Cauliflower.
28-5. Cauliflower and broccoli, (Brassica oleracea, var. botrytis,) are curious varieties of the cabbage ; the flower buds forming a close firm cluster or head, for the sake of which alone the plants are cultivated. These heads or flowers being boiled, wrapped generally in a clean linen cloth, are served up as a most delicate vegetable dish. CauWalser is a particular favourite in till's country. a Of all the flowers in the garden," Dr Johnson used to say, "1 like the cauliflower." Its culture, however, had been little attended to till about tho close of the 17th century ; since that time it has been greatly improved, insomuch that cauliflower may now fairly be claimed as peculiarly an English. product. Till the time of the French revolu tion, quantities of English cauliflower were regularly sent to Holland ; and the Low Countries, and even France, de pended on us for cauliflower seed. Even now, English seed is preferred to any other.
The two varieties called the early and the later cauli flower, arc scarcely different. The first is the kind gene rally produced under hand-glasses, and the difference con sists merely in the seed having been saved from the most forward plants. A variety having the stalks of the head of a reddish or purple colour, has lately been introduced, under the name of Red Cauliflower ; and it is reputed more hardy than the other sorts.
286. The seed for the early crop is sown about the 20th August of the preceding year, in frames or beds. In September, the seedlings are pricked, either into a dry border near a wall, where they may be hooped over and defended with bass-mats during the severe frosts of winter, or into common glass frames, with two or three sliding lights. In the month of March they are finally planted out, water being given if the season be dry. They are placed in rows, commonly about two feet and a half asunder, and two feet apart in the rows. If the soil be not rich, less distance may answer. It is a rule, that cauli flower plants should never be set deep in the ground. The subsequent culture consists chiefly in repeated hoeings, and in drawing earth, or manure perhaps, close up to the roots and stems. Cauliflower plants have justly been de
clared " rough feeders ;" in fact, the more liberally the cleanings of stables and cow-houses are supplied, the larger produce may be expected. They also require regular and free supplies of water, at least in dry sea sons. As the flower or head advances, some of the large outer leaves are bent or broken over above it, partly to shade it from the sun, and partly to preserve it from too much rain.
287. To diversify the time of forming the heads, some of the early cauliflowers are planted out on different succes sive occasions. But seeds sown in February or March on a hot-bed, or in the front border of a stove or forcing-house, afford young plants to succeed those kept over winter ; and by sowing again in May, pricking into nursery beds in June or the beginning of July, and transplanting propor tionally late, this delicate pot-herb is produced till the end of October. Even after this, the cauliflower season is pro longed for nearly two months by various devices. Some times the plants are raised with balls of earth, and sunk nearly to the head in the borders of peach or grape houses, or in common glass frames, in sand or very light dry earth ; and sometimes they are merely hung up in a shed or out house, and thus kept for some weeks. They have been preserved in still another way, described by Mr Smith, gardener at Keith-Hall in Scotland, (Scottish Hort. Mem. vol. i. p. 129.): He t,igs a pit, about eighteen inches deep, near the bottom of a wall. On a dry clay he takes up the cauliflower stocks in an entire state, and strapping the leaves round the head, or flower, deposits them in the trench, the heads sloping downwards, and the roots extend ing upwards, so that the roots of one layer cover the tops of another ; he then covers up the whole closely with earth, preserving a slope from the wall, and beating it smooth with the back of the spade, so that rain may run oft. In this way, the cauliflower is said to keep good till the middle of January.