THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Broccoli. 
T HE improved sorts of broccoli bear so close a resem¬ 
blance to the cauliflower in all respects that they 
can scarcely be distinguished from each other. Broccoli 
is not as delicate in flavor as the cauliflower but is more 
hardy, and can be cultivated with a greater certainty of 
its heading. It is also taller in growth and the heads are 
more divided. 
It is invariably grown for fall use, and requires for its 
perfect development a moist and cool atmosphere, such 
as we usually get during the months of October and No¬ 
vember, but it occasionally happens that owing to heat 
or dryness during August or September the crop be¬ 
comes an entire failure. 
In order to grow broccoli to perfection it should be 
given a deep, well-enriched soil. If the ground can be 
trenched to the depth of at least two feet and a liberal 
supply of manure thoroughly and deeply incorporated 
with the soil, it will do much to insure a satisfactory 
crop, although this is practicable only on a limited scale. 
The most practicable method is to mix thoroughly with 
the soil a liberal supply of well decayed stable manure, 
and after leveling it off as nicely as possible, mark off 
into rows two feet apart each way, and at each intersec¬ 
tion let a little concentrated cabbage fertilizer be scat¬ 
tered and thoroughly incorporated with the soil by means 
of the hoe, at the same time forming a slight hill in which, 
about the middle of July, the plants should be placed. 
The seed should be sown very thinly on a nicely pre¬ 
pared border in shallow drills about one foot apart, the 
first week in May, and the young plants should be well 
cared for and kept clean and free from weeds until they 
are wanted for transplanting, which should be done just 
previous to or after a rain; the plants should be carefully 
THE GRAYS’ 
4 ’ YT 17 ELL, Hester, I’m in for making some money 
VV this summer,” remarked George Gray, as he 
rose from the supper table and prepared to settle himself 
for the enjoyment of his pipe. 
“Something new? ” queried the busy wife, with kindly 
interest. 
“Yes; Mr. Lester has had more applications than 
usual from city people who wish to board in the country 
through the hot weather, and he cannot accommodate 
them all. I told him we’d take some of them, and he 
says Green and Sheldon are going to take some. We’ll 
fill up all the empty rooms, and this fall you may have 
the new washing-machine you have been wanting so 
long.” 
Mrs. Gray expressed her thankfulness very meekly, the 
thought never entering her mind that a long siege in the 
removed from the seed-bed and the ground well firmed 
around their roots, and it is also important that the plants 
be set down to their first or seed leaves. As soon as the 
new leaves appear they should be dusted with lime or 
tobacco-dust in order to protect them from the attacks of 
the cabbage-flea, and this dusting should be repeated two 
or three times a week until the plants become three or 
four inches in height. In the Southern States the sowing 
should be delayed until June or July, and the transplant¬ 
ing, accordingly, from August to October. 
After transplanting,- and growth commences, they 
should be well and thoroughly cultivated, and at each 
hoeing let a little fresh earth be drawn around the plants, 
and when the flower-heads commence to form break a 
few of the larger leaves over them in order to protect 
from sun and rain, and use them before they begin to 
run up to seed. 
In England, where the broccoli is much more generally 
grown, some forty or more varieties are enumerated in 
the seedsmen’s catalogues, but only a few succeed in this 
climate, and these are the most certain to head. 
White Cape .—This produces heads of medium size, 
but close and compact and of a creamy white color. 
Purple Cape .—Similar in all respects to the White 
Cape except in color, which is greenish purple. This is 
by some considered to be quite objectionable, but when 
properly prepared for the table there is but very little 
difference between the two varieties in appearance, and 
none whatever in flavor. 
In parts of the country where the thermometer does 
not fall below twenty or twenty-five degrees, broccoli 
may be had in perfection from November until March. 
Queens, N. Y. Chas. E. Parnell. 
FRONT-YARD. 
heat with the extra work which the addition of fastidious 
city boarders to her family would bring, would (or should) 
shift the obligation quite to the other side. Still she 
knew that it was not necessary that their income should 
be increased to allow her the washing-machine. 
“ We’ll have to get a few things,” she ventured, as cau¬ 
tiously as a mariner sounds his depths. 
“ A few things ; yes, I suppose we will,” assented the 
husband, dubiously, and when a carefully and economi¬ 
cally selected list of the “ few things ” needed for the ex¬ 
pected “ boarders ” was given him, she was surprised to 
find that it was not so much above his expectations, yet 
a few deductions must be made. 
Indeed, Mr. Gray’s state of unwonted good-nature 
seeming to increase, Mrs. Gray ventured to broach a 
subject the pros and cons of which had been running 
