KITCHEN GARDEN.
Under this head, we may give the first place to the improvement which has taken place in the cul ture of Sea-Cale ; and of this we shall treat pretty fully.
Sea-Cale.
The cultivation usually recommended consisted 'merely in covering the shoots, at the approach of spring, to the depth of a few inches, with dry earth, or with sand or gravel, in order to the blanching and intenerating of the shoots. These were cut as they appeared in March and April. Now, however, the blanching is not only much more completely effected, but simple means have been devised of sup plying the table with shoots for half the year, in cluding all the winter months. It has of late be come a market vegetable, and appears plentifully on the stalls of Covent-Garden, and more sparingly on those of the Edinburgh green-market. It is somewhat remarkable, that, in regard to this excel lent culinary article, we have decidedly anticipated our neighbours the French. The Manuel du Jar dinier for 1807 speaks only of the leaves being used, and, justly enough, condemns them as coarse. In the recent editions of the Bon Jardinier (1818, 1819), the blanched shoots are at last recommend ed, and the English mode of culture is mentioned. But this mode of culture is not yet practised in the marais of Paris, and sea-cale shoots will still be looked for in vain in the celebrated marche aux herbes of that eapitaL The practice of the best cultivators shall here be described.—lt is considered proper that the sea-cale bed should be trenched at least two feet deep. The soil should be rather light, and should have a dry bottom. If manure be added, it ought to consist of sea-weed, or of tree-leaves well rotted ; the shoots being very apt to imbibe a disagreeable flavour from recent Bungs and coarse manures. The plant may be propagated by offsets; or by small pieces of the root, having eyes or buds attached to them ; but it rises freely from the seed : this is sown in March, generally in patches of three or four seeds, placed four or five inches separate, leaving fully two feet between each patch. During the first two years the chief things to be attended to are hoeing and weeding, and rejecting any superfluous plants, in case all the seeds may have germinated. At the ap proach of winter, some gardeners throw a little light stable-dung over the whole surface of the bed : a covering of fresh sandy soil, to the depth of two inches, answers equally well. In the third year, the plants become fit for blanching ; and if the sea cale bed be judiciously managed, it will continue productive for several successive years. In order,
however, to ensure a succession of young and vigor ous plants, and to provide for the bad effects of forcing, which is generally destructive to the plants subjected to it, it is proper to sow a small bed of sea-cale yearly. Fresh seed may always be kept in readiness, by allowing two or three plants to pro duce their flowers and seeds each year ; the flowers, which are white and smell of honey, appear in May, and are followed by the seeds in September.
Various modes of blanching the shoots have been resorted to. In the first volume of the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, Sir George Mackenzie describes a very convenient method. The sea-cale bed is merely covered, early in the spring, with clean and dry oat-straw, which is re moved as often as it becomes wet or musty. The shoots rise through the straw, and are at the same time pretty well blanched. Mr Barton, formerly gardener at Bothwell Castle, employed tree-leaves for this purpose. When these naturally fell in the end of autumn, he caused them to be swept together, and laid over the sea-cale bed to the depth perhaps of two feet. He found that a thin covering of stable dung, sufficient only to keep the leaves from being blown about, was useful in forwarding the produc tion of the sea-cale shoots, a slight fermentation be ing thus induced. The shoots rise sweet and tender among the leaves, in the early part of spring ; but it must evidently be difficult in this way to regulate the heat of fermentation, and safer to avoid it. An other method practised by many gardeners consists in placing over each plant a flower-pot of the largest size, inverted ; and blancliing-pots, constructed for this express purpose, are described by Mr Maher in the first volume of the Transactions Vthe Horticultural Society of London. These have since been much Un proved, by fitting them with moveable lids, the utility of which will presently appear. Such pots, we may remark, should not be made to taper much at top ; but should be nearly of equal width through out, in order to give room for taking off such shoots as are ready, without injuring the others. It may be proper to provide from thirty to sixty pots ; and it may be expected that each pot will, on an average, furnish a dish and a half of shoots during the season.