226 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 9, 1893 
FORCING CAULIFLOWERS. 
There is probably no vegetable which is capable of 
profitable forcing in America, concerning which so 
little has been written in reference to its treatment 
under glass, as Cauliflowers. It is true that the 
literature of vegetable forcing is very meagre in this 
country, and it is therefore little wonder that the 
Cauliflower, which is scarcely known as a winter 
crop outside the establishments of wealthy persons 
who employ gardeners, should have received so 
little attention from writers. Our own experience 
in the forcing of Cauliflowers for winter use extends 
over only three winters with four crops ; but inas¬ 
much as the first crop was a failure and the last 
were very successful, the narrative may possess some 
value. 
It should be said here that in speaking of the 
forcing of Cauliflowers I refer to the practice of 
growing them under glass to maturity in the cold 
months, and not to the much commoner practice of 
growing them to a large size under frames or sash- 
covered houses and stripping the sash off upon the 
approach of warm w'eather and allowing them to 
mature without cover. Our first crop was attempted 
in the winter ofi8go-gi. The seeds were sown in 
“ flats " or shallow boxes, and the young plants were 
transplanted into pots. ^Yhen the plants were 8 in. 
or 10 in. high they had been shifted to 8-in. pots, 
and knowing that the Cauliflower delights in a low 
temperature, the pots were set upon the ground in a 
cool lean-to house, where the temperature often went 
below 40'’. The floor of this house was cold and 
wet, and it was soon evident that the plants were 
suffering. They were removed, therefore, into an 
intermediate temperature. Growth soon began 
again and small heads began to form before the 
plants had reached the proper size. These heads, 
however, soon split or "buttoned,” and none of 
them were merchantable. The lesson was evident. 
The plants had been checked, and under the sudden 
stimulus of a new growth the premature heads were 
ruptured. 
The experiment was repeated the following 
winter in a small way, the attempt being made 
to keep the plants in a uniform condition of vigour 
and growth throughout their lifetime. This attempt 
was successful, and it lead to two larger experiments 
of the past wdnter. In this second trial, the plants 
were grown in 6-in. pots, but this was thereafter 
abandoned as too expensive. 
The house in which the two crops of last winter 
were grown in a low two-thirds span, facing the 
south, 60 ft. long by 20 ft. wide. It is built upon a 
side hill, and it has three benches, the two lower 
ones being used for the Cauliflowers. The lowest 
bench, against the south wall, has a board bottom 
underneath 7 in. or 8 in. of soil, and is supplied with 
mild bottom heat frcm two ij-in. steam pipes. The 
main or central bench, 7 ft. wide, is solid : that is, 
it is a ground bed and has no bottom heat. The 
soil in this bed is about 8 in. deep, and it rests upon 
a natural subsoil of very hard clay. The soil in 
both beds was placed upon them last fall, and it was 
made of good garden loam, with which a very liberal 
supply of old manure was mixed. One load of 
manure mixed with three or four of the earth makes 
a good soil, and if it is somewhat heavy or pasty, 
sand must be supplied to it to afford perfect drainage 
and prevent it from getting " sour ” or hard. We 
prepare soil for all winter vegetables in essentially 
this manner. The lower bed, which had bottom 
heat, did so poorly under both crops that I shall 
dismiss it at once from this account. The plants 
were later than those in the solid bed and never 
equalled them in size and percentage of good heads, 
and they were conspicuously lacking in uniformity. 
So few good heads formed that the bed did not 
return the labour expended upon it. 
Seeds for the first crop were sown in boxes on 
August 24th. The plants, having been once trans¬ 
planted, were set in the beds October 4th and 5th, 
about 16 in. apart each way. Three varieties were 
used—Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt, Gilt Ed ;e Snow¬ 
ball, and Early Snowball, all supplied by J. M. 
Thorburn & Co. 
The plants were watered two or three times a week, 
as occasion demanded, and the ground was fre¬ 
quently stirred with a hand weeder. An abundance 
of air was given during the day, a row of small ven¬ 
tilators along the peak of the house being thrown 
open even in sharp -sveather if the sun was bright. 
From 60° to 70^ during the day and about 50° at 
night were considered to be the ideal temperatures, 
although in very bright days the mercury might regis¬ 
ter 80® for a time and the night temperature several 
times sank below 40®. There was a tendency for the 
plants to damp off soon after they were set, but care 
in not watering too much and in giving an abundance 
of fresh air seemed to keep the trouble in check ; and 
new plants were set into the vacancies, 
The first week in December heads were beginning 
to form. The first heads were sold January 13th, 
four and a-half months from the sowing of the seed. 
The Erfurt gave the earliest and evidently the best 
results. The plants had been checked somewhat 
late in their history by very dark weather and 
possibly by some inattention in management, and 
many of the heads began to " button ” or to break 
into irregular portions with a tendency to go to seed. 
The house was needed for other experiments, and on 
January 20th the plants were all removed. At this 
time nearly three-fourths bf the crop had matured 
sufficiently to give marketable heads, although many 
of the heads were small. Winter cauliflowers, in 
common with all forced crops, should be harvested 
when small, for products of medium or even small 
size sell for nearly or quite as much as large ones in 
vdnter, and the cost of raising them is much-less. A 
head four inches across is large enough for January 
sales, and many of the heads which we sold were 
considerably smaller than this. These heads sold 
readily at our door for twenty cents apiece. 
January 25th, i8g3, a second crop of cauliflov/ers 
was set in the beds, comprising Early Snowball and 
Dwarf Erfurt. Seeds for this crop were sown in flats 
October 21st. On November5th the plants were trans¬ 
planted to other flatc, and on December i6th shifted 
to 3 in. pots, where ihey remained until set in the bed. 
About the 20th of 11 irch heads were found to be 
forming in the E_.ly Snowball. In the former 
experiment Erfurt gave the first heads. A week 
later than this Snowball had heads 3 to 4 in. in 
diameter while Erfurt showed none. The first 
heads were sold on the 29th of March, about five and 
a-third months from the time of sowing. It will be 
observed that the time between sowing and harvest 
is greater in the second crop than in the first. This 
is because the plants were wholly grown in the dark 
and short days of mid-winter. It should be added, 
also, that the climate of Ithaca is excessively cloudy 
and that the forcing of plants presents special 
difficulties here. An attempt was now made to keep 
the plants in a uniform but not exuberant state of 
vigour to prevent the heads from buttoning. The 
crop held up well and on the ist of May, when the 
experiment closed, there were many merchantable 
heads unsold. 
Ninety per cent, of the plants made good 
heads, which is a very large proportion even for the 
best field culture. In this' crop the heads were 
allowed to attain a larger size than in the mid-winter 
crop, the average diameter being about 6 in. It is 
rarely necessary to bleach the heads, as is done in 
field culture. Late in the season, in April, it may be 
necessary to break a leaf down over a head now and 
then to protect it from too hot sun, but ordinarily 
the heads will be perfectly white under glass when 
full grown. The house in which these plants were 
grown is glazed with single-thick, third quality glass. 
The heads are as sweet and tender as the best field 
product, and we have never grow” a crop under 
glass, either of vegetables or fiov\I r;^, which was so 
satisfactory and which attracted so much attention 
as these crops of cauliflowers. As to varieties, there 
is evidently little choice between the Erfurt and 
Snowball strains. In the last and most successful 
crop, the Early Snowball was the earlier, but other¬ 
wise it had little if any superiority over the other. 
Summary.— Cauliflowers are easily grown as a 
winter crop if they are kept in vigorous and 
uniform growth. They need a rich soil, careful 
attention to watering, cultivation and ventilation, 
and a cool temperature like that employed for 
Lettuce. They appear to thrive better without 
bottom heat than with it. The Early Snowball and 
Erfurt strains force well. Plants should be set in 
the beds when from six weeks to three months old, 
according to the season of the year, and from four 
to five months elapse before the first heads are fit 
for market. The heads ordinarily require no bleach¬ 
ing, and they are ready for sale when from four 
to six inches in diameter.—L. H. Bailey, in Bulletin 
55 0/ the Cornell University Experiment Station. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 
At Forest Hill. 
It is now getting late in the year for Chrysanthe. 
mums, nevertheless the season generally has been a 
good one for them, and many of the varieties, even 
when the blooms are grown to large size, are holding 
out bravely. We noted some of the best varieties 
still flowering in the nursery of Messrs. J. Laing & 
Sons, Forest Hill, and which are not only in fine 
form, but in good condition. The stems of Robert 
Owen stand about 5 ft. high, and bear large, golden- 
yellow flowers. As an incurved Japanese variety it 
is one of the neatest of its class we know. Golden 
Wedding is evidently going to prove of great utility 
for various purposes, and will be in much request 
next year. The golden, incur\'ed and interlacing 
florets are more or less cut at the apex. The broad 
petalled and incurved Japanese Ada Praas is very 
handsome in its way, and will be certain to make its 
appearance on the show boards in future years. The 
hard centre, so frequent in Mrs. E. D. Adams, has 
disappeared, leaving the flower pure white. The 
slender florets of Lilian S. Bird give it a slender and 
fantastical appearance ; with exception of their pink 
colour, they otherwise resemble those of Shasta, 
which are white. 
When the blooms of Archimede first expand, the 
variety is seen to belong to the refiexed Japanese 
type, but the blooms in their ultimate stage form a 
globular, golden mass. On the other hand. Coronet 
is an incurved Japanese variety with primrose- 
yellow flowers. W. W. Coles also proves useful for 
late work, and is still in good condition. The new 
Duke of York is a crimson-purple incurved 
Japanese sort, with a silvery reverse, and when seen 
in its best form is a striking kind. W. H. Lincoln 
has hitherto been serviceable and much esteemed, 
but it pales before Golden Wedding, both in colour 
and attractiveness. The latter is considered an easy 
variety to grow. C. B. Whitnall is an incurved 
variety that came from America about three years 
ago, and seems deserving of more prominence than 
it has hitherto enjoyed. The florets are very broad, 
and of a uniform deep purple, while the heads are 
large. 
In the Open Air at Kew. 
Many of the early varieties, including the single, the 
pompons and pompon anemone Chrysanthemums, 
might be turned to better account than they are at 
present for the embellishment of public parks and 
gardens, as well as the grounds of private establish¬ 
ments. The ground surrounding a clump of trees 
in the Royal Gardens at Kew has been rendered 
very attractive for some months past by the use of 
varieties that flowered at different times and kept up 
a succession, practically from August till the recent 
severe frost greatly checked them. Precocite with 
yellow flowers is generally the first to expand. The 
white and pink Precocite Japonaise is also early and 
floriferous. The above are followed by Madame 
Desgrange with its white flowers. 
The others are later and have been very floriferous 
in most cases till quite recently. The only one we 
noted which is exceptional in flowering sparsely is 
Madame de Merlieux with pale yellow flowers. One 
of the most widely-cultivated pompons for outdoor 
work is President with rich crimson-purple flowers, 
always abundantly produced and very effective as a 
rule during the latter part of November. A golden 
yellow pompon named Golden St. Thair, when at 
its hest, appears like a mass of golden yellow. La 
Mount is a reddish-purple single variety with a 
large golden disc, but not being very refined it 
appears to best advantage at a distance. It is 
certainly very conspicuous and even effective, and 
attains a height of 3ft. in the open ground. On the 
contrary one of the most charming and refined of the 
single varieties is Miss Rose. Planted out, it grows 
2ft. high and hears a great profusion of rosy flowers 
with a small and scarcely noticeable disc. Grown 
in pots for the decoration of the greenhouse, it 
scarcely exceeds a foot in height and flowers most 
profusely, as might have been seen in No. 4 house 
recently. 
Unfortunately Gus Harris is too late in coming 
into flower to be relied upon for outdoor work in bad 
seasons, but the single blooms are much more 
highly coloured than when grown under glass. 
Scarlet Gem also blooms rather late, but its fiery red 
