, secured an ample stock of roots 
“heeled” in November, I am in a position to know 
what to do with the remainder. 
Old tan is a material of which we have always had a 
heap to spare, and this I have ever found a capital 
blanching material for the open ground Sea-kale. There 
is little doubt, however, that fine cinder ashes, after 
they have been weathered, and their caustic powers 
reduced, would be as good a material, and, indeed, any 
ordinary light soil; the chief conditions requisite being 
that the material should bo in a reduced state—no 
cohesion between the particles of it. 
I cover all my surplus crowns in November, or as 
soon as the foliage after natural decay has been cleared 
away. And why so soon, it may be asked? Why, in 
order to prevent any severe depression in the ground- 
heat, which the departed summer has left behind. If 
any one doubt the importance of this little point, let 
him try, in the ensuing winter, two portions on exactly 
opposite principles ; the one portion of Kale roots 
covered the moment the foliage can be honestly dis¬ 
pensed with; the other left alone until the ground is 
hard frozen; then let him note which will sprout first 
in the ensuing spring. 
However, the thing is so obvious, that it need scarcely 
raise a doubt; and 1 name it here in order to show that 
even our commercial gardeners, with whom early pro¬ 
duce at a minimum amount of labour is of much im¬ 
port, may possibly have something yet to learn, or at 
least to consider carefully. 'The old tan then is wheeled 
to the crowns, and heaped over them in a conical form ; 
and as each of my kale patches—originally two crowns, 
but now become some six or eight—are well worth cover¬ 
ing, we appiy at least half a barrowful to each patch, 
