The Cauliflower

ce is to be placed upon named varieties than in some other cultivated plants, and greater need is required to secure carefully selected strains. Owing to peculiarities o

o one's needs it is well to use the same variety,

taly and France, and less in England. One variety, the Large Asiatic, seeds abundantly in North

h, and the large late varieties at the south. In the south the se

lowed to stand until the seed matures. Mr. Dean states that his Early Snowball produces in warm, early seasons better seed in England than anywhere else. Loudon, in his "Encyclop?dia of Gardening" (5th Ed., 1827) quotes Neill, as saying

that the English prefer Dutch

om Holland, France and Germany. The climate, especially of Holland and North Germany, is particul

d from Holland, and for its quality we have much greater reason to thank the better climate than t

ties have been produced, the cultivation of this vegetable in Europe has extended farther north. As already stated, when the cauliflower was first cultivated

e and cauliflower seed, which show great vitality and consequent vigor in growth of plant. We have received numerous samples grown in that region by H. A. March and A. G. Tillinghast, brother of Isaac Tillinghast, the seedsman. These seeds were very large, full of vitality, and the plants uncommonly vigorous. At transplanting time the plants were nearly twice the height

rs are so warm there, however, that except in particularly favorable seasons but little seed forms. Several excellent early varieties have originated on Long Island, and there is reason to

more early varieties than Holland, France and Italy. The dry calcareous soil of some pa

Gregory writes me under date of March 3d, 1891, that he raised 60 pounds of seed of the Boston Market from 500 plants, where from the same number of plants of the Snowball

tting out the centre of the head. The flower-stalks require to be supported by stakes, and when the seed is nearly mature, to be guarded from birds. A plast

most deformed from a structural point of view, give the least amount of good seed. Still, it is not necessarily true that the highest priced seed is always the best and most economical to use. A new variety, until it becomes well established, requires rigid selection, and this so reduces the amount produced that a high price can be obtained for all that is grown. An older variety, on the other hand, which has become so well established, and comes so true that nearly every head is perfect and will

, Holland and Germany have in each case certain features common among themselves which can only be accounted for by the influence of the particular climate in which they are grown. It is, therefore, useless to attempt to maintain these characters wholly unchanged in other climates. Hardiness, earliness, certainty of heading, protection of the head by leaves, and short

f the genus Brassica. It does not usually flower at the same time, however, as oth

ms were the result of these crosses, some of which were good cauliflowers, said to be of increased hardiness, but none of them have found their way into general cultivat

ngland, on a case of apparent crossing in t

what a progeny! Some were reproductions of the seed parent, but larger, and proved very handsome early cabbages; others were very fair Coleworts; others bad examples of Cottager's Purple Kale, others Green Kale, while others resembled sprouting Broccoli, both green and purple. One plant was a

ng one with several heads in the place of one, and another in which the head is f

ly germinate, a much smaller per cent. than in cabbage. Long Island growers estimate two ounces of se

d for the more recent belief held by some that old seed is particularly liable to produce loose worthless heads. Like all other seed cauliflower seed ought to be as fresh as possible; fre

EED GROWING ON

and, Puget Sound, Washingto

here on our low flat islands lying in the mouth of the Gulf of Georgia. We often have heavy fogs in the night, and always dews equal to a light shower every night all summer long. The first expense attending the raising of cauliflower seed is quite heavy. The soil must be a rich, warm loam

n onion bed. Now we throw it into ridges, six feet apart, and it is ready for work in early spring. For manure we sow 2,000 pounds of superphosphate and ground Sitka herring, equal parts of each, t

ly start in the spring, for we raise two crops the same season, and an early frost on our unripe seed is sure to ruin the crop. Now, to set the plants out and make them grow from the start, a line is stretched along one of these flat ridges, a boy goes along, and with a three-foot marker marks the spots for the plants; a man follows with a hoe and makes a hole, about the size of a quart dish, to receive each plant. During the winter we have gathered up 200 or 300 tomato and oyster cans, melted off the tops and bottoms, leaving tubes about five inches long by three or four across. Now, armed with a light wheelbarrow with a wooden tray, containing from 50 to 75

days the cultivator is started and kept a going once a week until the heads begin to form. We

s any sign of its growing in quarters, or if a leaf is growing through the head, or if there is any looseness in its growth, the heads are staked and cut for market. For, as like produces like, it will never do to get seed from an inferior

day through flat open troughs, which heat it up to about 70° Fah. It is taken through canvas hose over the field, and the soil is soaked to the subsoil. Now our underdrains come into play, for all of the surplus water is drained off in about three days, and we can start the cultivator. We cultivate close up to the plants. If we break the leaves off it doesn't matter, for they fall off anyway as soon as th

average, so that our seed must all be dried by fire heat. Our dry-houses are 30 x 20 feet, and 18 feet high with 2 x 6 inch joists running across th

les are taken to the dry-house on wheelbarrows, made with racks on purpose for carrying the seeds. A cloth is spread over the rack to catch any shelling seeds. A man carries about 100 bunches at a load and passes them up to a man i

we set the boys to rolling it. For this purpose we have a board two and a half feet long by one foot wide, with thin strips nailed on the sides to keep the seeds from rolling off. A boy sits down on a cloth with a pan of seed by his side, and holds one end of the board in his lap, while the other end rests on the cloth. He puts a handful of seed on the top end

doing so in his locality, as the cabbage was nearly out of flower before the cauliflower began to blossom. To make the matter certain, however, boys were sent to every neighbo

r from the same wri

shington, Ap

rozier, Ann

before frost, if they were continually wet with tepid water after heading. The first seed that was put on the market was sold by Francis Brill, Riverhead, L. I. Since then I have furnished some of the largest firms in the country with seed, and the seed has given perfect satisfaction. There is a secret in raising good seed that I don't care to

or this year. The business has grown from a few pounds in 1882 to nearly 300 pounds in 1890. I think in the near future, that Puget Sound will grow all of the cauliflower seed that wil

erable extent both in Oregon and Washington, t

ver a week, I naturally saved it for "stock seed," and as it propagated itself perfectly, and was perfection itself, I named it Early Perfection. I am not aware of another by the name of Perfection on t

seed has been grown by me. I have also grown

ed with me, from a sport of Henderson's Sno

rs T

Marc