102 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Tres., 1899. 
When you make the hole, only make it deep enough for the plant, and 
put the roots to the bottom, pressing the soil firmly around it. Should dry 
weather continue, watering will be necessary several times a week until the 
young plants become firmly established ; and no matter what the weather may 
be, it will be found of very great benefit to mulch them. 
To plant on a large scale, mark out the rows with a corn-marker, and set 
four or five men to work planting as follows :— 
One goes along first and makes the holes with a light crowbar or pointed 
hardwood pole; the next follows with the plants, putting one down at each 
hole; a third firms the soil around the plants, and leaves them planted 
properly ; while the fourth man keeps up a supply of young plants from the 
seed bed. If you have one careful man to do the actual planting, the rest of 
the work can be done perfectly well by boys, and in this way a large area of 
ground can be got over in a day. 
Always plant in straight rows, and have the large growing kinds 3 feet 
apart each way, and the smaller ones about 2 feet. It is sometimes an advan- 
tage to open a shallow furrow with the plough in each row, and set the plants 
in the bottom of the furrow. They are protected thus in some measure from 
the sun, and will not require hilling up, as the gradual filling up of the furrow 
SNE subsequent cultivation will do all that hilling up performs, and do it 
etter. 
Now the great secret of success in cultivating plants of the cabbage family 
is to keep them constantly growing, and never allow them to be checked by any 
cause whatever. ' 
Push them along quickly by constant cultivation and plenty of water. A 
watering with liquid manure once or twice a week will help greatly to promote 
rapid growth. It is when plants are checked, or growing slowly from any 
‘cause, that they become most susceptible to the ravages of insect pests, plants 
which are growing rapidly and vigorously being seldom much injured by pests. 
Further, if plants of the kind we are now speaking of take too long to 
mature, the heads instead of being tender and succulent become tough and 
leathery. Cabbage ought to be ready for table in three or four months at 
most after planting. Keep the ground clean, and conserve the moisture by 
constant cultivation. Do not cultivate only when you see weeds, but after 
every shower of rain until the plants get too large to allow of the implements 
being used among them. In the cooler parts of the colony, cabbages can be 
grown all the year round, but in the warmer districts it is hardly worth while 
growing them in the summer months, as there are so many insect and other 
pests to contend with that a great deal of the profit is lost in keeping the 
plants clean. In the warmer districts the first sowing may be made in 
anuary or February, and then at intervals of a month or so up to August or 
September, For summer crops, St. John’s Day and Early Jersey Wakefield 
are about the best, as they are early sorts, and mature very quickly ; in winter 
the Drumhead type, of which Flat Dutch and Queensland or Florida Headen 
are good examples, are the most profitable. 
THE CAULIFLOWER. 
The same conditions as are necessary for cabbage-growing are required 
for cauliflowers, and the importance of having rich soil is even greater. 
As a rule, rich new land which has not been previously cropped will 
produce the best cauliflowers. ‘The seed is sown in the same way as cabbage 
seed, and the planting is done in the same way also, but more care is required 
in planting than is necessary with cabbage. 
Cauliflower seed may be sown in January or February, and again in 
March or April. If any is sown after April, it must bea very early variety, 
which will mature before the weather gets too hot. After planting, it is 
absolutely necessary that the plants be kept constantly growing, as a check ‘of 
