The Cauliflower Part 15

3. The best soil is a sandy loam, though any cool, moist, strong, fertile soil will answer.

4. While a cool, moist soil is desirable, thorough drainage is quite as essential as with any other crop.

5. An abundance of strong barn-yard or other manure is necessary, as the cauliflower is a gross feeder.

6. Deep and frequent tillage, that there may be no check in growth until the plants are nearly ready to head.

7. Tie or pin the leaves over the heads as soon as they appear, to keep them blanched and protect them from frost.

8. If any plants have failed to head on the approach of winter, remove them to a shed or cellar, and they will head there.

9. Guard against the flea beetle, cut worm, cabbage worm and cabbage maggot in the same manner as with cabbage.

10. With suitable varieties and proper care the cauliflower can generally be successfully grown wherever the cabbage thrives particularly well.

GLOSSARY.

BLIND.--To "go blind" is to lose the centre or growing point, and fail to head. It is generally due to climatic or insect injury. It is said to be frequently caused in the cauliflower by an insect resembling the turnip fly. Soot and lime are remedies.

BLUES.--A dark-bluish appearance, accompanying arrested development, generally due to unfavorable weather, unsuitable soil or insects at the root. Cabbage and cauliflower plants which are set too early in the spring, especially if they are not well hardened off and are placed in a cold soil, are apt to a.s.sume this appearance. If cauliflowers remain long in this condition, they are liable either to fail to head, or to form small heads prematurely.

BOLT.--A familiar term in England, applied to wheat when it heads out small and prematurely. Sometimes applied to cauliflowers when they head before they attain a proper age and size. See _b.u.t.ton_.

BREAK.--To become loose or "frothy" preparatory to running up to seed. Said of a head of cauliflower; also of other plants as they begin to throw up their seed stalks.

b.u.t.tON.--TO form small heads prematurely, as often occurs when plants are left too long in the seed-bed.

CURD.--The material composing the head of a cauliflower.

Sometimes the heads individually are called "curds."

DRAWN.--Having an abnormally long stem, owing to crowding, or too great heat, or too little light in the seed-bed.

FLOWER OR BLOSSOM.--Terms often applied to the head in the cauliflower, either from its resemblance to a flower, or from a mistaken idea that it really is a flower.

FLOWERET.--A term sometimes applied to one of the sprays or sub-divisions of a cauliflower head.

FROTHY, see _Warty_.

GLAUCOUS.--Pale bluish-green; sea-green.

HEAD.--The edible part of a cauliflower, consisting of a ma.s.s of thickened flower-stems at an early stage of growth, before they have separated and elongated preparatory to forming flowers and seeds.

Various other terms have been applied to it, such as "flower" or "blossom," "bouquet," "heart," and, by the French, "pomme" (apple), but sometimes also "tete" (head).

HEART, see _Head_.

LEAFY.--Having the head interspersed with rather small leaves.

A tendency to this condition is found in some inferior varieties, and in many good varieties when they head in hot weather.

MOSSY.--Having numerous minute leaves distributed over the head, giving it a "mossy" appearance. It is a condition of the same nature as the "leafy" state above mentioned, and produced by the same causes.

ROGUE.--An undesirable sport. A cauliflower which, unlike the others in the field, runs immediately to seed without forming a head, would be called a "rogue."

RUNNING.--Throwing up the flower-stalks preparatory to the production of seed. See _Break_.

TURNING IN.--Commencing to head; a term originally applied to cabbages, but now extended to other plants which form heads of any kind.

WARTY OR FROTHY.--A condition of the head in which the surface is covered with small prominences preparatory to running up to seed.

WEATHER-PROUD.--An English term which signifies that plants are larger or more thrifty than proper for the time of year. Applied, for example, to wintered-over cauliflower plants during a warm, early spring.

REFERENCES.

In the following works and articles certain points in connection with the cauliflower and its cultivation are more fully treated than in the present work.

BON JARDINIER, (1859, p. 449).--A good article on the origin and varieties of the cauliflower, and its cultivation in France.

BRILL, FRANCIS.--"Cauliflowers and How to Grow Them," (16 pp., price twenty cents. Published by the Author, Riverhead, N. Y., 1886). A well written account of cauliflower growing on Long Island and the methods used.

BURPEE, W. A.--"How to Grow Cabbages and Cauliflowers," (W. A.

Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, 1890). A pamphlet of eighty-five pages, price thirty cents, consisting of prize essays on the Cabbage and Cauliflower, by Mr. G. H. Howard, of Long Island, N. Y., and Mr. J.

Pedersen, of Denmark; together with directions for cooking these vegetables by Mr. S. J. Soyer, chief cook at the Court of Denmark; and a chapter on varieties by W. A. Burpee.

DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAMUS.--"Memoir on the Different Species, Races and Varieties of the Genus Bra.s.sica, and of the Genera Allied with it which are Cultivated in Europe" (read in 1821).--_Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London_, Vol. V, p. 1.

DON, GEO.--"General History of Dichlamydeous Plants," (4 volumes, London, 1831). Volume I, pp. 233-241, contains a good account of the culture and varieties of broccoli and cauliflower. Fifteen varieties of broccoli and three of cauliflower are described.

JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, (1878, p. 61).--A good article on the cultivation of cauliflower in England.

LOUDON, J. C.--"Encyclopaedia of Gardening" (5th edition, London, 1827). This standard work contains a very full account of the cauliflower and its allies, including quotations from various English authorities.

MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE, (1839, p. 53).--A good article on the cultivation of the cauliflower in England.

MAHER, JOHN.--"Hints relative to the Culture of the Early Purple Broccoli" (read in 1808).--_Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London_, Vol. I, pp. 116-120. An account of the culture and varieties of broccoli, with remarks on its improvement, and on the liability of broccoli and cauliflower to mix with cabbage.

MCINTOSH, CHARLES.--"Book of the Garden" (2 volumes, London, 1853). The second volume contains the best account of cauliflower cultivation in England written up to that time.

ROGERS, JOHN.--"The Vegetable Cultivator" (London, 1843).

Contains a good account of the cauliflower and the methods of growing it in England.

STURTEVANT, DR. E. L.--In his "History of Garden Vegetables,"