The Cauliflower
by A. A. Crozier · English · Gutenberg #27862 · 315,890 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Cauliflower
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The Cauliflower
Author: A. A. Crozier
Release date: January 21, 2009 [eBook #27862]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27862
Credits: Produced by Tom Roch, Barbara Kosker and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images produced by Core Historical
Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAULIFLOWER ***
Produced by Tom Roch, Barbara Kosker and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images produced by Core Historical
Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University)
THE
CAULIFLOWER
BY
A. A. CROZIER.
THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
TIMES BUILDING,
NEW YORK.
Copyright, 1891,
BY A. A. CROZIER.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
[Illustration: EARLY ALABASTER.--(SEE PAGE 127).]
"There has undoubtedly been more money made by the cultivation
of the cauliflower per acre than by any other vegetable yet
discovered."
ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST,
_Pennsylvania._
"There is no vegetable, the cultivation of which is more
generally neglected than that of the cauliflower. This is not
because it is not considered a valuable addition to any garden,
but from a mistaken notion that it is a very difficult
vegetable to raise."
H. M. STRINGFELLOW,
_Texas._
"I incline to think that there is a fortune in store for the
energetic young man who finds a favorable locality for growing
this vegetable near any one of our large cities and who makes a
specialty of the work."
PROF. E. S. GOFF,
_Wisconsin._
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTION. 5
ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 9
THE CAULIFLOWER INDUSTRY.--In Europe. In the
United States. Importation of Cauliflowers. 19
MANAGEMENT OF THE CROP.--Soil. Fertilizers.
Planting. Cultivating. Harvesting. Keeping. Marketing. 25
THE EARLY CROP.--Caution against Planting it
largely. Special Directions. Buttoning. 53
CAULIFLOWER REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.--Upper
Atlantic Coast. Lake Region. Prairie Region. Cauliflowers
in the South. The Pacific Coast. 61
INSECT AND FUNGUS ENEMIES.--Flea Beetle. Cut
Worms. Cabbage Maggot. Cabbage Worm. Stem Rot. Damping
Off. Black Leg. 93
CAULIFLOWER SEED.--Importance of Careful
Selection. Where the Seed is Grown. Influence of
Climate. American Grown Seed. 107
VARIETIES.--Descriptive Catalogue. Order of
Earliness. Variety Tests. Best Varieties. 125
BROCCOLI.--Differences between Broccoli and
Cauliflower. Cultivation, Use, and Varieties of
Broccoli. 189
COOKING CAULIFLOWER.--Digestibility. Nutritive
Value. Chemical Composition. Receipts. 195
RECAPITULATION. 221
GLOSSARY. 223
REFERENCES. 226
INTRODUCTION.
The cauliflower is one of the minor vegetables which is now attracting
more than ordinary attention in this country, and being grown with
remarkable success and profit in a few localities which have been found
to be particularly adapted to it. With most of our gardeners, however,
it is still considered a very uncertain and unprofitable crop. This is
due not only to the peculiar requirements of the cauliflower as to soil
and climate, but also to the want of familiarity on the part of most
American gardeners with modern varieties and with methods of cultivation
adapted to our climate.
For a number of years, while engaged in market gardening and fruit
growing in Western Michigan, the writer made a specialty of raising
cauliflowers for the Grand Rapids and Chicago markets, planting from
three to five acres a year. During this time most of the varieties
offered by American seedsmen were tested, and the best methods of
cultivation sought. On the whole, the cauliflower crop was found more
profitable than any other, with the possible exception of peaches. There
were partial failures, but these were due to causes which might have
been foreseen and prevented. The experience gained at that time, and
subsequent observation, have convinced the author that there are many
parts of the country in which the climate and soil are adapted to this
vegetable, but where its cultivation is yet practically unknown. The
requirements for success with cauliflower will be found to be simple but
imperative. A few direct experiments may be needed after one has gained
the general information herein set forth, to enable one to determine
whether it is best to continue or abandon its cultivation in his own
locality.
I have endeavored to treat the subject in a manner adapted to the
diversity of conditions found within the limits of the United States.
With no vegetable is it more important to have fixed rules for one's
guidance than with the cauliflower; but these rules must of necessity be
of the most restricted application; in fact, they require to be adjusted
to almost each individual case. So, while I have not omitted to give
minute, practical directions where they seemed necessary, I have
endeavored to call attention to the circumstances under which they are
to be employed, and must here caution the grower against following them
too implicitly under different circumstances. This remark applies
particularly to the selection of varieties and the dates of planting.
Under the head of "Management of the Crop" will be found the most
important information of general application, while in the chapter on
"Cauliflower Regions" are given numerous records of experience from
growers in all parts of the country, which will be found of special
value for each locality.
Those who desire direct information on particular points will consult
the index and turn at once to the paragraphs which treat of soil,
culture, enemies, marketing, best varieties, etc. It is unfortunate that
confusion exists in regard to some of the varieties, but it seemed best
to make the list as complete as possible, even at the risk of
introducing a few errors. The confusion (which is more apparent than
real), arises, in part, from seeds of certain varieties having been sold
at times for those of others, and in part from the extreme liability of
the varieties of the cauliflower to deteriorate or change. Errors from
both these sources, when reduced to a minimum by the accumulation of
evidence, reveal the fact that there are varieties and groups of
varieties which have acquired well defined characters, and that the
differences between the varieties are increasing rather than otherwise
as time goes on. The selection of varieties for planting is a matter to
be determined largely by the locality where they are to be grown. The
differences between them lie mainly in their adaptation to particular
purposes. There are almost none but what are good somewhere.
I cannot omit to emphasize here the fact that the fall crop should be
mainly relied upon in this country. It is a waste of time to attempt to
have cauliflowers head in our hot summer months, and until our markets
are better supplied than they now are with this vegetable, it will not
often pay to do much with the spring crop. The time may come when, as in
England, we may expect to have cauliflower and broccoli the year round,
but it has not come yet.
The chapter on cooking cauliflower should not be overlooked. One reason
why there is such a limited demand for this vegetable in this country is
that so few here know how to cook it. The methods of cooking it are
simple enough, but there are many persons who always hesitate to try
anything new, and as cauliflowers do not appear regularly in the market
these people never learn how to use them.
Those interested in extending the market for this vegetable will do well
to devise special means for introducing it into families not familiar
with it. The writer found that foreigners who had been accustomed to the
use of cauliflower in the "Old Country" were his best customers.
THE CAULIFLOWER.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
On the sea-coasts of Great Britain and other countries of western
Europe, from Norway around to the northern shores of the Mediterranean
(where it is chiefly at home) grows a small biennial plant, looking
somewhat like a mustard or half-grown cabbage. This is the wild cabbage,
_Brassica oleracea_, from which our cultivated cabbages originated. It
is entirely destitute of a head, but has rather succulent stems and
leaves, and has been used more or less for food from the earliest
historic times. The cultivated plants which most resemble this wild
species, are our different sorts of kale. In fact this wild plant is the
original, not only of our headed cabbage in its different varieties, but
also of all forms of kale, the kohl-rabi, brussels-sprouts, broccolis
and cauliflowers. No more wonderful example than this exists of the
changes produced in a wild plant by cultivation. Just when the
improvement of the wild cabbage began is unknown, probably at least 4000
years ago. Of the cultivated forms of this species Theophrastus
distinguished three, Pliny, six; Tournefort, twenty; and De Candolle, in
1821, more than thirty. For a long time this plant was used for food in
a slightly improved state before heads of any kind were developed.
Sturtevant, quotes Oliver de Serres, as saying that, "White cabbages
came from the north, and the art of making them head was unknown in the
time of Charlemagne." He adds that the first unmistakable reference to
our headed cabbage that he finds is by Rullius, who in 1536 mentions
globular heads, a foot and a half in diameter. It was probably about
this time that the cauliflower, and several other forms of the species
made their appearance. There is difference of opinion as to whether our
cauliflowers or the broccolis were first to originate. London believed
that the broccolis, which Miller says first came to England from Italy
in 1719, were derived from the cauliflower. Phillips, in his "History of
Cultivated Vegetables," said, in 1822, that the broccoli appears to be
an accidental mixture of the common cabbage and the cauliflower, but of
this he gives no proof.
Sturtevant says: "It is certainly very curious that the early botanists
did not describe or figure the broccoli. The omission is only
explainable on the supposition that it was confounded with the
cauliflower, just as Linnaeus brought the cauliflower and the broccoli
into one botanical variety." When broccolis came to England from Italy,
they were at first known under the names "sprout-cauliflower," or
"Italian asparagus." This, however, is not sufficient reason for
believing that the broccolis are derived from the cauliflowers, as the
word broccoli was, and still is, applied in Italy to the tender shoots
of various kinds of cabbages and turnips.
Some recent authorities have believed, since the broccoli is coarser
than the cauliflower, more variable in character, more robust in habit,
and requires a longer season, that it is the original form, of which the
cauliflower is only an improvement. Thus, Vilmorin says: "The sprouting
or asparagus broccoli represents the first form exhibited by the new
vegetable when it ceased to be the earliest cabbage, and was grown with
an especial view to its shoots; after this, by continued selection and
successive improvements, varieties were obtained which produced a
compact white head, and some of these varieties were still further
improved into kinds which are sufficiently early to commence and
complete their entire growth in the course of the same year; these last
named kinds are now known by the name of cauliflowers."
At the Cirencester Agricultural College, England, about 1860, broccolis
were produced, with other variables, directly from seeds of the wild
cabbage. These, and other considerations, make it seem doubtful that our
broccolis have originated from our cauliflowers. Whatever the original
form of the cauliflower may have been, it seems more probable that the
broccolis now grown had a separate origin, either from the wild state or
from some form of kale. Nearly all our present varieties of broccoli
originated in England from a few sorts introduced from Italy.
Cauliflowers, in name at least, are older than the broccolis, and were
brought to a high state of development and widely distributed before the
latter are mentioned in history. They were grown in the Mediterranean
region long before they became known in other parts of Europe.
Sturtevant finds no mention of the cauliflower or broccoli in ancient
authors, the only indication of the kind being the use of the word
_cyma_ by Pliny for a form of the cabbage tribe, which he thinks may
have been the broccoli. Heuze states that three varieties of cauliflower
were known in Spain in the twelfth century. In 1565 the cauliflower is
reported as being extensively grown in Hayti in the New World.
In 1573-5, Rauwolf, while traveling in the East, found the cauliflower
cultivated at Aleppo, in Turkey. It seems to have been introduced into
England from the Island of Cyprus, and it is mentioned by Lyte, in 1586,
under the name of "Cyprus coleworts."
Alpinus, in his work on the "Plants of Egypt," published in 1591, states
that the only plants of the cabbage tribe which he saw in that country
were the cauliflower and kohl-rabi. Cauliflower was also well known in
Greece at an early day.
Gerard published a figure of it in England in 1597. In 1612 it is
reported as being cultivated in France, and in 1619 as being sold in the
London market. In 1694 Pompes, a French author, is quoted as saying
that, "It comes to us in Paris by way of Marseilles from the Isle of
Cyprus, which is the only place I know of where it seeds."
From this time on, its cultivation gradually extended throughout Europe.
In England, especially, the cauliflower, as well as the broccoli, became
a popular garden vegetable. Philip Miller, in his "Gardener's
Dictionary," published in 1741, gives a long description of the method
of growing this vegetable, though mentioning but one variety, while
several varieties of broccoli are described. He says, however, that
"cauliflowers have of late years been so far improved in England as to
far exceed in goodness and magnitude what are produced in most parts of
Europe." Prior to the French Revolution, (which began in 1778)
cauliflower had, in fact, come to be largely exported from England into
Holland, Germany and France; but soon after this it came to be more
generally grown in those countries and was no longer imported, though
English seed was still used.
The numerous varieties of cauliflower now cultivated are of
comparatively recent origin. Although some of the earliest writers on
this vegetable mention two or more varieties, these were in some cases
merely different crops produced by sowing the seed at different periods.
In 1796, Marshall, in his English work on gardening, says that
"cauliflower is sometimes distinguished into an early and late sort;
though in fact there is no difference, only as the seed of that called
'early' is saved from the foremost plants." Phillips, in 1822, said:
"Our gardeners furnish us with an early and a late variety, both of
which are much esteemed."
In 1831, Don, of England, in his work on botany and gardening ("History
of Dichlamydeous Plants") describes fifteen varieties of broccoli and
three of cauliflower. The latter were known as Early, Later or Large,
and Red, the last being the most hardy. These three kinds differed but
little in general character, and were all inclined to sport into
inferior varieties.
In 1832 there was still a discussion in England as to whether the early
and late cauliflowers were really distinct, or differed only in time of
sowing.
John Rogers, in his "Vegetable Cultivator" (London, 1843), said: "There
are two varieties of the cauliflower, the early and the late, which are
alike in their growth and size, only that the early kind, as the name
implies, comes in about a week before the other, provided the true sort
has been obtained. There is, however, no certainty of knowing this,
unless by sowing the seed from the earliest sorts, as is the practice of
the London kitchen gardeners. The early variety was grown for a number
of years in the grounds called the Meat-house Gardens, at Millbank, near
Chelsea, and was of a superior quality, and generally the first at
market. The late variety is supposed to have originated from a stock for
many years cultivated on a piece of ground called the Jamaica level,
near Deptford, and which produced uncommonly fine heads, but later than
those at Millbank. Both soils are nearly similar, being a deep rich
loam, on a moist subsoil, and continually enriched with dung. Both the
varieties are of a delicate nature, being generally too tender to resist
the cold of the winter season without the occasional aid of glasses or
other means; and the sight of many acres overspread with such glasses in
the vicinity of London gives a stranger a forcible idea of the riches
and luxury of the capital."
In France, in 1824, three varieties, differing mainly in earliness, were
recognized, _le dur_, _le_ _demi-dur_ and _le tendre_. These names are
still applied to well known French sorts.
Victor Paquet, in his _Plantes Potagers_, published at Paris in 1846,
says: "The greater number of varieties of cauliflower are white, but
some are green or reddish. They are cooked in water, and dressed with
oil or white sauce. We cultivate two distinct varieties, _tendre_ and
_demi-dur_. The sub-varieties _gros_ and _petit Solomon_ are sorts of
the _tendre_."
Thus we see that early in the present century there were sorts differing
at least in time of maturity which had originated by selection; and,
although history does not show it, we must infer that even then there
were distinct differences in the cauliflowers cultivated in different
parts of Europe. From this time on cauliflowers from various localities
were brought more into public notice and greater efforts were made
toward their improvement.
In 1845, C. M. Hovey, of Boston, said, that "the varieties of
cauliflower have been greatly improved within a few years, and now not
less than a dozen kinds are found in the catalogues." The most noted of
those mentioned by him are Walcheren and Large Asiatic--varieties still
in cultivation. Burr described ten sorts in 1863, and Vilmorin sixteen
sorts in 1883. There are recorded in the present work the names of one
hundred and forty varieties besides synonyms. Some of these varieties
are no longer cultivated, and a few are too near other sorts to be
considered worthy of a separate name; so that of the cauliflowers proper
there may be said to be now in cultivation about one hundred distinct
varieties.
CHAPTER II.
THE CAULIFLOWER INDUSTRY.
In the United States, as already stated, the cauliflower industry is but
little developed. This vegetable receives, for example, far less
attention than is given to celery, though it is more easily grown. One
may look over the recent files of some of our agricultural and
horticultural papers for several years together and not find the
cauliflower mentioned. In fact, more general attention was given the
cauliflower in this country forty years ago than to-day. The
disappointments of those who attempted to grow cauliflower at an early
day, expecting to grow it, as in Europe, with as little trouble as
cabbage, have led to an almost universal belief that the cauliflower is
peculiarly unreliable in the United States. This, for a large portion of
the country, is true; but it is beginning to be known that there are
localities where, with proper management, it is almost as safe as any
crop.
It is by no means true that in Europe the cauliflower is everywhere
grown with success. There are comparatively small areas, even in the
most favorable portions of that continent, where it can be profitably
grown. Although the climate of Europe, as a whole, is better for this
vegetable than that of the United States, the greater success with the
cauliflower there is due largely to the greater care exercised in
choosing proper soil, in fertilization, and in irrigation. The area of
cauliflower growing has largely increased in Europe within the past few
years. In the vicinity of Angiers, France, the growing of cauliflower
for market began about 1880. In a short time it reached an extent of
several thousand hectares (a hectare is two and one-half acres). There
is found in this region a loamy soil, such as is especially suitable for
this vegetable. The land is thrown up into beds twenty-five or thirty
feet wide, with ditches between for irrigation. The rows are placed two
and one-half feet apart, and the plants one and one-half feet apart in
the rows. On the approach of winter the plants which are still unheaded
are ridged up with earth for protection in the same manner as celery.
The crop fails from too cold or too wet weather, about one year in five.
The heads are mostly sent to Paris, and sell there at from forty cents
to $1 per dozen. Even at these rates the crop is a profitable one, often
bringing $300 per acre after paying the cost of marketing. Land is worth
from $24 to $40 per acre. For three or four weeks in spring there are
sent from Angiers to Paris, on an average, forty car-loads per day. In
the immediate vicinity of Paris large quantities of cauliflower are
grown for market.
In some parts of Germany the cauliflower is a very popular crop. Around
Erfurt, which is nearly in the center of the empire, greater care is
taken with its cultivation than probably anywhere else in the world, and
large quantities are grown for seed. The late James Vick has told
(Report Mich. Pom. Soc., 1874, p. 206,) how the low swampy land around
Erfurt is thrown up into wide beds with ditches between, from which,
every dry day, the water is dipped upon the plants. In Austria, also,
cauliflower is a well-known vegetable, and several valuable varieties
have originated in that country. Few seedsmen offer a more complete list
of varieties than those of Vienna. In Italy the cauliflower has long
been known, and in some places is a staple food of the poorer classes.
Most of our standard late varieties are of Italian origin.
In Holland, cauliflowers are grown not only for home use and for seed,
but also for the early London market. Around London the cauliflower has
been extensively grown for a longer time than anywhere else, and it is
there regarded as one of the most important garden crops. A recent
English writer says: "With the exception of the potato, I question
whether there is another vegetable to be compared with the cauliflower
for general usefulness." Hundreds of acres are devoted to it near
London, a large portion being under glass for the early crop. Formerly
the cauliflower crop was all cut and sent to market, with the exception
of a small portion saved for seed; but of late, extensive fields are
purchased entire by Crosse and Blackwell for pickling purposes.
In the United States there are a few points where the growing of
cauliflower for market is assuming considerable importance. On Long
Island, in 1879, the crop was estimated by Oemler at 100,000 pounds,
besides what was used for pickling. In 1885 Brill estimated the total
crop of Suffolk County at about 125,000 barrels. In 1889, the value of
the crop sold from Suffolk County was estimated at $200,000, nine-tenths
of all the cauliflowers sent to the New York market being grown in that
county. At Farmingdale and Central Park, in 1888, two pickle factories
used five hundred barrels of cauliflowers, besides the usual proportion
of other vegetables. Much of the crop from Long Island is now sent to
markets beyond New York. Philadelphia receives but little good
cauliflower except that which comes from Long Island. The same is true
of the city of Washington. The receipts in the latter city from Long
Island for the three fall months of 1890 were about 20,000 barrels.
The Chicago market is seldom fully supplied with cauliflowers and the
price there averages fully as good as anywhere in the country.
Considerable amounts are grown near the city, and small quantities are
shipped in from Michigan, Wisconsin, Central Illinois, and even from
California. One pickle factory at Crystal Lake, near Chicago,
contracted, in 1874, for 16 acres of cauliflowers, besides other
produce. The pickle factories always furnish a market for any surplus
when the price is low, or the heads have become disfigured in any way.
In fact, the supply of home grown cauliflowers is always insufficient
for pickling purposes, and large amounts have to be annually imported,
notwithstanding the tariff, which, formerly ten per cent., ad valorum,
is now forty-five per cent. Imported cauliflowers are brought mainly
from Germany and Holland, and come packed in brine in 60 gallon casks.
Large quantities of mixed pickles containing cauliflower are also
imported.
CHAPTER III.
MANAGEMENT OF THE CROP.
SOIL.
Almost any soil will do for the cauliflower, providing it is moist and
fertile. The requirements of this vegetable as to soil are practically
the same as those for the cabbage, except, that as the cauliflower will
stand less drouth, it should generally have a heavier and richer soil,
and rather more room. A soil which produces cabbages with large and
rather soft heads is likely to be good for cauliflowers; that is, it
contains more vegetable matter than the right amount for producing hard
heads of cabbage. Muck will answer for cauliflowers if it is not too wet
or too dry; it should like any other soil be treated to a good coat of
barn-yard manure--horse manure being preferable on such land, as it
promotes fermentation. Small quantities of lime may also be applied for
the same reason.
The best soil is generally a strong sandy loam. Light sand or gravel is
the poorest; and unless made very rich and artificially watered, it is
useless to attempt to grow cauliflowers on such a soil in ordinary
seasons. Heavy clay is less suitable for cauliflower than for cabbage,
chiefly because on such a soil the plants are apt to be small and late.
In a warm climate a heavier soil is required than in a cool one. The
ground should, if possible, be fresh sod-land (preferably pasture) or at
most one year removed from the sod. It is unsafe to plant cauliflowers
after cauliflowers, or any other plant of the cabbage tribe, though it
is sometimes successfully done. Newly cleared land, or land fresh from
the sod, is even more desirable for cauliflowers than for cabbages. On
new land the crop is not only less subject to disease and the attacks of
insects, but its growth is likely to be more satisfactory, even without
manure, or with only a moderate amount, than it is on old land, however
well manured.
FERTILIZERS.
The cauliflower is a gross feeder, and land intended for this crop can
hardly be made too rich. Barn-yard manure is usually employed, and there
is nothing better for general use. Commercial fertilizers--potash, soda
and phosphates--are also good, especially to promote heading. The wild
plant from which the cauliflower is derived being a native of the
sea-shore, common salt seems particularly adapted to it. Kelp, or
sea-weed, is used with advantage where it can be obtained.
If barn-yard manure is not too coarse, plowing it under in moderate
amount will, in addition to its fertilizing effect, help to keep the
land moist. Where the cabbage maggot is troublesome the use of fresh
stable manure is thought to promote the attack of that insect, and
therefore only well rotted manure is recommended. Of course a larger
amount of manure may be safely applied if it is well rotted than if it
is coarse and strawy. Liquid manure is used by many growers, being
applied a few weeks before planting, and from time to time during the
season. Water-closet contents, diluted or composted, and applied either
in the liquid or powdered form, is one of the best of fertilizers for
the cauliflower, but it should not be used too freely, or too late in
the season. All coarse or concentrated fertilizers should be applied at
least two weeks before the time for transplanting, and such as are
applied on the surface should be well mixed with the soil.
SOWING THE SEED.
The preparation of the seed-bed will vary according to circumstances. I
formerly grew the plants for the fall crop in beds elevated two or three
feet above the ground, in order to escape the flea beetle, but in later
years I have grown a portion of the plants in the open ground. This
method requires less care, and is now usually practiced by large
growers, though it sometimes fails, for the reason stated. Remedies for
the flea beetle will be found in another chapter. The soil in which the
plants are to be grown should be rich and fine, rather light, and
improved, if necessary, with a little of the finest old rotted manure. A
small amount of lime or ashes raked into the soil is a benefit, and is
thought to prevent the attack of the cabbage maggot, though its value,
if any, for this purpose, is slight. An old brush-heap burnt off makes a
favorite place for sowing cauliflower and cabbage seed, but it is seldom
that market gardeners care to go out of their way to get such a place.
The large cauliflower growers of Long Island usually sow the seed in
drills across one end of the field in which the crop is to be grown,
raking into the soil before sowing, a moderate dressing of some
commercial fertilizer.
It is often recommended to sow the seed on the north side of a fence, or
in some other partially shaded place. I have never seen any necessity
for this, and once spoiled a quantity of plants by growing them in the
partial shade of some large trees. At the South, as elsewhere stated, it
is sometimes necessary to give the young plants shade during the middle
of the day if they are started in the summer months.
The seed should always be sown thinly, not only because it is expensive
and none should be wasted, but in order that all may have room to
develop into healthy and stocky plants. If the weather is at all dry it
is well to lay boards, or some other covering, over the seed-bed until
the plants begin to come up. This will insure speedy and uniform
germination. If this is done the seed may be sown very shallow;
otherwise it should be sown at least half an inch deep (or even deeper
if the soil is light) and the soil pressed firm after sowing.
Transplanting the young plants in the seed-bed will render them stocky
and vigorous, and should always be practiced with the early crop, but if
the seed is sown sufficiently thin it is unnecessary with out-door
plants intended for the late crop. Some growers, including Mr. Gregory
of Massachusetts, practice sowing the seed in hills in the open ground
where the plants are to remain. Several seeds are placed in a hill to
insure against loss. This method, however, will seldom be found
desirable.
To the above may be added the following excellent directions given by
Mr. Francis Brill, of Riverhead, Long Island, in his pamphlet on the
cauliflower: "Occasionally, by reason of drouth, and frequently by
reason of the ravages of insects, great difficulty has been experienced
in growing plants in spring and early summer, which seldom occurs in the
fall--at which time, however, the same precautions may be used. Time was
when we could circumvent the flea and louse on young plants by the use
of lime, tobacco, ashes, soot, etc., but of late years they seem to
have been so very abundant, and so materially aided in their work of
destruction by the black grub below and the green grub above ground,
that many complete failures have occurred in endeavors to grow plants.
To avoid this I recommend that the ground intended for plants be plowed
or spaded in the fall, and if stable manure is to be used, let it be
well rotted and turned under at this time, and again work the soil early
in the spring, at this time turning under a good dressing of potash
salts; keep the ground free from weeds by occasional stirring until the
time for sowing the seed, then lay out a bed six feet wide, and as long
as you please; make the surface smooth, and enclose it with common
boards ten or twelve inches in width set edgewise perpendicularly,
one-half their width under ground and held in place by stakes driven at
the joints and centres. Within this frame, beginning at either end, dig
and thoroughly pulverize the soil by means of a spading fork, potato
fork, or similar implement, watching closely for any grub worms which
may not have been eradicated by the previous workings and which we now
propose to keep out by means of the partially sunken boards.
"Fertilizers may, at this time, be applied and forked under or raked in,
using judgment as to method and quantity, which must be determined by
the previous condition of the soil and the strength of the material
used, remembering that it is not well to have any chemicals in too close
proximity to the tender rootlets of the young plants; and while poor
soil is no place in which to grow healthy plants, yet they should not be
over stimulated, but the ground must be in proper condition to keep up a
vigorous and healthy growth. Let this digging be done in the latter part
of the afternoon when the sun has spent its force and the soil will not
dry out too quickly; rake the bed as you go, and sow the seed while the
surface soil is fresh and moist, using a ten-inch board as long as your
bed is wide, which place five or six inches from the end or head of the
frame, crosswise, and with a blunt stick, say three-fourths of an inch
in diameter, draw a mark not more than one-half an inch deep along each
edge of the board; sow the seed thinly in these marks, using the thumb
and finger to guide it; then turning the board twice, sow two more rows,
and so proceed until you have sown several rows, say 12 to 20, when they
must be covered, using the back of a spade, drawing it with some
pressure half way from each side of the bed. A very important part of
this operation which must not be overlooked _is to get the seed in and
covered while the ground is fresh and damp_; therefore complete the work
in sections. At the distance given the hoe can be used and the soil
stirred between the rows, which is quite essential to a proper growth
of the plants, as well as necessary to keep down the weeds.
"The sowing completed, the bed may be covered with old bags or cloth to
retain the moisture, which, however, must be removed upon the first
signs of the seed germinating; but what is better still, a shade of
muslin can be used, supported by the upper edges of the frame and narrow
strips laid across, which can remain until the plants are well above
ground, when it should be removed, the plants sprinkled with tobacco
dust, air slacked lime, ashes or common plaster, and a covering of
mosquito netting be substituted for the muslin, which will admit light,
air and sunshine, yet be a partial shade, and will help to protect the
plants from insects. This cover may be removed during rainy weather,
and, if you please, every night to give the plants the benefit of the
dew.
"I have decided objections to artificial watering of seed-beds,
especially when the seed is first sown or in the early stages of growth
of the plants, and this may generally be avoided by following the
directions just given; but when circumstances may seem to demand
otherwise, let the bed be prepared and in the afternoon thoroughly
saturated, and toward evening the seed may be sown and covered as above
described, but never water the bed after the seed has been sown until
the plants are well up, for this has a tendency to pack the surface and
cause it to bake and prevent proper germinating of the seed. After the
plants are fairly above ground, light waterings at evening may be given,
but must be avoided if possible.
"I have not given these precautions for sowing seed in September for
wintering over, for the reason that at that season of the year we are
comparatively free from insects and drouths."
WHEN TO SOW.
The time for sowing will depend of course on the locality and variety.
At the North, half early varieties, intended for the fall crop, are
usually sown and set out about the same time as late cabbage. In Western
Michigan, in latitude 43 deg., I have found that Early Paris sown about May
12, and set out about the 20th of June, begins to head in September, and
forms its main crop in October, about the time desired. In the latitude
of New York City the time for setting out the main crop is from June 20
to the 1st of August. Plants set as late as the 1st of August are
intended to head just before winter, and must be of the earliest
varieties. The large late varieties, like Autumn Giant, if used at all,
must be started early and set out not later than the first of June, as
they require the entire season.
Several kinds are often sown to form a succession, but where one has
tested a variety and found it adapted to his needs, it is often quite as
well to rely upon it almost entirely, and make two or three sowings for
a succession if desired. Even a single sowing, well timed, will
generally furnish cuttings through the most favorable part of the
season. If the seed is of the best quality, and the plants are of
uniform size, and all set at the same time, neither too early nor too
late, on soil of uniform character, they will in a good season form most
of their heads within a short space of time, sometimes within a week;
but generally in a given sowing, a few heads will form very early, then
the bulk of the crop will come on during three or four weeks, while the
remainder will hang on until late, perhaps until winter. No other crop
is so much affected in time of maturity by the character of the season
as the cauliflower, and even the most experienced growers sometimes fail
in getting them to head at the time desired.
The time for starting the plants for the early crop in the North is in
February, and the method is described in full in another chapter. They
should be set out, as stated, as soon as heavy freezing is past, say
about the middle of April. The most unfavorable time of any, and yet the
time when the inexperienced are most likely to set them, is about the
middle of May, for early varieties set then usually head in August when
it is seldom that heads can be obtained of good quality.
PREPARING THE GROUND.
Land intended for cauliflowers should be plowed deeply, as the
cauliflower is a deep feeder and delights in a rich, cool subsoil; in
fact, with no other plant of the cabbage family is a deep soil so
important. The manure, of whatever kind, should be mainly spread upon
the ground and plowed under, a smaller amount, in a finely divided
state, being harrowed in upon the surface. The plowing should be done at
least a month before the plants are to be set, and the land kept well
harrowed or cultivated until that time in order to retain the moisture
in the soil, and put it in the best condition for the growth of the
plants.
SETTING THE PLANTS.
When the time comes for setting the plants it is a good plan to go over
the surface with a planker in order to smooth it off, so the marking can
be nicely done. This also packs the ground somewhat, so that the plants
can be set more firmly. The land may be then marked out, crosswise
first, three feet apart, then lengthwise three feet apart for Dwarf
Erfurt and all small growing kinds, and four feet apart for Algiers and
other large varieties. These are suitable distances for the late crop in
ordinary cases, but where land is cheap, and little manure used, except
sod turned under, four by four feet is none too much room for the large
varieties. The early crop, on the other hand, which is always heavily
manured, is sometimes set with the rows as close as two feet apart, and
the plants twenty inches apart in the rows. The small size of the heads
resulting from close planting is no actual loss, for small heads, if of
good quality, are more popular than large ones, and bring a higher price
in proportion to their size. The greatest danger from too close setting
of the main crop is that the plants may fail to head at all. It is for
this reason that cauliflowers are usually set farther apart than
cabbages.
The best time to set the plants is just before or after a rain, but they
may be set at any time if the soil has been kept damp by frequent
cultivation. In dry, clear weather the planting should be done only
toward the close of the day. If it should be necessary to apply water at
the time of setting, it should be thoroughly done, not less than a quart
being placed in each hole which is to receive a plant. Water should
never be applied after the plant is set unless loose earth is afterwards
thrown over the place, for the compact surface left after the water has
been absorbed dries out more rapidly than before.
The plants to be set should not be too large or they will be liable to
button, especially if the conditions are in any way unfavorable for
growth. If large plants must be used extra pains should be taken in
setting, in order that there may be as little check in their growth as
possible. With cauliflowers, as with cabbages, large plants are the
easiest to make live, but, for the reason stated, it is less desirable
to use them.
Setting the plants in shallow trenches, after the manner of celery, is
sometimes practised in garden culture. This places the roots where the
soil is cool and moist and enables the plants to be watered to good
advantage. This method is mainly used in early spring planting, when,
besides its convenience in irrigation, it also serves to protect the
plants from cold winds. Planting between ridges, as elsewhere described,
serves the same purpose of protection. In either case the surface is
gradually brought to a level as the plants are cultivated.
CULTIVATION.
In cultivation everything depends on keeping up a steady, vigorous
growth, for if the plants are checked in their growth, they are liable
either to form small heads prematurely, or to continue their growth so
late as to fail to head at all. Level cultivation is usually practiced,
the same as in ordinary field crops. Drawing the earth to the stems, as
sometimes recommended and practiced abroad, is unnecessary, though with
tall growing varieties it serves a useful purpose in preventing the
plants being blown over by the wind. Cultivation should continue until
the leaves are so large that they are liable to be broken off, or until
the plants are nearly ready to head. The application of a mulch of
manure or litter at the time cultivation ceases, is an excellent
practice, though seldom resorted to. It is important that deep
cultivation should cease at the right time, even if the hoe has to be
used afterward. The crop may be seriously injured, or at least delayed,
by cultivation after the plants begin to head. At this time the ground
should be undisturbed so that the roots may occupy the entire soil. Dry
weather, and the compact nature of the soil after cultivation ceases,
check the growth of the plants, and promote the formation of heads,
providing the plants have attained a proper age and size. The influence
of a firm soil in promoting heading is also seen in the success with
which cauliflowers can frequently be grown after peas or other early
crops. In autumn the first sharp frosts appear to be particularly
efficacious in starting the plants to heading.
IRRIGATION.
After heading has commenced is the time when irrigation is most needed.
An abundance of water at this time will add greatly, both to the
quantity and quality of the product, particularly if some fertilizer is
added at the same time. Irrigation is not often practiced in this
country, except in the arid districts of the West, and occasionally,
with the early crop, near a few of our large cities. In Europe, where
labor is cheap, it is often resorted to, even where the water has to be
carried by hand. Early in the season, if irrigation is needed, once a
week is frequent enough to apply the water, but while the plants are
heading it may be applied with advantage every day if the weather is
dry.
BLANCHING THE HEADS.
The value of cauliflowers for use or market depends almost entirely on
their being white and tender. To have them remain in this condition
until fully matured, they must be protected from the sun. Heads which
are left exposed become yellow in color, or even brownish purple if the
sun is very hot. Such heads also acquire a strong, disagreeable flavor.
There are various ways of covering the heads, but it is nearly always
done with the leaves of the plant. Early in the season, when the weather
is dry and warm, the work may be done during the heat of the day by
lapping the leaves, one after another, over the head until it is
sufficiently covered, tucking the last leaf under to hold all in place.
Or the leaves may be fastened with a butcher's skewer, or any sharp
stick. In Florida, orange thorns are employed for this purpose. Care
must be taken not to confine the heads too closely, or they will grow
out of shape, besides being liable to heat and become spotted. Later in
the season, when the weather is cool and damp, the leaves will be too
stiff to be bent down, and the head must then be protected either by
placing over it leaves broken from the outer part of the plant, or from
stumps from which the heads have already been cut, or by tying the
leaves together above the head. The latter is the usual method, rye
straw or bast matting being generally used for the purpose. Merely
breaking down the inner leaves upon the head is unsatisfactory, as the
growth, both of the leaves and the head, soon causes the head to become
exposed.
The artificial blanching of the head is most important early in the
season, while the sun is hot, and the field should then be gone over as
often as every other day for this purpose, taking two rows at a time.
Later in the season, during damp, cloudy weather, heads will sometimes
reach full size and still be of good color though entirely exposed. It
is unsafe to leave them in this way, however, as a little change in
color seriously affects their market value. Covering the heads appears
also to cause them to grow larger and remain solid longer than they
otherwise would, particularly early in the season.
PROTECTING FROM FROST.
Another object, late in the season, in covering the heads, is to protect
them from frost. A frosted cauliflower is practically worthless for
market, as it is nearly certain to turn black on the surface after one
or two days' exposure. Freezing, in fact, is one of the most frequent
sources of loss on cauliflowers late in the season, and as this is the
most favorable time of the year for them to head, it is necessary to
take particular care to guard against loss from this cause. We
frequently have a few hard frosts early in October, which spoil such
heads as are nearly mature, unless they have been protected. After this
there may be a month or more of good weather, during which the bulk of
the crop may come to maturity. The heads are protected from frost in the
same manner as from the sun, but it is best not to have the leaves lie
directly on the head. Protection is particularly needed as the heads
approach maturity, as they are then more easily injured than while
small. Heads which are well covered will usually stand eight or ten
degrees of frost without injury, depending on the amount of cloudiness
and moisture present. In cool, moist, cloudy weather, frosted heads will
sometimes recover and show no injury. It is even possible for heads to
become frozen solid and come out in good condition, but this rarely
occurs, and requires that the thawing take place in the most favorable
manner possible. Cutting the frozen heads with their leaves, throwing
them in shallow heaps upon the ground, and covering with straw, will
sometimes bring them out in good condition; also throwing them into
water but little above the freezing point. The safest way, however, if
possible, is to cook the heads at once, putting the frozen heads
directly into boiling water. Treated in this manner they exhibit little
or no effect of the freezing.
The safest way, in case heavy freezing is apprehended, is to cut and
remove to a place of safety all heads which have attained half their
size or more.
CUTTING THE HEADS.
The frequency of cutting will depend on the season of the year. In
summer, the heads will remain at the proper stage for cutting no more
than a day or two, while late in autumn they may often be left a week
before becoming overgrown.
Frequent cutting is at all times desirable, however, as it is best to
let the heads get as large as they will before becoming loose and warty.
The gain in size not only increases their selling price, but the flavor
also appears to improve as the heads approach maturity. Immature heads,
though mild and tender, have less flavor than those which are full
grown. It is better, however, to cut a head too soon than to leave it
too long, for a small solid head will sell for more than a large loose
one. To judge when a head has reached full size requires some
experience. The size of course, will depend on that of the plant, but
its size in proportion to that of the plant is perhaps the most common
point by which one judges when it is ready to cut. The head, when it
approaches maturity, rises within the leaves and bulges the latter
outward, so that one can often tell at some distance which heads are
about ready. The surface of the head, as it approaches maturity loses
its polished appearance and becomes more distinctly grained. This
change, if it does not go too far, does not detract from its appearance
and value. To examine a head, do not untie the top, but part the leaves
at the side. If there are signs of cracking or breaking it is ready to
cut. The heads should be cut with about an inch of stalk and two or
three full circles of leaves. A long thin-bladed knife is best to cut
with.
The best time of the day in which to cut the heads, if for home use, or
a near market, is in the morning while the dew is on, as they will then
remain longer in a fresh state than if cut latter in the day. If to pack
for a distant market, the heads will carry and keep better if cut when
dry, but on a cool day or toward evening.
HANDLING.
The heads must be handled with care to prevent the "flower" becoming
bruised or soiled in any way. A bruise will turn black in a short time,
the same as a frosted surface, and thus injure the sale of the head. The
heads can be handled most safely if the leaves are left on, and these
had best be left entire until the plants are taken to the packing shed;
and for a near market they may even be left on to advantage until the
plants are ready to be exposed for sale. The main object of their
removal is in order that the heads may be readily inspected.
TRIMMING.
This is often done in the field, but, as just stated, it had better be
delayed until the heads are carried to the place for packing. To trim
them, take hold of a head near the butt with one hand, holding it
upright against you, then with a turning motion, cut clear around the
head, leaving the cut ends of the leaves projecting about an inch above
the edge of the head. This exposes as much of the head as can be seen at
one view, and the leaves as left protect the margin from bruises. The
butt should be cut off smooth, and there should be left about two layers
of leaves.
The heads at the time of packing should be free from moisture, and if
the leaves are a trifle wilted they will pack all the better. Flour
barrels, or barrels of that size, are best to pack in, as cauliflowers
are now usually sold at wholesale by the barrel. Barrel-crates of the
same size are also coming into use, especially for the early crop, as
the heads are liable to heat in hot weather if packed in close barrels.
Each cauliflower at the time of packing is now usually wrapped in strong
soft white paper, the edges of the paper being tucked between the leaves
and head. The heads are then placed in the barrels, commencing at the
outside, laying them upon their sides facing in, and filling the center
with smaller heads. Continue each layer in this way until the barrel is
a little more than full. Pack as solid as possible. Cover with canvass
or bagging, putting it under the top hoop and pressing it down by
driving down and nailing the hoop. Tea-chest matting, which usually
costs nothing, may be used for covers if desired.
It may be added that cauliflowers are sometimes packed in their own
leaves, just as they come from the field, or all the leaves may be
removed but one or two which are to be folded over the head. It usually
pays, however, to use paper, but this must be white, or else when
bruised it will stain the heads.
Sometimes, when the cauliflowers are to be sold at retail, sugar-barrels
are used to pack in, as they cost less than other barrels and are
larger. They are always clean and sweet, and do not make too large a
package, as cauliflowers are not heavy.
Small slatted crates are also a favorite package in which to ship
cauliflowers, particularly early in the season. Large crates, such as
are sometimes used for cabbages, are entirely unsuitable.
A method of packing cauliflowers for shipment employed in Denmark, is
described as follows: "The heads are to be cut off in a dry state, but
not wilted, and with only an inch of stalk. The leaves are to be
removed, with the exception of a couple of the inner courses, which
should be cut down to such a length as to meet when they are bent gently
together over the head. Pack in clean, open neat-looking crates or
boxes, in the bottom of which put a few leaves, and on these the
cauliflower heads, which should be of a uniform size for each crate.
Pack closely and firmly in layers, taking care, however, not to bruise
the tender heads. All the heads in a layer should turn in the same
direction, being laid sidewise, and the next layer in the opposite
direction, respectively, with top and stem. On the top of the heads fill
in with leaves until the cover will press the whole contents so tight as
to prevent the heads from moving during transportation."
The price of cauliflowers is less subject to fluctuation than that of
most other vegetables. There is comparatively little competition between
different localities, and about the only causes of low prices are
temporary and local over-production, and forced sales caused by damaged
stock. One year with another, a dollar and a half a dozen may be
realized on good heads, which is more than double the average price of
cabbages. Contracts are taken, however, at as low as fifty cents a dozen
to supply pickle-factories. Under favorable conditions fully as large a
percentage of cauliflowers will head as of cabbages, so that in a good
location, with proper care, the cauliflower crop is a profitable one. It
may be well to remind growers, however, that one should not attempt to
sell a large quantity of cauliflowers in a small market, for even at a
low price people will not buy largely of what they are not accustomed to
using. But it is surprising to what an extent a market may be developed
for this vegetable. No one who has once used the cauliflower will
thereafter do without it, if it can be obtained at a reasonable price.
There is absolutely no necessary limit to the market for this vegetable,
providing reasonable care is exercised in creating and supplying the
demand. The price in this country ought always to be maintained if
possible at at least double that of cabbages, not only on account of the
greater delicacy of the cauliflower, but because of the greater care
needed in its production, and the uncertainty of the crop, owing to
unfavorable seasons and other causes. I could easily quote examples of
extraordinary profits made in growing the cauliflower, as well as
instances of repeated failure. Cases of both kinds of experience are
given elsewhere in the present volume. I have here only attempted to
show what may be reasonably expected.
KEEPING.
More attention is being paid of late years to the keeping of
cauliflowers in winter, and it is now customary with some to plant a
small late crop for the purpose of winter heading. Most growers,
however, will have more or less unheaded plants at the end of nearly
every season which can be used for this purpose.
William Falconer, of Long Island, sows Extra Early Erfurt about July 1,
pots the young plants, and sets them in the open field after early
potatoes have come off. In November the plants that show signs of
heading are stripped of the larger outer leaves, then taken up and set
close together in beds and covered with hot-bed sash. In cold weather
straw or thatch is added. In this way the plants continue to give heads
until February. Plants which have begun to head may be taken up in the
same way and set in a cellar. Just enough moisture should be given to
keep them from wilting, as, if too much is given, they are liable to
rot. Fully headed cauliflowers are difficult to keep. If hung up in a
cellar in the way cabbages are frequently kept, they wilt and become
strong in flavor and dark in color. This may be remedied with a few
heads by cutting off the stem a few inches below the head before they
are hung up, hollowing out the stem and filling the hollow with water.
It is said that the heads will keep in good condition for a long time if
packed in slightly damp muck. A simple way of preserving partly headed
plants out of doors is to take them up with as much earth as possible
and set them close together in trenches, after the manner of celery,
placing boards at the sides, and in cold weather a covering of straw
overhead. In this way the heads are easily accessible and keep in good
condition.
A method employed in Scotland for preserving cauliflower is to bury them
in a dry place, heads downward and roots exposed, in the ordinary manner
of burying cabbages. They are said to keep well by this method from
November to January. The leaves are folded over the heads to keep them
from coming in contact with the soil.
Another method, employed in Denmark, is to make a bed of moist sand
about four inches deep in a cool room protected against frost; the floor
had better be of asphalt, cement or the like. Toward the end of autumn
the heads are cut with a piece of the stem three or four inches in
length, which is stuck into the sand. All the leaves are removed except
the inner course, which must be cut down pretty closely, and the heads
then covered with flower pots.
Still another method, employed where hard freezing is not anticipated,
is to take up the plants and set them out in a slanting position close
together out of doors with the heads to the north, as is done with
cabbages.
Pulling up the plants and throwing them on their sides will protect the
heads from a moderate degree of cold, and can be resorted to upon the
sudden approach of cold weather. Cutting the heads with plenty of leaves
and throwing them in long low heaps, faces downward, will preserve them
in the cool, damp weather of early winter for a considerable time, and
the heads, even in this condition, will increase somewhat in size.
It will sometimes happen, early in the season, that one desires to
retard the development of the head until a convenient time for
marketing. For this purpose the plants may be lifted, when the heads are
nearly mature, and set under a shed or elsewhere in the shade.
It may be well here to remind those who grow only a few plants in a
garden, and who wish to prolong the season, that several cuttings may be
taken from a single head if desired. A portion of the head should be
left each time. Occasionally, but not often, a stump will sprout and
form a second crop. A method of accelerating the formation of heads,
which is practiced in Ireland, may also be worth recording. It consists
in slitting the stalk from near the ground upward toward the heart, and
placing a stick in the slit to prevent the parts reuniting. The soil is
then drawn up around the cut, and the plant staked to prevent its
breaking off. It is said that plants so treated will form their heads
from six to eight days earlier than they otherwise would.
CHAPTER IV.
THE EARLY CROP.
I cannot do better in treating of this crop than to first quote the
following, by the late Peter Henderson, of New York City, from his work
on "Gardening for Pleasure":
"There is quite an ambition among amateur gardeners to raise early
cauliflower, but as the conditions necessary to success with this are
not quite so easy to command as with most other vegetables, probably not
one in three who try it succeed. In England, and most places on the
Continent of Europe, it is the most valued of all vegetables, and is
grown there nearly as easily as early cabbages. But it must be
remembered that the temperature there is on the average ten degrees
lower at the time it matures (June) than with us; besides, their
atmosphere is much more humid, two conditions essential to its proper
development. I will briefly state how early cauliflowers can be most
successfully grown here. First, the soil must be well broken, and
pulverized by spading to at least a foot in depth, mixing through it a
layer of three or four inches of strong well-rotted stable manure. The
plants may be either those from seed sown last fall and wintered over
in cold frames, or else started from seeds sown in January or February
in a hot-bed or green-house, and planted in small pots or boxes, so as
to make plants strong enough to be set out as soon as the soil is fit to
work, which, in this latitude, is usually the first week in April. We
are often applied to for cauliflower plants as late as May, but the
chances of their forming heads when planted in May are slim indeed. The
surest way to secure the heading of cauliflowers is to use what are
called hand-glasses. These are usually made about two feet square, which
gives room enough for three or four plants of cauliflower until they are
so far forwarded that the glass can be taken off. When the hand-glass is
used the cauliflowers may be planted out in any warm border early in
March and covered by them. This covering protects them from frost at
night, and gives the necessary increase of temperature for growth during
the cold weeks of March and April; so that by the first week in May, if
the cauliflower has been properly hardened off by ventilating (by
tilting up the hand-glasses on one side) they may be taken off
altogether and then used to forward tomatoes, melons or cucumbers. If
the weather is dry the cauliflowers will be much benefitted by being
thoroughly soaked with water twice or thrice a week. * * * The two best
varieties of cauliflower we have found as yet [1875] are the Dwarf
Erfurt and Early Paris."
Notwithstanding the care required for the early crop, the same writer
states in his earlier work on "Gardening for Profit," (published in
1867, during a period of high prices,) that "for the past four or five
years cauliflowers [early] have been one of my most profitable crops. I
have, during that time, grown about one acre each year, which has
certainly averaged $1,500. On one occasion the crop proved almost an
entire failure, owing to unusual drought in May; while, on another
occasion, with an unusually favorable season, it sold at nearly $3,000
per acre. The average price for all planted is about $15 per 100, and as
from 10,000 to 12,000 are grown to the acre, it will result in nearly
the average before named--$1,500 per acre. Unlike cabbages, however,
only a limited number is yet sold, and I have found that an acre of them
has been quite as much as could be profitably grown in one garden."
The above, by the late well-known New York seedsman and market-gardener,
though written nearly forty years ago, is true to-day, so far as the
general profitableness of the cauliflower is concerned, and the extra
care required with the early crop.
The chief condition of success with early cauliflowers is that they
shall head before hot weather comes on. To this end the earliest
varieties are chosen, and they are set as early as possible in the
spring, and pushed rapidly forward, as stated, by using protection if
necessary, and by high manuring. It is an advantage to set the early
plants between ridges, as is done with early cabbage. The ridges hold
the sun and keep off the cold winds, and the furrows between carry off
the surface water. The plants are best set upon the south or east side
of the ridges, near the base. A good furrow with an ordinary plow forms
a sufficient ridge.
Formerly it was thought necessary to start the plants in the fall, but
since the newer early sorts have been produced, this is being abandoned.
Fall sowing has never been as successful in the Northern United States
as in England, and the failures to grow cauliflowers successfully in
this country have often resulted from adhering to the methods employed
in the Old World. Plants started in hot-beds in February, and properly
hardened off, receive but little check when set out, and make a better
growth than those which have been wintered over.
In the latitude of Virginia and Maryland, wintering over the young
plants may be resorted to, and for gardeners in that latitude the
methods adopted in England will be well worth studying, even if they
can not be literally followed. The time for sowing the seed should be so
gauged that the plants shall be neither too large nor too small during
the coldest months. If too small they will not be sufficiently hardy to
winter over; if too large they will be likely to button instead of
forming fully developed heads.
When the young plants are transplanted into their winter quarters they
should be set deeply, as the stem is the part most easily injured by
cold; the same rule of planting deeply should be followed in the first
plantings in the open ground in spring.
Wintering in the open air in a warm sheltered situation is preferable,
where it can be done, to wintering under frames, for plants so exposed
will be most healthy and will continue their growth with least
interruption in the spring.
Plants wintered under glass require considerable room, and as much air
as can be safely given. If pots are used, care must be taken not to have
them too small, or to allow them to become entirely filled with the
roots, for this will have a tendency to cause the plants to button.
BUTTONING.
I cannot perhaps do better than to mention here such other causes as
have this same tendency. Anything which checks the growth of the plants
when they are a few inches high is liable to produce this result--such
as leaving them too long in the seed-bed, withholding water, poor soil,
too much crowding. After the plants are set out, a cold rainy time or
badly drained land may have the same effect; also a very hot time, if
the soil is dry and the plants are not growing well. The check
occasioned by the transplanting may also cause the plants to button, if
they have become large, and the soil or weather is unfavorable. On this
account it is unsafe to let cauliflower plants get as large as cabbage
plants sometimes are when transplanted.
I will close this topic by quoting two paragraphs from _The Garden_, an
English journal from which I have already taken much valuable
information. The first is by a person who signs himself "D. T. F.," who
says:
"Cambrian [a previous writer] attributes this to over-manuring, and no
doubt this frequently causes buttoning, but over-frosting is quite as
injurious as over-manuring; and the hard frost which we had here on the
1st of April seems to be sending all the exposed plants into buttons,
whilst those protected only with glass lights seem safe and sound and
are spreading their leaves wide and looking extremely promising."
The next writer, Mr. Gilbert, adds:
"The whole of my Early London cauliflowers have buttoned, but not the
Walcheren, at least at present. I hear, too, this is the case in many
parts of the country. I have for years noted that after a cold severe
winter and a warm spring both cauliflowers and cabbages 'bolt,' but this
season having been quite the reverse I thought they might have escaped."
Another writer calls attention to the fact that plants which have been
nursed or protected too much during winter are more apt to button when
set out in the spring than those which have been more exposed.
CHAPTER V.
CAULIFLOWER REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.
A comparatively small portion of the United States is well adapted to
the growth of cauliflower. The climate for the most part is too dry. The
districts suited to its cultivation are often of very limited area, and
are determined by local causes affecting the distribution of moisture
and the character of the soil. The manner of treating the crop, and the
degree of care necessary for successful results, will therefore depend
largely on the locality where it is grown. For the purpose of giving
more definite information on these points, the country may be divided
into the following cauliflower regions:
THE UPPER ATLANTIC COAST.
This includes the greatest number of localities where cauliflower
culture has thus far been successfully conducted in the United States.
The region is comparatively well watered, and contains a great diversity
of soil and situation. More good markets are found here than elsewhere.
The heart of this cauliflower region is now found upon the north shore
of Long Island, where there is a strong soil, in a damp climate, within
easy reach of the New York and other large markets. Two crops are grown
here, the spring and fall. Wm. Falconer, of Queen's County, states that
for the early crop he sows the seed in a hot-house in February, and
gradually gives the plants more room and cooler quarters until they are
ready for the open ground. The varieties he uses are Henderson's
Snowball, Early Erfurt, Stadtholder and Lenormand. He has repeatedly
attempted to grow the spring crop from fall-sown plants, but they have
almost invariably buttoned, however late the seed was sown, or however
slightly the plants were protected. Occasionally, also, the
February-sown plants of Henderson's Snowball and Erfurt will button.
For the main fall crop the same four varieties above mentioned are sown
out of doors about May 18th, at the time of sowing late cabbage. For a
later crop he makes another sowing a month later. These last usually
begin to head about the last of November and are taken up and protected
to furnish a supply during the winter. Mr. C. E. Swezey, of Suffolk
County, says that more money is undoubtedly made to the acre on
cauliflower than any other crop. He finds the early crop the most
profitable, although the most expensive. For this crop he uses
seventy-five tons of the best horse manure per acre, and for the late
crop about half that amount. The variety he prefers is Henderson's
Snowball, this with the Early Erfurt being the only kinds he uses.
Francis Brill, in his book on "Farm Gardening and Seed Growing," said,
in 1872, "For the past two years the farmers of the east end of Long
Island, especially about the village of Mattituck, have planted largely
of cauliflower, being incited by the successful experiments of some who
have removed here from the west end, who were formerly engaged in
growing vegetables for the New York markets. The past season the crop
has succeeded admirably, and large profits have been realized by growers
in this vicinity, and this by men, many of whom are inexperienced in the
cultivation of this or any other vegetable for market; and, moreover,
the most of it was grown at the worst possible season of the year. As a
general rule, cauliflowers do not succeed well on old land, and much of
the land hereabouts is new, and but little of it indeed has ever been
used for cabbages or anything of this nature. But beyond a doubt it is
the humid saline atmosphere of this section which makes the cultivation
of this vegetable a success. Protracted drouths are here almost unknown,
and even during the temporary absence of rain in the summer months the
air does not seem so dry and withering, so to speak, as in sections
more remote from the ocean, the Sound and the great salt water bays by
which we are surrounded." The varieties he mentions are Early Erfurt and
Early Paris for the first crop, the Nonpareil and [or] Half Early Paris
for a succession, with Lenormand and Walcheren for late.
The same author, in his work entitled "Cauliflowers and How to Grow
Them," published in 1886, says: "The cultivation of cauliflower in the
eastern towns of Suffolk County, N. Y., familiarly known as the east end
of Long Island, was begun at Mattituck about sixteen years ago, upon a
small scale, as an experiment, by one or two gardeners from the west end
who were formerly engaged in growing vegetables for New York markets.
The success which attended these experiments, and the subsequent efforts
of some of our farmers, who by reason of reported great profits, were
induced to take up the cultivation of this crop, has been an incentive
to others, until at the present time an East End farm without an acre or
more of cauliflower is an exception, while in the towns of Riverhead and
Southold many farmers grow from five to fifteen acres each, and in the
other towns of Suffolk County the business is largely on the increase.
As a rule the crop has done well, subject of course to the ravages of
insects, drouths, etc., which have at times been serious drawbacks;
especially was this the case in 1884, when the crop was almost a total
failure, but never before had we experienced such a protracted drouth or
such an abundance of insects of every known species, and only those who
were in advance of the drouth, or who had sown seed very late, succeeded
in getting heads for market, but the few who were thus situated received
almost fabulous prices for their product." The following year he says
the crop was remarkably successful, more than 100,000 barrels being
shipped from Suffolk county to the New York markets during the mouths of
October and November. "Prices this year have ranged from ten dollars
early in the season down to one dollar and twenty-five cents a barrel
during the glut, when large quantities were sold to picklers at one cent
per pound for clean trimmed clear curd or flower. As a rule early and
very late cauliflowers bring the best prices. * * * * * Experience has
taught us that stable manure applied at the time of planting, except for
the earliest spring crop, is often injurious, and I advise applying
stable manure plentifully to the crop of the preceding year, or
otherwise let it be turned under at the fall plowing, or if well rotted
at the first spring plowing, and at the time of planting apply
commercial fertilizers, or, as they are sometimes called, patent
manures, using whatever brand you may have the most confidence in. The
competition between manufacturers has become so great that all are
compelled to be at least partially honest, and several prepare a special
fertilizer for cauliflower and cabbage which works admirably. Our best
growers all use German potash salts, or Kainit, about 13 per cent.
actual potash, one ton to the acre; or sulphate of potash, equal to 27
per cent. actual potash; or muriate of potash, equal to 45 per cent.
actual potash, about one half a ton to the acre. The relative cost per
ton, of these is $16.00 for Kainit, $38.00 for sulphate and $45.00 for
muriate--these are present prices, but the market is subject to
fluctuations. These should be evenly applied broadcast and turned under
at the spring plowing, and from one half a ton to one ton of fertilizer
to the acre should be applied in the same manner on the surface, and
harrowed in at the last preparation of the soil. Of late many have been
using fish guano, which is the scrap or flesh and bone refuse from the
Menhaden oil-rendering establishments, in connection with potash salts,
with excellent results; in fact Captain Edward Hawkins, of Jamesport,
one of our most successful growers, uses nothing else, applying one ton
of each to the acre. Very good cauliflowers have been grown by opening
furrows, placing the fertilizer therein, and covering so as to form
ridges; but I advise broadcast manuring and flat cultivation for this
crop, as I am fully convinced that one acre in proper shape and
condition will pay much better than two acres only half fertilized.
Pure, fine ground bone, one ton to the acre, plowed under will be found
beneficial, especially so in carrying the plants out at the time of
heading, but it is scarcely stimulating enough for the early
requirements of the plants. Well rotted stable manure may be used to
advantage, freshly applied and plowed under, for early spring planting
of cold-frame or hot-bed plants which are expected to mature before
extremely hot-dry weather, but it has no special advantage except to
warm up the soil. * * * The great crop with us is during the months of
October and November, for which seed is sown from May 15 to June 25, and
the plants set from the middle of June to the last of August according
to the kind." The varieties named for spring planting are, "Erfurt Extra
Dwarf Earliest," and "Small Leaved Erfurt," both being also good for the
fall crop, the latter for this crop being sown as late as July 1st. The
Algiers, a standard sort for fall, is sown from May 15 to June 1. Mr.
Brill adds: "Every known sort has been tested by our growers, and I have
had in one field eighty-six samples, comprising every known variety and
sub-variety often repeated, grown from seed procured from every possible
source, and with the exception of one or two sorts, which have done well
under peculiarly favorable conditions and circumstances, all have been
positively condemned except those above named." The varieties referred
to are the Dwarf Erfurt strains (including Henderson's), the Algiers,
and the Early and Half Early Paris--the latter two being now superceded
by the former.
C. H. Allen, in the _American Agriculturist_ for 1889, page 297, says:
"No section of the United States seems so well adapted to the growing of
the cauliflower as the northeastern part of Long Island, N. Y. For the
earliest crop a piece of heavy sod ground is plowed during the month of
April. It is then spread with fish scrap at the rate of one ton to the
acre, which is thoroughly harrowed in. A strip is then prepared for
sowing seed, by raking the ground until it is in good condition; the
first sowing of seed is made May 15. The seed for the main crop is sown
ten to twenty days later. When the plants are ready to set the ground is
again plowed in an opposite direction from the first plowing and then
spread with muriate of potash at the rate of half a ton to the acre, or
if fish scrap cannot be procured, some standard fertilizer is used after
the second plowing without the addition of muriate of potash. The Early
Dwarf Erfurt and Snowball are the most popular varieties. The Algiers
has been largely used, but for the past two or three seasons has done
very poorly, and will not be grown in the future. The plants are set
three feet apart each way. This applies to Erfurt and Snowball; Algiers
requires the rows four feet apart."
The _American Garden_ for 1889, page 59, says: "Almost nine-tenths of
all the cauliflowers that come to the New York market are grown in
Suffolk County on Long Island, and this industry is said to bring about
$200,000 a year to the county. Success with cauliflower culture has been
very indifferent in other parts of Long Island and elsewhere where
tried."
A New Jersey market-gardener described his experience as follows a few
years ago in the New York _Tribune_: "Among the many uncertain crops,
the cauliflower stands prominent, for very often under the best culture,
it fails to produce a head on an acre, although the usual outlay for
preparing and manuring the ground preparatory to planting will be at
least twice as much as for a crop of late cabbage. But when a full crop
of cauliflower is raised, the profits will average three times that of
the cabbage in the same market. This being the case, it is not strange
that every means known to the profession should be resorted to with the
hope of getting year after year maximum crops of this vegetable. But, as
yet, no plan has been discovered, under our burning July and August sun,
that will make cauliflower head with certainty every season. Any
practical man, with strong ground well manured, can every now and then
raise a crop of cauliflower. But this partial success one year does very
often prove a decided loss in the long run, for the reason that it often
happens three times the amount realized from this crop will be spent in
the attempt to raise another just like it, with the determination not to
give up. This has been my experience, although the experiments are made
now on a much smaller scale than formerly. Last year I set out 2,500
plants, and only marketed 500 from the patch; the failure was owing to
late planting. To avoid any such mistake this year, the ground was made
ready for planting early in July, and by the middle of the month some
1,800 plants set out. The ground in this case was richer and more mellow
at the time of planting than last year, and the cultivation was about
the same. At first these plants grew vigorously, but late in August they
were checked from some unknown cause, and from this check they did not
recover. Some of the lower leaves had turned yellow and dropped off,
leaving the stalks almost bare, while others have made no new growth
since. Judging from present appearances, there will not be twenty-five
sizeable heads out of the 1,800 planted. This is rather discouraging,
but one has to take the good with the bad in farming or gardening. Too
late to remedy the error it was found that the variety planted was
Walcheren instead of the Erfurt, a variety that has given me more
profitable returns for the last six years than any other, unless it may
be the Half Early Paris."
In New England the crop is more uncertain than on Long Island. W. H.
Bull, of Hampden County, Massachusetts, finds the crop profitable about
one year in three. Formerly, he says, when cauliflowers were a new
thing, any kind of a head would sell, but now only the best will bring a
paying price. The loose, leafy, purple, or otherwise discolored heads
produced in hot, dry weather, are hardly worth hauling to market. He
finds the Extra Early Erfurt about as good as Henderson's Snowball. He
sows the seed in April for a fall crop. If sown after the first week in
May the plants fail to head before frost.
Around Boston the cauliflower is grown quite successfully, and, as
elsewhere stated, seed is occasionally produced there. The variety
formerly grown for the main crop was an improved form of Early Paris,
called Boston Market, but this is now displaced by the new Extra Early
Erfurt strains. It may be mentioned here that around Montreal the fall
crop is very successfully grown.
THE LAKE REGION.
In the region of the Great Lakes there are many localities having a
suitable soil in which cauliflower may be grown to good advantage. The
moist atmosphere, which renders much of this region so well adapted to
the cultivation of fruit, favors the growth of the cauliflower. In this
region the fall crop is the one mainly grown, and the half-early
varieties, such as Early Paris and Early London have been chiefly used,
though the earlier Erfurt varieties are now largely grown.
Detroit, Grand Rapids, and other Michigan cities are comparatively well
supplied with home-grown cauliflower.
In Western Michigan there is considerable high, rolling land, of a deep
loamy character, covered originally with a heavy growth of hard-wood
timber. It was on such land as this, in Ottawa County, that the writer
grew cauliflower very successfully between the years 1870 and 1884. The
land had but recently been cleared of its timber, and it seldom received
any other fertilizer than the heavy June-grass sod which was turned
under. The method of preparing the ground was the same as for any other
farm crop, and the plants, mainly of the Early Paris variety, were set
out about the last of June, usually four feet apart each way. They were
given good care, and generally began to head in September, at the time
of the autumnal equinox, when there is usually a week or two of cool,
rainy weather. Following this, early in October, there are generally a
few hard frosts which injure some of the heads if they are not kept well
covered and closely cut. The main cauliflower season then comes on,
running through October and the first half of November. In a warm, late
season nearly all the plants will have headed, and the heads have been
sold before cold weather, but when winter comes on early, a portion of
the plants will be still undeveloped; these are either gathered and
stored, as elsewhere described, or used for feeding stock. My crop was
marketed at Grand Rapids and Chicago, and was considered the finest sent
to either of those cities. Its excellence was attributed mainly to the
deep new fertile soil, which never suffered from drouth under proper
cultivation, and to the moist climate, due to the surrounding forests
and the proximity to Lake Michigan.
At South Haven, on the immediate shore of Lake Michigan, the upland is
mainly too heavy for the best growth of cauliflower. Mr. Sheffer says:
(Mich. Ag. Rep. 1888, p. 287) "We have the advantage of cheap lands,
cheap transportation to a boundless market, and a moist climate, all
making celery and cauliflower desirable crops. For cauliflower, the
proper soil is the first essential. If planted on uplands it will fail
nine times out of ten, unless set so late as to head up just before
winter. But it is better to grow it on low wet soils that can be ditched
as far away as Philadelphia."
In Kent County, with which I am familiar, the cauliflower is
successfully cultivated by many gardeners, but, as the air is drier,
more care is required there in selecting the soil, the crop being
usually grown on bottom lands favorably situated with regard to
moisture, and containing an abundance of vegetable matter. It is
occasionally grown on muck, but such land is not as reliable as that of
a heavier character. On the light, sandy, and gravelly uplands, which
abound in this county, the cultivation of the cauliflower is seldom
attempted, and always fails, except in unusually wet seasons, although
when such land is heavily manured, the cabbage may be grown
successfully.
At Duluth, Minnesota, near the western end of Lake Superior, I have seen
as fine cauliflowers growing as I ever saw anywhere. The soil was black
loamy, upland.
Mr. J. S. Brocklehurst, of Oneota, in the same county, considers his
locality unsurpassed for the cauliflower.
In Northern Wisconsin there is considerable territory which is excellent
for cauliflower. In 1890, the first, second and third prizes offered by
James Vick, for the best heads of Vick's Ideal were all awarded to
growers in Eau Clare County, Wisconsin.
The recent introduction of very early varieties is likely to have an
important result in extending the cultivation of the cauliflower, in the
extreme Northern States and Canada, where the soil and climate are in
many places peculiarly adapted to it, but where the seasons are so short
that it has not heretofore been successfully grown.
Around Chicago much of the soil is unsurpassed for this vegetable, and
large quantities of it are grown, but not enough to supply its local
demand.
The most successful cultivators of this vegetable near Chicago are the
market gardeners in the Holland settlement south of the city, and the
Germans on the north. All are more successful with the late crop than
with the early. One of the most successful of these growers sometimes
sets his plants as late as the first of August, using seed direct from
friends in Holland.
In Mahoning County, Ohio, which may be included, for convenience, in the
Lake Region, Mr. Milton, who makes a specialty of the cauliflower,
states that it is a good paying crop, but requires high cultivation, and
if possible a moist soil. He states that he has tried all the varieties
in cultivation, and finds a great difference in seed of the same variety
from different growers. For the early crop he one year planted
Henderson's Snowball, extra selected Early Erfurt, and Vick's Ideal, and
found, owing to a drouth which set in just as the heads began to form,
that the last variety was the only one which gave paying heads. For a
late crop he generally uses Half-Early Paris, but has had good success
with Algiers in a warm season. This variety must be started very early,
however, in order to head before winter.
THE PRAIRIE REGION.
Prairie soil is usually well adapted to the cauliflower, and in
favorable seasons a good crop is obtained, but such seasons are so
little to be depended on in this region that cauliflower culture on a
large scale is only profitable here under irrigation, or in restricted
localities where the soil is naturally moist.
The gardeners around St. Louis have good success in growing cauliflower
on the bottom land. Professor L. R. Taft says, "During two of the years
I lived in Missouri it was very hot and dry and on the heavy clay soil
of most of the state cauliflower, as a field crop, was a failure. I had
good success, however, by planting one foot apart in cold frames from
which lettuce had been taken; they were watered as required and during
the hottest weather were protected to some extent by means of lath
screens."
One disadvantage in this uncertainty of a crop in the West is its effect
upon the market. A product which is rarely seen in the market brings a
low price when abundant and fails to bring a high price in times of
scarcity. Few people use it, and these do not become so accustomed to it
as to be willing to pay a high price for it when it is scarce.
Mr. Riche, of Iowa, tells in a report of the Iowa Horticultural Society,
how, in 1884, he overstocked the Dubuque market with 8000 heads. A Mr.
Smith relates how, a few years previous, he was obliged to sell 4000
heads for a little over one cent per head; yet in this same market more
familiar products often bring high prices. Another Iowa gardener grew a
field of cauliflower by mistake, having purchased the seed for cabbage,
and found himself unable to sell the crop at all!
In the irrigated districts of the West, cauliflower is grown to great
perfection. One of the largest cauliflowers on record, four feet three
inches in circumference, was grown in Colorado under irrigation in 1881.
A moist atmosphere is less important than plenty of water at the root,
especially at the time of heading, when it should be supplied, if
possible, in small amount every day. The somewhat saline character of
the soil in the dry regions also favors the growth of this crop whenever
a sufficient supply of water is given.
At the Colorado experiment station sixteen varieties were grown under
irrigation in 1888 (see table under Variety Tests), of which
Henderson's Snowball and Extra Early Erfurt gave the best results. At
the Arkansas station, the following year, out of twelve varieties these
two were the only ones that produced heads. At the South Dakota station,
Henderson's Snowball and Haskell's Favorite, a variety apparently
identical with it, gave good results.
CAULIFLOWER IN THE SOUTH.
The cauliflower, as a market crop, is but little grown in the South, but
there is no good reason why it should not become extensively cultivated
there. The chief hindrances to its cultivation in the South have been
the lack of high priced local markets, and the liability of the heads to
heat during transportation to the North.
The most favorable localities for growing this vegetable in the South
are near the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, especially near the mouths of
rivers where there is an alluvial soil and a moist atmosphere. The
cauliflower is better adapted than the cabbage to a warm climate, but
heavier soil is required for it in the South than at the North.
W. F. Massey, of the North Carolina experiment station, says that
fall-sown plants are the only ones worth growing in that latitude. The
seed should be sown in September. The crop should head not later than
March or April, as the heat is too great after April for good heads. By
forcing, the plants may be headed in the frames in winter. More heat and
protection are needed for this than in merely keeping over the plants.
When the plants are approaching full size a light dressing of nitrate of
soda raked into the soil is used to push them along and check any
tendency to button. Lettuce is usually grown in the frames between the
plants while small.
Dr. A. Oemler,[A] of Savannah, Georgia, says: "If this most delicate and
most valuable member of the Brassica family, would 'carry' more safely
at locations suitable for its cultivation, it would be one of the most
important crops for the truck farmer. Although so situated, I have
abandoned its culture, notwithstanding I have netted as high as $24.75
in New York per barrel for it, and the heads or 'curds' have sold at a
gross average of thirty-seven cents each. Sometimes, however, it would
continue to arrive in such bad order as not to be worth shipping. For
the past two years its culture for the Northern market has been mainly
confined to Florida. Coming so much earlier there, it is not exposed to
heating in transit. The best varieties are Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt,
the Snowball, and the very large growing Algiers. It should be
marketable in March and April. The seed therefore should be sown in the
latitude of Savannah about December first, under glass, and the plants
transplanted about January tenth."
Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, Alabama, writes: "From my own experience I
judge that this vegetable does not succeed as well in the southern part
of this state as in its central and more northern parts. I have seen it
raised of good quality in the gardens of Montgomery, and in the greatest
perfection in the highlands of north Alabama at an elevation of about
500 feet above the Gulf--at Cullman, in a somewhat light loamy soil,
well supplied with stable manure. In that locality the seeds are sown by
the end of February in a cold frame, to allow protection of the young
plants from frost, and the plants are transferred to the open land by
the middle of March. They arrive at their perfection during the first
half of the month of May. Another sowing is made during the first week
of March to furnish a crop during the early part of June. In that
locality this vegetable is raised only to meet a very limited home
demand. My informant at Montgomery, who raises only a supply for his own
use, writes: 'I have raised cauliflower here with success for a series
of years, some of the heads weighing six to seven pounds. The soil of
my garden is a light sandy loam, requiring heavy manuring, and frequent
irrigation of the plants toward the time of heading; it cannot be said
to be exactly suited to this vegetable. I get my seed (the White
Snowball) from Peter Henderson, of New York, sow in December in hot-bed,
transplant as soon as large enough to a cold frame, and transplant as
soon as danger of frost is over, say about the first part or middle of
March, to the open ground, which has been well prepared and manured with
stable manure. I cultivate the same as for cabbage, and the crop matures
about the first of May.'
"One of the most successful market gardeners and truck farmers in this
vicinity [Mobile], says: 'We have cultivated cauliflower for a long
series of years, but find it much less profitable than the raising of
cabbage; first, on account of its tenderness, making it liable to be
injured in transportation to distant markets, and second, by reason of
repeated failure of the crop in consequence of the too early advent of
spells of hot and dry weather at the opening of the warm season. We sow
in November in cold frame, keep well thinned out under glass until about
the 20th of January, then transplant to the open ground, cultivating
well with frequent watering if the weather should be dry. If the months
of April and May are dry and hot the crop results in a failure, from
which, in our dry and thirsty soil, no irrigation will save it. In
favorable seasons we have fine results, raising heads from ten to
sixteen inches in diameter. In the perpetually damp and inexhaustibly
fertile soil of the alluvial lands in the Mobile River delta (marshes
drained by ditching) the cauliflower is raised in the greatest
perfection, and is ready by Christmas time for the home market, bringing
fancy prices. In such localities the early varieties, particularly the
Early Paris, are used, the seed being sown in August. Outside of these
marshes the early varieties are not grown, as they produce only small
and meagre heads. Among the later varieties we find Algiers and
Lenormand the best, buying the seed from Vilmorin in Paris.'"
Mr. J. N. Whitner, in his work on "Gardening in Florida," recommends
Early Snowball, Extra Early Paris, and Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt. The
seed is sown in boxes in autumn and protected from beating rains, and if
sown before the middle of October the plants are also protected from the
direct sun during the middle of the day. The main crop is planted out
before the first of November, and harvested the following spring. In the
northern portion of the state the plants are sometimes injured by the
cold in winter. The crop is not yet extensively grown in that state. In
regard to suitable soil, Mr. Whitner says:
"In this state almost every truck farmer has some low rich spot of
bottom, lake or river margin suitable for the production of the
cauliflower. It must, however, be well drained land, and no matter how
fertile it may _seem_ to be naturally, a liberal supply of manure will
more certainly insure handsome flower heads."
Mr. Frotzer, a New Orleans seedsman, says of the cauliflower:
"This is one of the finest vegetables grown, and succeeds well in the
vicinity of New Orleans. Large quantities are raised on the sea-coast in
the neighborhood of Barataria Bay. The two Italian varieties are of
excellent quality, growing to large size, and are considered hardier
than the German and French varieties. I have had specimens brought to my
store, raised from seed obtained from me, weighing sixteen pounds. The
ground for planting cauliflower should be very rich. They thrive best in
rich, sandy soil, and require plenty of moisture during the formation of
the head. The Italian varieties should be sown from April till July; the
latter month and June is the best time to sow the Early Giant. During
August, September and October, the Lenormand, Half Early Paris and
Erfurt can be sown. The Half Early Paris is very popular, but the other
varieties are just as good. For spring crop the Italian kinds do not
answer, but the Early French and German varieties can be sown at the end
of December and during January, in a bed protected from frost, and may
be transplanted into the open ground during February and as late as
March. If we have a favorable season, and not too dry, they will be very
fine; but if the heat sets in soon, the flowers will not attain the same
size as those obtained from seeds sown in fall, and which head during
December and January."
In the _Texas Farm and Ranch_, H. M. Stringfellow, of Hitchcock,
Galveston County, gives an account of his success with American grown
(Puget Sound) seed of Henderson's Snowball cauliflower. He says:
"After two years careful trial, I have found this seed every way
superior to the original imported stock, good as that was, for our hot
climate. The plants are much more robust, make equally as compact but
larger heads, and what is most remarkable, they mature here fully two
weeks or more ahead of the imported seed. Nearly every plant will make a
marketable head, and they always sell for fully double as much as
cabbage.
"These American seeds begin to head about the first of November, and are
nearly all gone by Christmas, which gives ample time to get the crop
off in any part of Texas.
"The cauliflower is emphatically a fall vegetable and seems to require
for its perfect development a gradually decreasing temperature. The seed
should be sowed from the first to the fifteenth of July, in a frame.
Make the ground very rich, and if you use salt, which I consider almost
an essential for this crop, turn it under deeply at the first plowing.
In fact, salt and potash had better be deeply worked into the soil
always, as it will not do for either to come in contact with the roots
of a newly set plant.
"Until recently I have always thought that it would injure a plant to
set it in soil to which cottonseed meal had been lately applied. But
experiments made in the last few weeks prove that it is not only not
injurious, but that cabbage plants grow off with wonderful vigor when
the meal was applied the day before the plants were set.
"It will pay to subsoil for cauliflower, in order to give them all the
moisture possible, though they will stand a drouth in the fall equally
as well as a cabbage."
In this connection may be mentioned the following account of cauliflower
growing at Durango, Mexico, sent to the _Gardener's Chronicle_ in 1853:
The writer says: "Of the culinary vegetables, none excel the
cauliflower, which attains such a size that a single head measures 18
inches to 2 feet in diameter, and makes a donkey load. The gigantic
cauliflower is not distinct from our European species, but is solely
produced by a cultivation which necessity has dictated. Being one of the
Northern vegetables that degenerate or bear no seed if not annually
procured from Europe, it is propagated by cuttings. After the heads are
gathered the stubs are allowed to throw out new shoots, which are again
planted and have to grow two years, producing the second, the enormous
heads."
The following from Woodrow's "Gardening in India," (4th edition, Bombay,
1888), contains many interesting points of suggestive value for the
extreme South:
"Cauliflower, being a delicate plant, always needs great care and
attention in its cultivation, but much less care is necessary in this
country than in Europe. The soil most suitable is a rich friable loam,
such as occurs in the black soil of the Duccan, the alluvial tracts in
the basin of the Ganges or Nerbudda. Thorough working of the soil is
necessary, and in stations where the market price of cauliflower is
usually over four annas per head, as is the case in many parts of
Southern India, the crop is well worth extra care in the preparation of
the soil. This process should be begun shortly after the rains, when the
soil is easily plowed or dug. It should then be turned up roughly to a
depth of a foot or fifteen inches. A month later the clods should be
broken with the mallet or clod crusher, and the plow put through the
ground a second time. When the soil has weathered a few weeks, the
scarifier or cultivator should be run over it once monthly until May. At
that time good decayed cow dung or poudrette should be spread one inch
deep, and any close growing crop which is not valuable, such as _sunn_,
_tag_, _chanamoo_, or _Crotolaria juncea_, should be sown to keep down
weeds and encourage the formation of nitric acid in the soil, which has
been proved to be effected to a greater extent under a crop than on bare
soil. During dry weather in August the crop should be pulled up and the
ground plowed or dug and the crop buried in the trenches to act as green
manure, and the land prepared for irrigation.
The seed-bed should be prepared by thorough digging and mixing about an
inch in depth of old manure; wood ashes and decayed sweepings having a
quantity of goat or sheep dung in it is well suited for the seed-bed at
this season. Cow dung is apt to have the larva of the dung beetle in
it--a very large caterpillar which destroys young plants by eating
through the stem under ground. The bed having been thoroughly watered,
the seed may be sown broadcast or in lines, and covered with a quarter
of an inch of fine, dry, sandy soil, and shaded from bright sunshine.
When the seedlings appear, gradually remove the shade. The most
convenient form of bed is not more than four feet in width, the length
being sufficient for the ground to be planted. One ounce of seed is
sufficient for a bed fifty feet square, which will give sufficient
plants for an acre if the seed is good. Sowing should be made once in
ten days, from the middle of August till the end of September. If the
garden has been neglected, or the district remarkable for the quantity
of grubs that yearly come out in August, spread a considerable part of
the garden with a thick coating of stable litter or dry leaves and burn
it, prepare the seed bed in the middle of the burnt space, and soak two
pounds of saltpetre in water for one hundred square feet, and water the
bed with it for at least two weeks before sowing the seed. When the
seedlings have acquired about five leaves, and the ground to plant is
ready, lift the young plants gently on a cloudy day, and plant them out
two and one-half feet apart each way. If bright sunshine comes out,
shade the newly moved plants with broad leaves, and water them daily
with the watering pot for a few days, besides irrigating sufficiently
to keep the soil moist. Afterwards, hoeing, picking grubs and replacing
the losses from the seed-bed must be attended to.
The selection of sorts is a serious matter in cauliflower culture,
because many sorts grow only to leaves in some climates, and great loss
has been met with by some people in consequence of getting the wrong
variety. The variety known to English seedsmen as Large Asiatic, has
established itself in the Northern Provinces, where a good head of
cauliflower is procurable in December for one-half anna. In Bombay the
same would cost ten times that sum. The seed of this variety is
remarkably cheap in the districts it bears seed in. From Shajehanpore I
bought large quantities at Rs. 2 per pound, while the price of seed from
England was Rs. 2 per ounce. This sort is perfectly reliable when
properly cultivated, but it is considered inferior in flavor and
delicacy to English sorts, and its season is very short. It appears to
run to seed when January comes, at whatever time it may have been sown,
while English varieties come into use from the beginning of December to
the end of February according to the date of sowing.
Among European varieties, success will generally be met with by sowing
Early London and Walcheren. The different Giant and Mammoth varieties
advertised in seedsmen's catalogues should be grown as extras, and if
one is found to suit the soil and climate of a particular station, it
may be grown more extensively afterwards; my experience with those
varieties has not been happy."
THE PACIFIC COAST.
Fine early cauliflowers are grown in California under irrigation, and
marketed as far east as Chicago. Oregon and Washington include a large
area adapted to cauliflower growing, and this favorable territory
extends northward into Alaska. The cool, moist climate of the Upper
Pacific coast resembles that of England, where cauliflowers are so
extensively grown.
There are few good markets yet in this region, but the rapid growth of
the cities which exist affords promise of a large future demand for this
vegetable, which is likely to come into more general use as it becomes
better known.
Professor E. R. Lake, of the Oregon experiment station, states that some
parts of the Oregon coast are well adapted to the cauliflower, but that
other interests and lack of transportation facilities have thus far
prevented its cultivation for market, the bulk of the crop sold there
coming from California. He adds that the Chinese in the vicinity of
Portland cultivate this vegetable, but that their peculiar methods are
not yet understood.
Some ten years ago experiments were begun by one of our seedsmen in
raising cauliflower and cabbage seed on the alluvial tide lands on the
shore of Puget Sound. These lands, after being diked and drained, proved
to be remarkably well adapted to the growth of the cauliflower and its
seed. Others have since engaged in growing these seeds in the same
region, and the business is assuming large proportions. An account of
this enterprise may be found in the chapter on Seed.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Dr. Oemler is the author of an excellent work entitled "Truck
Farming in the South." His farm is on Wilmington Island, in the mouth of
the Savannah River.
CHAPTER VI.
INSECT AND FUNGUS ENEMIES.
The insect enemies of the cauliflower are the same as those which attack
the cabbage and other related plants. The four here mentioned require to
be specially guarded against. In preparing these notes I am indebted to
Mr. L. O. Howard, of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, for
essential aid.
FLEA BEETLE (_Phyllotrea striolata_, Fabr).--This insect, also
known as the "ground flea" or "Jack," seldom attacks the plants except
while growing in the open ground, and is most troublesome in warm,
sheltered situations. A safe preventive, therefore, is to grow the
plants in beds or frames elevated about three feet from the ground. The
objection to this method, aside from the extra labor involved, is the
necessity of almost daily attention to see that the soil does not dry
out. A supply of water must be conveniently at hand if this method is
used, and it is desirable also, to prevent the beds drying out too
quickly, to have the earth at least eight inches deep. In hot-beds this
insect is seldom troublesome, being probably repelled by the fumes from
the manure used. When the seed is sown in the open ground, as practised
by many large growers, an extra quantity should be used to ensure
against almost certain loss of some of the plants by the flea beetle.
The soil should be rich and fine, so that the plants will pass the
critical stage as quickly as possible. Sowing radish seeds with the
cauliflower is practised by some, as this seed costs but little, and the
radishes, coming up first, are attacked by the fleas, which, to some
extent, saves the cauliflowers. When the fleas appear, almost any kind
of dust will keep them in check somewhat. Lime and ashes are used, but
plaster, which adheres to the leaves better, seems equally good. I have
had good success with rancid fish oil, mixed as thoroughly as possible
with water and sprayed upon the plants. An emulsion made of the oil, in
the same manner as hereafter described for kerosene, would enable it to
be used to better advantage. A decoction of tobacco, or fine tobacco
dust, are standard remedies for this insect.
CUT WORMS.--Cauliflower plants being fully twice as valuable as
cabbage plants, and it being of more importance to have them started at
the proper time, it is necessary to give greater care to protect them
from cut worms. Absolutely clean land contains no cut worms, but such
land is seldom used on which to plant cauliflower. Sod land, which is
generally used, is nearly always full of cut worms. A multitude of
remedies have been proposed for this pest, but few of them are of much
value. The worms are most abundant and destructive in the latitude of
New York during the month of May. Fortunately, cauliflowers are usually
set out either earlier than this, for the early crop, so that they
become well established and out of reach before their depredations
seriously begin, or else, for the late crop, they are set toward the
last of June, after the worms have begun to pupate, and are no longer
troublesome. Until recently, digging and killing the worms by hand
seemed to be almost the only practical remedy. Of late years, trapping
the worms under bunches of grass or cabbage leaves, scattered over the
ground preparatory to setting the plants, has been successfully resorted
to. An improvement upon this method, recommended by the Entomologist of
the United States Department of Agriculture, is now in use, and gives
excellent satisfaction. It consists in poisoning with Paris green the
leaves used to trap the worms, so that there is no need to collect and
kill the worms by hand. A good way to do this is to spray with Paris
green, in the usual way, a patch of young clover, then cut it and
scatter it in small bunches over the cauliflower field a day or two
before setting the plants. For the protection of a few plants in the
garden, an effectual preventive against cut worms is to surround the
stem with a cylinder of paper or tin. This need not touch the plant. One
should expect to lose some plants, however, by cut worms, and be
prepared with good plants to fill the vacancies.
CABBAGE MAGGOT (_Anthomya brassicae_, Bouche)--Dr. J. A.
Lintner, State Entomologist of New York, says of this insect: "This is
probably the most injurious species of the _Anthomyiidae_, as its
distribution is very extensive, both in Europe and America, and it has
shown at times such capacity for multiplication as to cause the entire
destruction of cabbage crops. It commences its attack upon the young
plants while yet in the seed-bed and continues to infest them, in
several successive broods, until they are taken up in the autumn. The
larvae operate by consuming the rootlets of young plants, and by
excoriating the surface and eating into the rind of older ones, or even
penetrating into the interior of the root. When they abound to the
extent of seriously burrowing the stalk the decay of the root frequently
follows in wet seasons, and entire fields are thus destroyed."
The same insect attacks the turnip, cauliflower, and probably other
plants. A closely related species is very injurious to the radish. The
presence of the insect most frequently becomes manifest upon the
cauliflower about two weeks after the plants are set out, and is
recognized by the plants ceasing to grow, and wilting or assuming a
bluish appearance. Such plants should be at once removed, together with
the earth immediately surrounding the root, and fresh plants which have
been held in reserve set in their places. The only satisfactory remedies
are preventive ones. The seed-bed should be composed of soil taken from
the woods, or at least from some place where no cabbages or similar
plants have been grown. But the most important precaution is to avoid
growing the crop year after year upon the same ground, especially after
the insect has made its appearance.
The following remedy, given by Francis Brill, in his pamphlet on
"Cauliflowers," is worthy of careful trial. Mr. Brill says: "The ravages
of the root maggot have made the growing of early cauliflower, and even
early cabbages in many sections, almost an impossibility, but there is a
remedy, when the maggot has attacked the roots of the plants, which may
be known by a tendency of the leaves to wilt and droop in the heat of
the day, very much the same as when affected by club root. Dissolve
Muriate of Potash (analyzing 45 per cent. actual potash) in water in the
proportion of one tablespoonful to the gallon; or double the quantity of
Kainit or common potash salts (13 per cent. actual potash). Apply this
directly to the roots, about one gill to each plant, whether seemingly
affected or not, for the maggot will have done much harm before the
plant will show it, repeating the application as occasion may seem to
require. In sections where these maggots have been prevalent it will be
well to make a solution of half the above strength, and when the plants
are nicely started apply in the same manner as a preventive. Care and
judgment must be used not to overdo the matter, thereby killing the
plants as well as the maggots. Experiment a little at first."
H. A. March, of Washington, says: "The best thing that I have found for
the maggot is a _poor_ grade of sulphur, sulphur before being purified,
that _smells very strong_. Sprinkled over the plants it seems to drive
the fly away."
CABBAGE WORM (_Pieris rapae_, Koch).--The imported cabbage worm,
now known all over the country, is the most troublesome enemy which
attacks either the cabbage or cauliflower, and the most difficult one
with which to deal. It seldom wholly destroys the crop, and is generally
a little less destructive after a few years than it is at first, being
kept in check by its natural enemies. It never disappears, however, and
its numbers cannot be materially diminished for any length of time by
artificial means. Among the partial remedies in use are the following:
1. Catch the butterflies with a net when they first appear in spring,
before they have laid their eggs. This may keep the insect in check for
a year or two when it first makes its appearance, as the butterflies are
comparatively slow fliers, and may be caught without much difficulty by
a spry boy, especially in the morning when the air is damp.
2. Early in the season keep the young plants excluded from the
butterflies, and the whole place free from everything else of the
cabbage tribe, except one or more patches of rutabagas or rape, on which
the butterflies will lay their eggs. This piece is to be then plowed
under.
3. Hand pick the worms from the plants after they are set out, for the
first one or two hoeings, or until the worms become very numerous.
4. Spray with kerosene emulsion, made by using two gallons of kerosene,
one-half pound of common or whale oil soap, and one gallon of water.
Dissolve the soap in the water, and add it, boiling hot, to the
kerosene; then churn, while at least warm, for five or ten minutes, by
means of a force pump and spraying nozzle, until the mixture loses its
oiliness and becomes like butter. When used, dilute one part of the
emulsion with about fifteen of water, and spray it upon the plants by
means of a force pump and spraying nozzle. This emulsion is also
excellent for the cabbage louse and many other insects. In the report of
the United States Department of Agriculture for 1883 may be found a
description and figure of a suitable spraying apparatus.
5. Pyrethrum, one ounce to four gallons of water; or, better still,
mixed one part with about twenty parts of flour and applied while the
dew is on, is an effectual remedy.
6. Hot water, at 130 deg. Fah., will kill the cabbage worms and not injure
the leaves. Boiling water, placed in sprinkling cans and taken directly
to the field, will be about the right temperature by the time it can be
applied. Experiments with a few plants may be needed to enable one to
get just the right temperature to kill the worms and not injure the
plants.
7. Take half a pound of London purple to thirty pounds of finely
pulverized dust of any kind, the finer and drier the better; mix
thoroughly, passing all through a meal sieve. Dash a small pinch into
the heart of the plant, so that it will settle as dust on all the
leaves. Repeat after every rain. Half a pound will serve for one
application over forty acres. Store any that remains in a very dry place
until again wanted.
8. Professor Gillette, of Colorado, finds the best remedy to be Paris
green, thoroughly mixed, one ounce with six pounds of flour, and dusted
lightly over the plants while the dew is on.
FUNGUS DISEASES.
There are several parasitic fungi which are more or less destructive to
the cauliflower at different stages of its growth. The principal
diseases of the cauliflower due to fungi are the following:
STEM ROT.--This is an old disease, which attacks the
cauliflower, cabbage and other vegetables in wet seasons. It has
received various other names, such as "consumption," "humid gangrene,"
etc. Professor Comes,[B] who has studied this disease in Italy, believes
it to be the same as the "humid gangrene" which occurs in Germany, and
which is there attributed to the parasitic attack of the fungus known as
_Pleospora Napi_. He finds this and other fungi present, but does not
himself consider them the direct cause of the disease, which he
attributes solely to the abundance of manure and moisture in the soil,
and an excess of water in the plant, at a time when it is subject to
sudden changes of temperature. Beyond a doubt, however, the real cause
of the disease is the presence of one or more fungi, whose development
is favored by the damp weather. The subject requires further study.
In this country this disease has been reported from Michigan, New York,
Maryland and Florida. On Long Island, in 1889,[C] the cauliflower crop
was almost entirely destroyed by this disease, which was attributed to
the heavy rains at the time the plants were heading. Some fields were a
total loss, and from the best fields many of the heads spoiled before
they reached the market.
No satisfactory remedy is known for the disease. The avoidance of damp
soils and locations would be of some benefit, but is hardly practicable
with the cauliflower. Wide planting is practiced on Long Island in order
to diminish the tendency to the disease. It undoubtedly has this effect
to some extent, by permitting a more free circulation of the air, thus
drying up the moisture on the plants and thereby lessening the
opportunity for the germination of the spores. The increased distance
may also diminish the chance of the spread of the spores from plant to
plant. When this disease appears upon the early crop in hot-beds or cold
frames it may be kept somewhat in check by giving as much air as
possible, and taking care not to apply water to the leaves.
DAMPING OFF.--This is usually due to a species of Pythium (a
fungus closely related to that which causes the potato rot), which
attacks the young plants soon after they germinate. The remedy is, to
give the plants plenty of air until their stems become strong enough to
resist its attacks. An additional precaution sometimes employed is to
grow the plants in pans or small boxes and water them only by setting
these in a tank of water of nearly the same depth, allowing the water to
soak into the soil, but not touch the plants. The disease is seldom
troublesome on plants grown thinly in the open air. If it makes its
appearance, water thoroughly, but not too often, and sprinkle dry sand
over the seed-bed among the plants.[D]
BLACK LEG OR MILDEW.--This is a disease which attacks the stems
of young plants which are being wintered over. It is undoubtedly due to
one or more species of parasitic fungi, but I do not find that the
subject has been studied. Doubtless the rupture of the bark by alternate
freezing and thawing gives the fungi an opportunity to attack the plant.
The disease is prevented and kept in check by keeping the seed-bed dry.
An occasional dressing of sand, lime, wood-ashes or rubbish of any kind,
is useful.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] _Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1886_ (_Rev. Bib._, p. 128). La cancrena
del Cavolo Fiore (_La gangrene humide du Chou-fleur_) par M. le
Professor O. Comes (_Atti del R. Instituto del incorraggiamento alle
Scienzie naturali._--Estratta dal Vol. IV, 3a serie, degli Atti
Academici, 1885). [The Humid Gangrene of the Cauliflower.]
"A disease which attacks the crops of cauliflower around Resina and at
Torre del Greco, near Naples. The roots of the diseased plants remain
sound, or at least appear so, but the subterranean parts of the stem are
more or less seriously affected; the bark is disorganized, the wood
situated beneath it more or less decomposed, and the pith destroyed for
a variable length. Upon microscopic examination the vessels are found
filled with gum. M. Comes recognizes in this disease all the symptoms of
the affection which has been designated under the name humid gangrene.
He thinks that it is the same disease which, by German authors, is
attributed to the parasitism of _Pleospora Napi_, Fuckel, or to its
conidiferous form, _sporidesmium excitosum_, Kuehn. But he considers the
presence of these parasites as an accessory phenomenon, as well as that
of _Cladosporium_ and _Macrosporium Brassicae_. In his opinion the true
cause of the alteration of the cauliflower is the humid gangrene, that
is to say, a gummy degeneration and putrid fermentation of the tissues,
caused by the abundance of manure in the soil and the excess of water in
the plant at a time when it is subject to sudden changes of temperature.
"This disease is not confined to cauliflowers; it is common in all
garden vegetables, and is of the same nature as that which attacks
tomatoes and which was described by this author in the same journal in
1884." [This disease is also mentioned by Victor Paquet, in his "Plantes
Potagers" (London, 1846, p. 243), where it is attributed to stagnant
moisture].
[C] _Country Gentleman_, 1889, p. 769, (from the _Port Jefferson Times_,
Sept. 27):
"Close upon the heels of a partial failure of the potato crop through
rotting comes the news from various points on Eastern Long Island that
the cauliflower crop has almost totally failed through the same cause.
In Manorville the crop has not sufficiently developed in some of the
fields to warrant picking, and in Mattituck and east of that place the
rotting will result in an almost total loss. In a few cases there is not
yet any indication of rot, but the farmers are afraid to tie the plants
up lest rotting ensue.
"In East Moriches, Orient, and the near vicinity, the yield will not be
of sufficient value to pay for plowing the ground, not to speak of the
other expenses which have been entailed. Through the Hamptons careful
observations failed to reveal scarcely a single successful crop.
"Last Saturday Henry T. Osborn, of East Moriches, tied up 2,000 heads
and on Monday he cut enough to fill 30 barrels. He let them lie in his
barn over night, and the next day not a barrel of them was fit for
shipment to market.
"George Cooper, of Mattituck, planted seven acres of cauliflower which
he thinks will prove a total loss. And so on the reports come from many
East End farmers. The recent heavy rains are generally assigned as the
cause of the failure."
[D] A series of articles upon "damping off" may be found in the
_American Garden_ for 1889, pp. 347-9.
CHAPTER VII.
CAULIFLOWER SEED.
With no vegetable is it more important to have good seed than with the
cauliflower, and in none is there a greater tendency to deteriorate. On
this account less dependence 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 of soil, climate and
season, and the different degrees of care given by the different
growers, seeds of the same variety may be better from one source than
from another. On this account, when a variety is found adapted to one's
needs it is well to use the same variety, and obtain it from the same
source year after year.
Cauliflower seed is mostly grown in Europe, chiefly in Holland and
Germany, to some extent in Italy and France, and less in England. One
variety, the Large Asiatic, seeds abundantly in Northern India. There
are a few localities where the seed is successfully grown in the United
States.
In Europe the dwarf early varieties are chiefly grown in the north, and
the large late varieties at the south. In the south the seed is most
easily grown, and southern seed brings the lowest price.
McIntosh states that cauliflower seed seldom ripens in Scotland. In
England, as I have said, it is grown to a limited extent, but not so
much as that of broccoli. The seed plants are there selected in June, at
the time of heading, and allowed 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 "Encyclopaedia
of Gardening" (5th Ed., 1827) quotes Neill, as saying that "Until the
time of the French Revolution, quantities of English cauliflower were
regularly sent to Holland and the low countries, and even France
depended on us for cauliflower seed. Even now English seed is preferred
to any other."
A later English writer states that the English prefer Dutch seed and the
Dutch English seed.
Most of the seed now used in England, as well as nearly all of that sold
in this country comes from Holland, France and Germany. The climate,
especially of Holland and North Germany, is particularly favorable for
the production of fine strains of seed, especially of the dwarf early
varieties.
McIntosh ("Book of the Garden," 1855, Vol. II, p. 116) says: "Our best
cauliflower seed is imported from Holland, and for its quality we have
much greater reason to thank the better climate than the growers, who
are not over particular in the matter, as Dutch cauliflower seed is sure
to sell."
The Mediterranean varieties are generally large, and require for the
most part too long a season to be popular and successful in this
country. As dwarf varieties have been produced, the cultivation of this
vegetable in Europe has extended farther north. As already stated, when
the cauliflower was first cultivated in France the island of Cyprus was
the only place where it was known to seed, and for a time the plant was
known in England under the name of Cyprus Colewort.
Although most of the seed used in the United States is still imported,
American grown seed appears to give good satisfaction and is moderate in
price. Professor W. J. Green, of the Ohio experiment station, who tested
Puget Sound seed in 1889, reported as follows: "The most remarkable
examples [of the superiority of Northern grown seed] are found in the
Puget Sound cabbage 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 of others of the same variety, while
the difference in color was very marked. This robust habit continued to
manifest itself during a greater part of the season, but as maturity
approached, the variation was less and less marked, until at last the
others had caught up, and there was no perceptible difference." No
change in time of maturity or habit of growth was noticed.
Mr. Brill, of Long Island, states that to secure seed there it is best
to winter over the partially headed plants in a cold frame or cellar,
and set them out early in the spring. The summers 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 believe that hot, changeable climates, though
unprofitable for the growing of seed, are particularly favorable for the
production and maintenance of early sorts able to head in hot weather.
It is perhaps for this reason that England, Denmark, and Central Germany
have produced more early varieties than Holland, France and Italy. The
dry calcareous soil of some parts of England appears to be particularly
favorable to the production of early varieties.
In the vicinity of Boston, cauliflower seed has been grown to some
extent, especially the variety known as Boston Market, which was
formerly very popular there. James J. H. 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
and Extra Early Erfurt, grown under precisely the same conditions, he
obtained less than a great spoonful. The seed was raised on an island
used expressly for that purpose.
It is a custom in England and Holland, where the season is too short for
the seed to ripen perfectly, to diminish the number of seed-stalks on a
plant by cutting 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 plaster cat is recommended as a good scare-crow,
especially if its position is changed every few days, so that the birds
will continue to think that it is alive.
Cauliflower seed, as is well known, is smaller and inferior in
appearance to cabbage seed, and always contains a considerable
proportion, which is shrunken and worthless. This poor seed is removed
from the crop as much as possible before it is sold. This shrunken
condition arises from the fact that a large share of the flowers fail to
set, and many of the pods only partly fill. Shrunken seed is no
indication of inferiority of variety, in fact rather otherwise, for the
most compact heads, being the 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 furnish good seed, can be supplied at a
cheaper rate and may for a given purpose be equally good. As a rule it
may be said that the newest and highest priced seeds are too expensive
to use on a large scale, and the cheapest seeds are inferior in quality.
One should not judge of the value of a variety wholly by the price at
which its seed is sold. Most of the high priced varieties are dwarf
kinds, which are becoming more and more popular in this country, but
which produce comparatively little seed.
Our varieties of cauliflowers have all been developed by means of
selection. Desirable features have either been acquired by gradual
selection through successive generations in a given locality; or some
sudden variation has been preserved and perpetuated. Climate, as already
stated, has had much to do in developing certain peculiarities. The
varieties of Italy, France, 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 shortness of stem, can all be
increased by selection, but, as they are all likewise influenced by
climate, the selection is more effective in some climates than in
others. The varieties of the south of Europe are as a whole
characterized by a long period of growth, tall stems, great vigor and
hardiness, and by having the leaves inclined to grow upright and protect
the head.
The cauliflower crosses readily with the cabbage and other varieties and
species of the genus Brassica. It does not usually flower at the same
time, however, as other members of the genus, so the difficulty is not
usually great in keeping it pure.
In France the cauliflower has been crossed artificially with cabbage,
turnip and rutabaga, in the attempt to obtain varieties of greater
hardiness. Numerous peculiar forms 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 cultivation. One of
these, owing to a cross with the turnip, acquired the flavor of that
vegetable. A full account of these crosses may be found in the _Revue
Horticole_ for 1880.
The following remarks, by Mr. A. Dean, of England, on a case of apparent
crossing in the cabbage tribe will be read with interest:
"A very pretty conical-headed plant of a Colewort was allowed to run to
seed, but nothing else of the same family was known to be in flower for
a distance of at least several hundred yards. The produce was saved and
sown, and has been furnishing food for the table during the past winter,
but 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 an example of the once popular Dalmany sprouts, and there
were many other plants that admitted of no classification. It is
probable that bees, which travel long distances, had somewhere found
some sprouting in Broccoli flower and had brought pollen from those to
the Colewort plant in question."
Spontaneous variation has given a number of curious forms of
cauliflower, including one with several heads in the place of one, and
another in which the head is flattened sidewise, like the garden
cockscomb. These forms have not been cultivated.
Cauliflower seed contains on an average about 7,000 seeds to the ounce,
of which about one-half usually germinate, a much smaller per cent. than
in cabbage. Long Island growers estimate two ounces of seed to the acre
as a safe amount for the small varieties and an ounce and a half for the
late varieties.
It was formerly a common belief, especially in England, that old seed
would be most likely to produce good heads. There is little evidence to
support this belief, and just as little ground 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; fresh seed always germinates best and gives the
most vigorous plants. Seed two or three years old, however, is generally
satisfactory, and it will often grow successfully at double that age.
"CAULIFLOWER SEED GROWING ON PUGET SOUND."
By H. A. March, Fidalgo Island, Puget Sound, Washington, in _Rural New
Yorker_, 1888.
"I am told by very good authority that cauliflower seeds had never been
grown in the United States as a field crop to any extent until we made a
success of it here on Puget Sound. In the first place a very cool,
moist climate is necessary to cure [secure] seeds at all. That climate
we have 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 facing the south, and it will be all the better for having a
clay subsoil. We must have the land underdrained once in twenty feet,
the drains being three feet deep, to give us a chance to work early in
the spring, and also to take off the surplus water when we come to flood
the land in July.
"To prepare the land for the crop we start in September. After the fall
rains have softened the soil, plow, harrow, roll, harrow again, then
replow and work it again, until the soil is as fine as an 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, to the acre. With two horses
and a Planet, Jr., cultivator we work the ridges until they are nearly
level. By using two horses we straddle the ridge, and save tramping it
where our plants are to go.
"To get the plants, we sow the seeds about September 1, in rather poor
soil, giving them plenty of room; the rows being a foot apart and the
seeds sown thinly in the rows. This gives us stocky and hardy plants,
which, we think, are less liable to damp off when transplanted. About
November 1 we transplant the plants into cold frames, six inches apart
each way, as we wish to keep them growing a little all winter. The
glasses are kept on at night and through heavy rains. In case of a cold
snap, we cover the glasses with mats; but that is not often necessary,
for we seldom have a temperature colder than 16 deg. above zero. Everything
depends on good plants and an early 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 of these cans,
we go to the cold-frame (having well soaked it with water the night
before); take a can, set it right down over the plant; press the can
into the soil about two inches, and, with a light shove to one side,
lift the plant without disturbing the roots; fill our tray and start for
the field; run the barrow between two rows and set a can and plant in
each of the holes just made. A boy follows with a watering pot
containing _warm_ water, and pours a gill into each tube, which softens
the soil so that the tubes can be lifted right out, leaving the plant
standing in the hole. We brush a little dirt around the plant, and firm
it with the blade of the hoe.
"Now we have our plants set, and not one ever wilts in the hottest
spring day. In two or three days the cultivator is started and kept a
going once a week until the heads begin to form. We hand-hoe three or
four times, besides fighting insects. The cabbage maggot is our worst
enemy.
"When the flowers commence to bloom out or form heads, is the most
particular time. A man who thoroughly understands what a perfect
cauliflower is, must now go through the field every two or three days
and examine every head, and if there is 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
head, especially in the case of cauliflowers; for the seeds from these
are more apt to run wild than any seed I ever grew. We usually set a
Fottler cabbage in the place from which the poor plant has been cut, and
it makes a fine head by fall.
"By the middle of June we have the field clear of all inferior heads,
and their places filled with late cabbages. About this time all the
heads saved for seed are 'sponging out' preparing to throw their
seed-stalks. Now is our time to help them. On the upper side of the
field, we have wooden water tanks, each holding about 20,000 gallons of
_warm_ water. The water is run into the tanks in the middle of the day
through flat open troughs, which heat it up to about 70 deg. 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 the seed
stalks start. This watering gives the plants new life and they start off
for a second crop, or become biennials the first year. The watering and
cultivation are kept up once in 10 days until the seed-stalks are so
large that they cannot be run through without breaking the plants. The
seed ripens from the middle of September to the last of October,
according to how good a start was made in the spring.
"The expense and trouble are not over yet. The seed is ripening about
the time our rainy season sets in, and we don't see the sun once a week
on an 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 the houses in tiers, on which we hang the seeds for
drying. A brick furnace is built in the middle of the house, with the
flue running through the roof.
"We usually make three cuttings. As soon as the pods on the center
stalks begin to turn yellow, and the seed a light brown, we make our
first cutting. From one to three plants are put in a pile and tied with
binding twine. The bundles 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 in the house who hangs
them on nails driven for the purpose. The seed is allowed to hang a few
days to thoroughly ripen before firing up. We aim to keep the heat in
the top of the house at about 80 deg. until the seed and stalks are dry.
"The bundles are now taken down and laid upon a cloth where they are
crushed by walking on them. Grain sacks are then filled with the stalks
and pods as full as they will tie up, and the contents are thrashed in
the sacks with a flail. The seed is then sifted from the stalks and
taken to the fanning-mill, and after putting it through the mill two or
three times, 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 of the board and gently shakes it. All of the sound
plump seeds run off on to the cloth, while the shriveled seeds, bits of
stalk, dirt, weed seeds, etc., remain on the board. A smart Indian boy
will clean ten pounds a day, at a cost of 50 cents and his board. Now
the seed is sacked in double cotton sacks, holding about ten pounds
each, and is ready for market."
In a subsequent paper the same writer said, in answer to inquiries upon
the subject, that the cauliflower and cabbage readily mixed, but that
there was little danger of their 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
neighboring cabbage patch to clip off all straggling late blossoms that
remained. Only one variety of cauliflower, or strains of one variety,
is grown by him for seed in any one year.
The following letter from the same writer explains itself:
"FIDALGO, Washington, April 3, 1891.
"MR. A. A. CROZIER, Ann Arbor, Mich.
"_Dear Sir_:--Your letter of inquiry received. In answer would say, I am
the original cauliflower raiser in the Puget Sound country. In 1882 I
discovered that by wintering the plants over in cold-frame, and keeping
them growing all winter, those that were transplanted _without wilting_
would form heads, and then throw seed-stalks in time to form seed 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 give away.
Several of my neighbors have tried to raise the seed, and I believe some
of it has been put on the market, but it has proved inferior for the
want of skill in knowing _which heads_ to seed from, as all heads will
not do to seed from, even though they may appear perfect to an
inexperienced eye. It's skilled labor that produces No. 1 seed.
"I enclose you my circular, with reports from growers and dealers, also
quite a few from the experiment stations. I have a large number that I
have not printed, as they came too late for 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 will be grown in the country. Cabbage seed is also grown to a large
extent. I raised about two tons last year, and there probably will be
ten tons raised on Puget Sound the coming summer.
"Cabbage and cauliflower are grown to a considerable extent both in
Oregon and Washington, though California sends our first to this market.
"You ask me for an account of my Early Perfection or "No. 9." It was a
_sport_ or a "stray seed," found among some Erfurt Earliest Dwarf
imported seed, and being the first in the field to form a head by over 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 the market--never saw
it in the seedmen's catalogues. Early Padilla and Early Long Island
Beauty, by Brill, are the same; they originated with me, are a selection
from _Erfurt Large_, and are _early_ and _large_.
"All of Tillinghast's Puget Sound cauliflower seed has been grown by me.
I have also grown all that Francis Brill has put on the market.
"D. M. Ferry & Co.'s Early Puritan originated with me, from a sport of
Henderson's Snowball. I sold them the stock for two years.
"Yours Truly,
H. A. MARCH."
CHAPTER VIII.
VARIETIES.
The varieties of cauliflower differ among themselves less than those of
most other vegetables, and their characters are less firmly fixed. Their
tendency to degenerate, especially under unfavorable conditions, and the
readiness with which they may be improved by selection, has given rise
within recent years to numerous so called varieties, some of them but
slightly differing from those from which they originated. These have
frequently received the names of the seedsmen who first sent them out.
Many of these seedmen's varieties have dropped out of cultivation, as
well as other varieties which have appeared from time to time, but which
have not possessed sufficient distinctive merit. Some varieties, from
not having been kept up to their original standard, have reverted to
those from which they sprang, or become so like them that their names
have come to be regarded as synonyms.
Nevertheless, all such names have been brought together in the following
catalogue, and all the obtainable information given concerning the
varieties which they represent. The testimony given is sometimes
contradictory, either from want of proper observation on the part of
the writers quoted, or from differences in the seeds sold under the same
name. This is necessarily somewhat confusing to one who is looking up
the merits of a variety, but it will form a better basis for judgment
than would a mere descriptive list, without reference to dates or
authorities. It is practically impossible to make a satisfactory
classification which will include all the varieties, and they have
therefore been arranged here in alphabetical order, as being most
convenient for reference. Nearly all of the most popular varieties have,
however, characters sufficiently distinct so that they can be easily
recognized. Some have short stems, others long; some are early, others
late; some have upright leaves, others drooping; their color varies from
grassy to bluish green; the heads vary from snow-white to cream-colored,
and in two or three varieties classed with the cauliflowers they are
reddish or purple, as in some of the broccolis. The form of the head
varies from flat to conical.
Most of our varieties have come from a few stocks whose characters, as
well as those of their descendants, seem to have been largely determined
by the locality in which they originated or have long been grown. The
Algiers, Paris and Erfurt groups are examples. In each of these groups
there is a series of varieties, differing mainly in size and earliness.
In the Erfurt group the production of early varieties has been carried
farthest, owing doubtless to the character of the climate, as well as
the greater skill employed in their selection. The early varieties,
particularly of this group, are characterized by having comparatively
small, narrow and upright leaves, and a rather short stem. A partial
list of varieties, arranged in the order of earliness, follows the
catalogue.
ADVANCE, see _Laing's Early Advance_.
ALABASTER.--Introduced to the general public by Johnson Stokes
in 1890. In their catalogue for that year these seedsmen say: "Our
_Early Alabaster_ was originally a sport from the finest German strain
of the selected Dwarf Erfurt, one extra fine head appearing some ten
days in advance of any other in the crop of one of the largest and most
expert cauliflower growers on Long Island in 1881. The seed of this was
carefully saved by him, and from it our stock has been brought up."
The seed of this variety has all been grown on Long Island, and it was
all taken by Long Island gardeners until 1889, at which time there were
said to be hundreds of acres of it in cultivation in Suffolk County,
where it originated. [See Frontispiece.]
ALGIERS, (Probably includes _Large Algiers_ and _Large Late
Algiers_).--Vilmorin, in 1883, described Algiers as follows: "Extremely
vigorous, stronger and better developed than the Giant Naples, [Veitch's
Autumn Giant]; leaves very large, undulate, almost curly, of a very deep
and reflective glaucous green; stem large and strong, rather tall; head
remarkably large, fine and white. In habit of growth it approaches the
Half Early Paris, but in time of maturity it agrees with the varieties
of Holland and England. It is especially adapted to open-air culture in
a warm climate."
M. May, of France, placed it in 1880 just before Giant Naples in
maturity, with a little shorter stem and little less ample foliage. He
said: "Late, but of gigantic size; leaves large, long and numerous, of a
glaucous green, and surrounding well the head, which becomes as large as
those of our native varieties, and is snow-white and exceedingly fine.
Specially suited to warm climates. In our country it may be sown in
September, and gathered the following August."
Rawson, a seedsman of New York, said in 1886: "A large and very popular
late variety, and one of the very best for the market. This variety is
largely grown for the New York market. It is one of the largest in
cultivation, and always sure to head." Frotzer, of New Orleans,
describes it as a French variety of the same season as Lenormand
Short-stem, but a surer producer, having taken the place there of other
second-early kinds since its introduction. At the Ohio experiment
station it proved unsuited to the climate. A writer in the _American
Agriculturist_ for 1889 stated that this variety was formerly largely
grown in Suffolk County, Long Island, but that for the past two or three
seasons it had done poorly, and would not be grown in the future. Its
large size required the plants to be set four feet apart.
ALLEAUME (_Early Alleaume_, _Dwarf Alleaume_).--This variety,
originated by an intelligent market gardener of Paris; was, according to
the originator, one of the best for cultivation under frames. Cultivated
there in the open ground, that is to say, sown in June and planted out
in July, it has given remarkably good results. It is a little below
medium height, and has a very short stem. Its oblong leaves are of a
light grayish green. The head is of medium size, very white, fine
grained, of first quality, and early. It is a variety of great promise.
This is the statement of the editor of _Revue Horticole_ in 1884. In
1888, Mr. Sutton, of England, calls it a distinct, dwarf, compact,
French variety, having creamy-white heads, and coming in after Sutton's
Favorite. In 1890, Vilmorin quotes it as a very early dwarf,
short-stemmed variety, especially good for forcing.
In 1885, W. A. Burpee offered an "Extra Early Alleaume," which he
described as "stem very short, leaves long, _entire_ or _very little
lobated_, of a grayish-green color, forming a close protection to the
head, which is large, fine grained and pure white." This is probably the
same variety as above.
ALMA (_Waite's Alma_).--Hackett sells this as a new English
variety of large size, firm, and surpassing in excellence the Walcheren.
There was, however, a variety named Alma, probably the same, growing at
Paris in 1857 (see _Jour. Cent. Soc. Hort. France_, 1857, p. 422). In
1865 Waite's Alma was considered by some to be merely the Early London,
and by others to be the same as Walcheren; at least, seeds of these two
varieties had been sent out for it.
AMERICAN.--Seed of a very early variety bearing this name was
sent by William Ingell, of Oswego County, New York, to the editor of the
_Country Gentleman_, in 1861. Mr. Ingell, who named the variety, does
not state whether he grew the seed or not. In 1889, Bailey's "Annals of
Horticulture" contained the name "American," with _American Beauty_ as
synonym.
ANCIENT LENORMAND, see _Lenormand_.
ASIATIC (_Early Asiatic_, _Large Asiatic_, _Large Late
Asiatic_, _Dur d'Angleterre_).--These seem to be substantially one
variety, the terms "early" and "late" being in this, as in some other
cases, applied by different seedsmen to the same variety, when, as in
this case, it is of intermediate season. Since the introduction of such
extremely early sorts as the Extra Early Erfurt, this and other
mid-season varieties are more often called "late." The Asiatic seems to
have originated from the Early London, of which it is regarded as merely
a stronger growing and later variety. The first mention I find of it is
in _Hovey's Magazine_, in 1845, where Large Asiatic and Walcheren are
called the two most noted varieties. In 1849 the same magazine states
that it was sent out by the London Horticultural Society. In 1850 a
writer in the _Gardener's Chronicle_ mentions this and Walcheren as his
two favorite varieties. In 1854, J. D. Browne describes the Large, Late
Asiatic in the report of the United States Department of Agriculture as
larger and taller than Early London.
In 1855 this variety is mentioned in the American edition of "Neill's
Gardener's Companion" as having recently come much into use. As this
edition was taken from the fourth Edinburgh edition, the actual date
here referred to was probably much earlier. Three other varieties,
scarcely differing in character, are mentioned--the Early, Late and
Reddish-stalked. The Large Asiatic is now extensively grown in Northern
India, where it seeds freely, but has a short season, and is not
considered as delicate or fine in flavor as the ordinary English
varieties.
AUTUMN GIANT, see _Veitch's Autumn Giant_.
BALTIC GIANT.--In Burpee's "How to Grow Cabbages and
Cauliflowers" (1888), Mr. J. Pedersen, of Denmark, gives the following
account of this variety: "A new variety of large, late cauliflower,
originated in these northern regions, and which I propose to name Baltic
Giant, is very hardy, of robust growth, and produces very large and
solid dazzling white flower-heads. A friend of mine writes from the
Baltic island of Bornholm that in mild seasons he has left this splendid
late variety in the open ground as late as Christmas, only protected by
a leaf or two bent over the heads." The variety is being tested in this
country by W. A. Burpee & Co.
BERLIN DWARF.--Rawson says: "In earliness, size and quality it
resembles the Snowball." Gregory, in 1890, makes the same statement.
BEST OF ALL.--An early variety mentioned in _Gardening
Illustrated_, 1885, p. 438.
BLACK SICILY (_Large Black_, _Dwarf Early Violet
Broccoli_).--Vilmorin says: "In growth and appearance this variety
somewhat resembles Algiers. Stem rather tall, leaves very large, broad
and much crumpled, almost curly; differs from all other cauliflowers in
the color of its head, which is violet, and with a grain much coarser
than in other varieties, while it is sufficiently close, solid and
large. Not very late; always grown in the open air, and ready to
commence cutting in September." Mentioned in _Bon Jardinier_, in 1859,
as one of the three principal Broccolis, with which it is generally and
properly classed.
BOSTON MARKET (_Improved Early Paris_).--This variety, which
has now gone out of existence, was formerly extensively cultivated
around Boston, where it originated by continued selection from the Early
Paris. In the _American Journal of Horticulture_, for 1869, p. 92, is a
figure and description.
BURPEE'S BEST EARLY.--An improved type of Dwarf Erfurt, named
and introduced by W. A. Burpee & Co. in 1886, after, as they say,
sixteen years selection by one grower. It is said to be of dwarf,
compact growth, with a short stalk, and large, solid, nearly globular
heads, very early and certain to head.
The Dingee & Conrad Company sell the same variety.
At the Ohio experiment station in 1889, this variety was regarded as
probably the same as Large Erfurt, rather large, and a few days later
than Early [Extra Early] Erfurt, but quite as good in other respects. At
the Colorado station, in 1888, "Burpee's Earliest" was noted for its
large leaves and white, compact heads. It headed ten days later than
Henderson's Snowball.
CARRARA ROCK.--An extra selected strain of Erfurt, said by Wm.
Elliott & Sons, of New York, to be the earliest and surest variety to
head.
CARTER'S DEFIANCE (_Early Defiance_).--Gregory considers this a
fine variety for forcing or very early use.
CARTER'S DWARF MAMMOTH.--An early variety, coming in just after
Carter's Defiance. Plant dwarf, head very large, perfect in form and of
fine color.
CARTER'S EXTRA EARLY AUTUMN GIANT.--A variety said, in 1889, to
have large, close, white heads, both flower and leaf being less coarse
than those of Autumn Giant.
CARTER'S MT. BLANC, see _Mt. Blanc_.
CHALON PERFECTION. A variety mentioned in _Gardener's Monthly_,
in 1886. Said to be as white as snow, almost as smooth as ivory, and to
make good heads in soil of moderate fertility. Probably the same as
Early Dwarf Chalon, which see.
CHAPEL (_Chapel's Cream_).--Catalogued in Bailey's "Annals of
Horticulture," in 1889.
CLARK'S CHAMPION.--An imported English variety mentioned in
_Vick's Magazine_ for 1887, p. 52, as being a little later than Snowball
and Vick's Ideal.
CYPRUS.--Said by Wolfner and Weisz, of Vienna, in 1888, to be a
beautiful early sort. It is an old Holland variety.
DANISH SNOWBALL.--Offered by Vaughn, in 1891, who says he has
tested it for two seasons, and finds it a good, extra early sort.
DEAN'S EARLY SNOWBALL.--This, the oldest, and for a long time
the most popular of the Snowball varieties, has now been displaced in
this country by Henderson's Snowball and other early sorts. It is often
said to be earlier than Early Dwarf Erfurt, but at the Chiswick trials,
in 1876, it did not prove to be so. A writer in the _Garden_, for 1880,
places it third on the list of early varieties, placing Carter's Extra
Early Defiance first, and Veitch's Extra Early second. It appears to be
fully as dwarf as the earliest Erfurts, and to have a little larger
head. It has been said, even by the introducer, to be the English
duplicate of the Early Dwarf Erfurt, but there is no doubt of its
distinctness from that variety, as was afterwards recognized. There was
another German variety, however, name not given, at the Chiswick trials
referred to, which was reported to be identical with Dean's Snowball.
Mr. Dean says: "The Snowball may be told by one unfailing test, viz.:
when the heads begin to burst into flower, they become suffused with a
pretty purple tint."
This variety was introduced into England in 1871, by Mr. A. Dean, from
Denmark, where it was largely cultivated. It is still one of the best
early varieties, especially for hot weather and light soils. Mr. Dean
states that it is about the only variety of which seed can be grown in
England, and he considers English-grown seed of this variety the best.
DICKSON'S ECLIPSE, see _Eclipse_.
DREER'S EARLIEST SNOWSTORM.--Henry A. Dreer, in 1890, says in
his catalogue: "The earliest and best of all for forcing. It is dwarf,
with short outer leaves, and can be planted two feet apart each way;
always sure to make large, fine heads earlier than any other, and is the
market-gardener's favorite. This variety must be kept growing
constantly, as it will not stand a check at any period of its growth."
In 1891, he writes that this variety is a strain of Extra Early Erfurt,
the seed of which is grown at Erfurt, Germany.
At the New York experiment station, in 1888, it produced heads fit for
use eighteen days later than Henderson's Early Snowball, and Earliest
Dwarf Erfurt.
DWARF ERFURT (_Extra Early Erfurt_, _Early Dwarf Erfurt_,
_Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt_).--These names all refer to practically the
same variety, which is usually sold in this country under the name of
Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt, and is now the most popular early variety
grown. It is similar in habit to its parent, the Early Erfurt, but more
dwarf, and the leaves smaller and more upright, allowing the plants to
be set closer together. The heads are close and well formed, but do not
remain solid long, owing largely to the hot weather in which they are
generally formed. The best seed comes from Erfurt, Germany, but as the
variety rapidly deteriorates, there is great difference between the
selected and ordinary stocks.
Johnson & Stokes say, in their catalogue for 1890, that their extra
selected Early Dwarf Erfurt is distinct from the Early Dwarf Erfurt.
Burpee calls his Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt "the finest of all early
cauliflowers." He, as well as some other seedsmen, sell different
qualities, "extra selected," "true," numbers "one" and "two," etc.
French-grown seed sells for about half the price of German seed.
At the Chiswick trials, in 1876, where all known varieties were grown,
the Early Dwarf Erfurt proved to be the earliest variety grown. It is
best grown as a summer variety, being rather tender for a late crop,
though sometimes used.
M. May, in the _Revue Horticole_, for 1880, describes this variety as
follows: "Early Dwarf Erfurt. Very early, with light-colored, short,
upright, spoon-shaped leaves, which surround the head well, but do not
cover it. The head is well rounded, very regular, of remarkable
whiteness, and very fine and close. It readily attains a diameter of
fifteen to twenty centimeters [about five to seven inches]. This variety
is especially adapted to forcing, as its small size permits it to be
readily cultivated under glass. The best times for sowing it appear to
be at the beginning of spring and the end of summer. One may also sow it
in September to obtain a crop in April and May."
Mr. J. Pedersen, of Denmark, speaks as follows of this variety in
Burpee's work on "Cabbages and Cauliflowers:" "The success with
cauliflowers depends greatly upon the right choice of varieties. This
year, for instance, we have in this country suffered from drouth to an
extent not known of for the last score of years, and yet I have seen a
surprisingly grand field of cauliflowers, of an improved strain of the
Early Dwarf Erfurt variety, grown in a stiff clayey soil, very dry in
the surface, not in the best state of cultivation, and without any
artificial watering whatever. The roots of the plants were 'puddled'
when planted out; that was all. I do not believe that seven per cent.,
perhaps not five, of said field of thirty or forty thousand plants
failed to make fine, large, solid, beautifully white and typical heads.
Other varieties have either utterly failed, or made stunted,
imperfectly developed heads."
At the New York experiment station, in 1882, the Extra Early Dwarf
Erfurt was slightly earlier than the Early Dwarf Erfurt, and produced
double the proportion of good heads.
The Ohio experiment station, in 1889, reported as follows: "The
varieties or strains most highly recommended are Early Puritan, Early
Padilla, Long Island Beauty, Early Sea Foam, Early Snowball and Vick's
Ideal. These all appear to be nearly identical with Early [Extra Early]
Erfurt, and may be considered as strains of that variety."
As the Dwarf, or Extra Early, Erfurt has furnished a large share of the
varieties now popular in this country, the following list of Erfurt
varieties will be useful for reference. The first three are in the order
of earliness; the others (descended from Dwarf Erfurt,) being
alphabetical:
Early Erfurt Mammoth.
EARLY ERFURT.
_Dwarf Erfurt._
Alabaster (Johnson & Stokes).
Berlin Dwarf.
Best Early (Burpee).
Carrara Rock.
Gilt Edge (Thorburn).
Ideal (Vick).
Imperial.
Lackawanna (Tillinghast).
La Crosse Favorite (Salzer).
Landreth's First.
Long Island Beauty (Brill).
Model (Northrup).
Padilla (Tillinghast).
Prize (Maule)?
Puritan (Ferry).
Sea Foam (Rawson).
Small-Leaved Erfurt.
Snowball (Faust).
Snowball (Henderson).
Snowball (Thorburn).
Snowstorm (Dreer).
Snowstorm (Pearce)?
EARLY.--At the New York experiment station in 1888, a variety
called "Early," from the English Specialty & Novelty Seed Co., was the
only one among nine varieties which failed to head. The Early London
White is sometimes known as "Early."
EARLY ALLEAUME, see _Alleaume_.
EARLY DEFIANCE (Sutton), see _Carter's Early Defiance_.
EARLY DUKE.--Mentioned as one of the best four early varieties
for Central France in the _Annales de la Societe d' Horticulture de l'
Allier_ for 1852. See Lefevre.
EARLY DUTCH.--An old variety, described by Vilmorin as follows:
"A large hardy variety, suitable for field cultivation. Stem long and
rather slender; leaves elongated, but very large, of a grayish green,
somewhat undulated. This is one of the varieties in which the side of
the leaf is bare at the base for a considerable distance. The head is
hard and solid, yet very large. It is a half-late variety. In its
original country it does better than the French varieties and it is
cultivated on a grand scale around Leyden. Large quantities are shipped
to England, where it is found in the London markets, together with
cauliflowers from the coasts of France, and especially Great Britain.
The name Dwarf Holland, which is given to this variety in Germany, can
only be explained by comparison with other Holland varieties. In
comparison with the French varieties it is tall."
EARLY DWARF CHALON.--Vilmorin catalogues this as "new" in 1889,
and says: "Stem very short, head rather large, grain white and very
close. Specially recommended for open air culture." See Chalon
Perfection.
EARLY DWARF FORCING (Sutton).--No description.
EARLY DWARF SURPRISE.--An early variety from Vilmorin, which
headed well at the New York experiment station, in 1884.
EARLY DWARF VIENNA.--Said by Wolfner and Weisz, of Vienna, to
be an old superior sort, still grown for the first and second crop.
EARLY ERFURT (_Erfurt_, _Large Erfurt_, _Large Early White
Erfurt_, _Late Erfurt_).--This is still a popular variety, but less
hardy and less valuable as a late sort than the improved varieties from
the south of Europe; and as an early sort it has been displaced by its
offspring, the Extra Early Erfurt, and the newer varieties derived from
that. The heads of the Early Erfurt are large and fine-grained but more
inclined to be open and leafy than those of Early Paris. It is a little
earlier than that variety. Vilmorin describes the Early Erfurt as
follows: "Very early, distinct, and valuable, but difficult to keep
pure. Below medium height; stem rather short; leaves oblong, entire,
rounded, and slightly undulated; of a peculiar light grayish green,
which, added to their form and their rather erect position, gives to the
plant an appearance somewhat resembling that of the Sugar Loaf. Head
very white, fine grained, rapidly developed, but not inclined to remain
long solid."
The _Bon Jardinier_ mentions the Erfurt, in 1859, among the novelties as
the earliest variety then known, being two weeks earlier than Salomon
(Early Paris) and very suitable for forcing on account of its straight,
upright leaves and earliness.
EARLY ERFURT MAMMOTH (_New Erfurt Dwarf Mammoth_ [Burr],
_etc_).--F. Burr, in 1886, said: "A recent sort with large, clear white
flowers, of superior quality. The plants are low and close, and
generally form a head, even in protracted dry and warm weather. It
appears to be one of the few varieties adapted to the climate of this
country." This form of Early Erfurt has not been kept distinct.
EARLY FAVORITE.--A variety without description is sold under
this name by A. B. Cleveland & Co. See also Haskell's Favorite.
EARLY GERMAN.--"A new variety advertised in English
Catalogues:"--(_Mag. of Hort._, 1838, p. 50).
EARLY LA CROSSE FAVORITE.--John A. Salzer offers this as
earlier than Henderson's Early Snowball, and "the earliest, finest,
whitest and most compact grown." At the Ohio experiment station in 1889
it was apparently the same as the ordinary large Early Erfurt. Mr.
Salzer writes me that it is a distinct type of his own originating from
the Early Erfurt.
EARLY LEYDEN, see _Walcheren_.
EARLY LONDON (_London Particular_, _Fitch's Early London_,
_Early English_, _Large Late_.)--An old sort, still quite popular in
both the United States and England. Vigorous and hardy, with large,
abundant, deep-green, undulated foliage; stem rather tall, but shorter
than that of Early Dutch; head well formed and somewhat conical.
Formerly the main variety grown as an early crop about London, but there
are now varieties much earlier.
Vilmorin regards it the same as Early Dutch, which is evidently an
error.
EARLY LONDON MARKET (Gregory), see _Early London_.
EARLY LONDON WHITE (Sutton).--An early form of Early London,
cultivated some twenty years ago, but now seldom heard of.
EARLY PADILLA (_Long Island Beauty_).--The Early Padilla was
named and sent out by Tillinghast in 1888, who says that it is a sport
from Henderson's Snowball which originated on one of his seed farms on
Padilla Bay, Puget Sound, in the State of Washington. Mr. H. A. March,
of Fidalgo, Washington, who states that he grows all of Tillinghast's
Puget Sound cauliflower seed, says that Early Padilla originated with
him from the Large Erfurt, and was named by him the "American." It was
published at first under this name in one of his circulars. Seed of the
same was also supplied by him to Francis Brill, of Long Island, who
named it and sold it as Long Island Beauty.
At the New York experiment station in 1888, the Early Padilla equaled in
earliness Henderson's Snowball, and was slightly surpassed by Extra
Early Dwarf Erfurt, while the variety obtained as Long Island Beauty was
the earliest of the nine early varieties on trial. At the Ohio
experiment station in 1889, Long Island Beauty was called a very perfect
strain of Early [Extra Early] Erfurt.
Gregory said in 1890: "Of the thirteen varieties of cauliflower raised
in my experimental plot in 1888, every specimen of the Long Island
Beauty made fine heads, and the heads averaged larger than any other
sort. It is among the very earliest.... Mr. Brill calls it, 'absolutely
and unequivocally the best cauliflower in the world.'"
EARLY PARIS (_Tendre de Paris_, _Salomon_, _Petit
Salomon_).--An excellent sort, more largely grown for a fall crop in
this country in the past than any other variety. Intermediate in season
between half Early Paris and the new Extra Early Paris. As grown by the
writer from seed obtained for several years of James Vick, the Early
Paris was later than Early Erfurt, but more certain to head, the heads
more globular, a little smaller, decidedly lighter in weight than those
of that variety, of better quality, and almost entirely free from
intermixed leaves. Sown about May 10, and set out the last of June, most
of the plants formed their heads during October. As a summer variety it
produces better heads than the Early Erfurt, but is less inclined to
head early in the season.
Described by Vilmorin as follows: "Plant small, rather tall; leaves
comparatively narrow, nearly straight, a little deflexed at the
extremity, and slightly wavy at the border; head of medium size, quickly
formed, but remaining firm but a short time. This variety is
particularly suitable for the summer crop; sown in April or May it heads
in August or September." In this country, when used as a fall crop, no
complaint is made of the heads not remaining firm. Sown in May in the
latitude of New York it heads in September and October. M. May, of
France, describes this variety as follows in the _Revue Horticole_ for
1880: "An early variety grown by gardeners in the outskirts of Paris. It
has nearly the appearance of the Half Early Paris, but is smaller, with
a little shorter leaves, which are more narrow and upright. It is sown
in September, and Wintered over under hand glasses on a bank composed of
manure from an old hot-bed and exposed to the south. The crop is then
gathered during May. It may also be sown in March and gathered in July."
Victor Paquet, in his work on Vegetables (_Plantes Potagers_), published
at Paris in 1846, gives a full account of cauliflower culture and says:
"We cultivate two distinct varieties, _tendre_ and _demi-dur_. The
sub-varieties _gros_ and _petit_ Salomon are sorts of the _tendre_."
Richard Frotzer, of New Orleans, catalogues the Extra Early and the Half
Early, but not the Early Paris.
Mr. Gregory, of Massachusetts, states that most of the seed sold in the
United States as Early Paris is really the Half Early. In a recent
letter he says: "The Early or Half Early Paris is now about dead, the
various strains of Extra Early Erfurt, such as Snowball, Sea Foam, etc.,
having taking its place." D. M. Ferry & Co. sell a variety called "Early
Paris or Nonpareil," the latter name having been first given by J. M.
Thorburn & Co. to the Half Early Paris. There is no doubt, however, of
the Early and Half Early Paris being two varieties. The former, which
has so long been a favorite in the Northern States may still be relied
upon, though in many cases, as stated, it is being displaced by the
Extra Early Paris, and particularly by the Extra Early Erfurt and
varieties derived from it.
EARLY PICPUS.--Catalogued by Vilmorin in 1889 as a new early
variety with large white heads, good for field culture.
EARLY PURITAN.--A little the earliest of four varieties at the
New York experiment station in 1889, the others being Early Erfurt,
Snowball, and Vick's Ideal. At the Ohio station the same year it was
considered to be a strain of Early [Extra Early] Erfurt and one of the
best of its class.
D. M. Ferry & Co., the introducers of this variety write me as follows
regarding its history: "The Puritan cauliflower originated as the
product of a particularly early, large-headed, and dwarf-growing plant
found in a large crop of Snowball during the summer of 1886. The seed
from this plant was saved, and selections made from the product until a
sufficient quantity was secured. It was first noticed and selected by
one of the largest cauliflower growers in this country, and great care
was taken in selecting and seeding the plant. It is purely American,
both in origin and growth."
It appears from the letter of H. A. March, on page 122, that this
variety originated with him from Henderson's Snowball, at Fidalgo,
Washington.
EARLY SNOWBALL.--Under this name Dean's Early Snowball is
generally known in England, and this is probably the variety often sold
as Snowball in the past in this country. Henderson's Early Snowball is,
however, now sold under that name by many seedsmen, and is the one sent
out as Early Snowball by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Seedsmen sometimes prefix their own name, to the variety or strain of
Snowball which they sell. All varieties bearing this or similar names
are, so far as known, of the Dwarf Erfurt group.
EARLY WALCHEREN, see _Walcheren_.
ECLIPSE.--The first notice I find of this variety is in the
_Gardener's Chronicle_ for 1877 (Vol. VIII), where it is mentioned as
being sent out by Dickson Brown & Tait. It is similar to Veitch's Autumn
Giant, but about three weeks earlier. It is said to be a fine variety,
with large heads, well protected by the leaves, and to stand drouth
well. At the Ohio experiment station in 1889, the heads were invariably
loose and sprangled.
ERFURT, see _Early Erfurt_.--The Erfurt varieties are
characterized by light pea-green color, and stiff, more or less upright
leaves.
EXTRA EARLY ALLEAUME, see _Alleaume_.
EXTRA EARLY DWARF FORCING.--Probably the _Dwarf Erfurt_.
EXTRA EARLY ERFURT, see _Dwarf Erfurt_.
EXTRA EARLY PARIS.--This variety is not described by Vilmorin
in his _Plantes Potagers_, but it is probably the one given in his
catalogue under the name of "Extra Earliest Paris (forcing)." It is
catalogued by the leading American seedsmen without description.
FAUST'S EARLIEST SNOWBALL.--H. G. Faust & Co., say in their
catalogue for 1890: "Our Snowball cauliflower is undoubtedly the best in
cultivation. It is the earliest grown, produces the finest snow-white
heads, and its compact habit enables it to be planted closer together
than any other variety."
FAVORITE, see _Early La Crosse Favorite_, _Haskel's Favorite_,
and _Early Favorite_.
FRANKFORT GIANT, see _Veitch's Autumn Giant_.
FRENCH, see _Large White French_ and _Half Early French_.
FRENCH IMPERIAL (Thorburn), see _Imperial_.
FROGMORE EARLY FORCING.--An old variety, described by F. Burr,
in 1866, as follows: "Stem quite short, and plant of compact habit. The
heads are large and close, and their color clear and delicate.
Recommended as one of the best for forcing, as well as an excellent sort
for early culture."
In 1876, a writer in the _Country Gentleman's Magazine_ mentions it as
the earliest variety grown, to be followed by Early London. It is now,
however, but little used.
GERRY ISLAND.--A variety said by Gregory to be a very reliable
header, closely resembling Early Paris. At the Colorado experiment
station, in 1888, it failed to head.
GIANT MALTA.--Said to be a large, fine variety, with beautiful
white heads of excellent flavor. Though dwarf, it is late, requiring six
months in which to develop.
GIANT NAPLES.--Described as synonymous with Veitch's Autumn
Giant, by Vilmorin, in 1883, but he now catalogues it as a separate
variety, similar to Veitch's Autumn Giant, but later. It is doubtless
the original, of which the Autumn Giant is a slightly improved form. M.
May said of Giant Naples, in 1880: "Very similar to Algiers, a little
taller stem, and more fully developed foliage. Highly esteemed in Italy
and Algeria. Requires the same culture as Algiers."
GILT EDGE EARLY SNOWBALL (Thorburn).--This American variety was
reported by the Pennsylvania experiment station in 1888, as having done
well and formed good heads, free from intermixed leaves, where nearly
all other sorts failed. "It is a superior selected strain of Early
Snowball which originated on Long Island and is of the same type as the
best strain of imported Dwarf Erfurt."--(Johnson & Stokes, 1891).
GRANGE'S AUTUMN.--A variety mentioned in the _Gardener's
Chronicle_, in 1870, as earlier and inferior to Veitch's Autumn Giant.
HAAGE'S EARLY GERMAN.--Said by Wolfner and Weisz, of Vienna, to
be an excellent short-stemmed variety for the open ground.
HAAGE'S DWARF.--Said by Wolfner and Weisz, of Vienna, to have
large, compact heads, which keep long in good condition.
HAAGE'S NEW DWARF EARLY.--"The best for forcing."--(Frederick
Adolph A. Haage, Jr., Erfurt, Germany, 1890).
HALF EARLY FRENCH (Landreth, 1886).--Thorburn, in 1891,
catalogued Half Early Large French, and in previous years Half Early
Dwarf French.
HALF EARLY GIANT ITALIAN.--A new variety catalogued without
description by Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., in 1889.
HALF EARLY LARGE WHITE FRENCH (Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co.)--No
description.
HALF EARLY PARIS (_Demi-dur de Paris_, _Gros Salomon_,
_Nonpareil_).--Valuable for a late crop in this country, and now the
most popular variety in the New Orleans market. Described by Vilmorin,
of Paris, as follows: "Plant medium; leaves rather large, of a deep,
slightly glaucous green, surrounding the head well, and gradually
reflexed from the base to the apex; border undulate and coarsely
dentate, stem rather short and stout; head very white, large, and
remaining solid a long time. Formerly the most extensively cultivated
for the Paris market, but now giving place to Lenormand Short-stem, and
several new varieties."
In the _Revue Horticole_ for 1880, M. May says: "This is the variety
most cultivated around Paris, because it is suited to all seasons. It
may be sown: (1) In September, to be gathered in May and June, being
protected during winter like the Early Paris; (2) in February, in a
hot-bed, or under hand-glasses or frames, to be gathered in June and
July; (3) at the first of March, also in hot-bed, to be set out in April
and gathered in July; (4) finally, it may be sown in June on a border of
rich mold, and set out in July, without having been transplanted. This
very simple method requires frequent waterings to yield good results.
The crop is gathered from September to November."
The name _Gros Salomon_, now given by Vilmorin and others as synonymous
with Half Early Paris, was applied by Ribaud, in 1852, to a separate
variety (_Annales de la Societe d' Horticulture de l' Allier_, 1852, p.
59). For remarks on the synonym "Nonpareil," see that name.
Mr. Gregory, of Massachusetts, says of the Half-Early Paris or
_Demi-dur_: "This is the kind usually sold in this country as Early
Paris, the true variety making so small a head as to be comparatively
worthless here."--(Gregory, "Cabbages and How to Grow Them," 1870, p.
69).
HALF EARLY ST. BRIEUC (_Demi-dur de St. Brieuc_).--"Plant large
and strong; leaves quite large, elongated, undulate and of a deep green;
stem long; head close, solid, and remaining a long time in good
condition. This variety, which is extensively cultivated around St.
Brieuc, [on the north coast of France] from which it is exported to
Paris, and even to England, is quite hardy, and is well adapted to
open-air culture."--(Vilmorin).
The St. Brieuc was described by M. May, in the _Revue Horticole_, in
1880, as "a hardy, but late variety, inferior in its head to our Paris
varieties, and not very generally cultivated."
At the New York experiment station in 1886, this variety gave good
results.
HASKELL'S FAVORITE.--As grown at the South Dakota experiment
station, in 1888, no difference was seen between this and Henderson's
Snowball. Seed was sown in hot-bed April 10, the plants set out in
well-manured soil, May 24, and the first heads cut July 13--from which
time the plants continued to head along through the season. The
introducer, George S. Haskell, of Rockford, Ill., writes: "The Early
Favorite we sell is a variety I found in Holland a number of years ago.
It has proved a very sure header in this section of the country, and
will yield more than other sorts. It is not of the 'Erfurt family,' but
about half way between the Early Paris and Erfurt."
HENDERSON'S EARLY SNOWBALL.--A German variety, derived from the
Dwarf Erfurt, introduced by Peter Henderson & Co., about 1878, and
which has become very popular. Gregory, in 1890, said that it was not
excelled by any other variety, unless it was Thorburn's Gilt Edge, and
that it combined the best characteristics of Berlin Dwarf, Extra Early
Erfurt, and Sea Foam. Henderson & Co. state that it is now grown for
forcing more largely than any other variety. It is also considerably
grown in field culture, not only for the early crop, for which it is
especially suited, but also for the late crop, the plants being set out
as late as the first of August. Its small size and reliability of
heading are valuable features where suitable soil and culture are given.
The high price of the seed and the lack of vigor in much of the seed of
this and other Dwarf Erfurt varieties, have prevented their cultivation
on as large a scale as they would otherwise be grown.
This variety was formerly sold by many seedsmen simply as Early
Snowball, and it is the one now usually referred to when the name Early
Snowball is used, (See Early Snowball.)
W. J. Green, of the Ohio experiment station, says of Henderson's
Snowball: "This justly celebrated strain of Early [Extra Early] Erfurt
is probably better known than the parent variety. The true Henderson's
Early Snowball is unexcelled, but there are other strains, and other
varieties even, that have been sent out under this name, which are very
inferior."
The stock of this variety is now all controlled Peter Henderson & Co.,
and is grown in Germany. Seed descended from Henderson's stock has been
grown at Puget Sound, and is claimed to be as good as the original.
Several other sorts, including Puritan, Padilla and Gilt Edge, have been
derived from Henderson's Snowball, which sometimes mature quite as early
as this variety.
IDEAL, see _Vick's Ideal_.
IMPERIAL.--May says, in the _Revue Horticole_, for 1880: "A
variety which seems to have originated from the Early Dwarf Erfurt,
being a little more vigorous, and producing a little larger heads, which
is without doubt a result of culture, for in head and leaf it wholly
resembles the Erfurt. It is an excellent variety, employed in the same
manner as the Erfurt, and deserves extended cultivation."
Vilmorin says: "This fine variety resembles the Dwarf Early Erfurt, but
it is of deeper green, and every way larger. It is an early variety with
beautiful white head, large and solid, and remarkable for its regularity
of growth and product. When well grown it is certainly among the most
desirable early varieties." Thorburn considers it one of the best for
the main crop. It originated about 1870. It matured in one season
eighteen days and in another thirty-two days before the
Lenormand.--(_The Garden_, 1878, p. 2).
IMPERIAL NOVELTY (Landreth), see _Imperial_.
IMPROVED EARLY PARIS, see _Boston Market_.
ITALIAN GIANT.--There are two or more forms of this variety in
the market. For example: Vick sells "Italian Giant;" Gregory, "Italian
Early Giant;" the Plant Seed Company, "Italian Early Giant Autumnal;"
Vilmorin, "Half-Early Italian Giant (new);" Frotzer, "Late Italian
Giant;" and Vilmorin, "Late Giant Italian Self-protecting." The early
form or variety seems to be the most generally sold by our seedsmen, and
is perhaps the one indicated when the simple name Italian Giant is used.
Gregory calls the Early Italian Giant a "fine, large white-headed early
Variety." Frotzer says it is not quite so late as the Late Italian,
almost as large, and in every way satisfactory. The Late Italian Giant,
he says, is grown to a considerable extent in the neighborhood of New
Orleans, and is the largest of all the cauliflowers and should not be
sown later than June, as it requires from seven to nine months to head.
JOHNSON & STOKES' EARLY ALABASTER, see _Alabaster_.
KING, see _Sutton's King_.
KNICKERBOCKER.--An early Variety with "fine large compact
snow-white heads of excellent flavor."--(E. & W. Hackett, Adelaide,
Australia, 1889).
LACKAWANNA.--All American variety sent out by Tillinghast,
about 1884, and said to be a little larger and later than Henderson's
Snowball.
LANDRETH'S FIRST.--As grown at the New York experiment station
in 1885, it was equal in earliness to the Early Dwarf Erfurt, and
surpassed only by Henderson's Snowball.
LARGE ALGIERS, see _Algiers_.
LARGE ASIATIC, see _Asiatic_.
LARGE ERFURT.--A name sometimes applied to the ordinary Early
Erfurt, in distinction from the Dwarf Erfurt.
LARGE EARLY DWARF ERFURT (Thorburn), see _Early Erfurt_.
LARGE EARLY LONDON.--Failed to head at the New York experiment
station, in 1882. In 1885 a small proportion of the plants headed; it
was the latest among 38 varieties.
LARGE EARLY WHITE ERFURT.--Brill calls this the lowest grade of
the Erfurt type, succeeding admirably at times, but not to be depended
on, and apt to grow with small fine leaves through the heads. See Early
Erfurt.
LARGE LATE ALGIERS, see _Algiers_.
LARGE LATE ASIATIC, see _Asiatic_.
LARGE LATE WALCHEREN (Dreer), see _Walcheren_.
LARGE WHITE FRENCH.--A fine large white variety, catalogued by
Gregory and others in 1890. Vilmorin calls it half-early.
LARGEST ASIATIC.--Taller and larger than the common Asiatic,
but apparently no longer grown. The _Gardener's Chronicle_ for 1848
mentions its being sold by Messrs. Schertzer, of Haarlem.
LAING'S EARLY ADVANCE.--A writer in the _Gardener's Chronicle_,
for 1891, p. 121, states that he has grown it for the past three years
and finds it a good variety, with close white heads of moderate size,
protected by many well-incurved leaves, and ready for use about five
months from the time of sowing the seed.
LATE DUTCH (_Large Late Dutch_).--Sold by several American
seedmen. Probably distinct from Early Dutch.
LATE LENORMAND SHORT-STEM, see _Lenormand Short-Stem_.
LATE LONDON (Burpee and Ferry).--No description. See Asiatic
and Large Early London.
LATE PARIS (_Dur de Paris_).--This, said Vilmorin in 1883, is
the latest variety cultivated by the market gardeners around Paris. It
differs from the Half Early Paris, especially in being a little later,
and in having its head remain hard and solid a long time; but it is also
distinguished by the appearance of its foliage, which is quite
abundant, elongated, very much undulated, and of an intense green.
This variety is the least cultivated of the three generally grown at
Paris. The gardeners use it only for the summer sowing to come at the
end of the season. It is now being supplanted by other late sorts.
LATE WALCHEREN, see _Walcheren_.
LEFEVRE.--Said to have been one of the best four varieties for
Central France in 1852, the others being _Demi-dur de Paris_ (Half Early
Paris), Early Duke, and _Gros Salomon_.
LE MAITRE PIED COURT.--As grown at the New York experiment
station in 1885, it was rather early. Probably the same as the
"Lemaitre" or Chambourcy Short-Stemmed, catalogued by Vilmorin in 1890.
LENORMAND (_Ancient Lenormand_, _Late Lenormand_, _Lenormand
Extra Large_, _Lenormand Mammoth_).--Vilmorin said, in 1883: "It is now
a score of years since the attention of the trade was called to this
variety, principally because of its beauty and its great hardiness
against cold. The Lenormand is in appearance but little different from
the Half Early Paris (_Demi-dur_). The leaves are only a little larger.
It certainly requires a little less care than other varieties, but its
chief merit is having given birth to the Lenormand Short-stemmed, which
is to-day one of the most generally prized."
M. May describes and figures this variety in the _Revue Horticole_ for
1880. In the _Journal of the Central Horticultural Society of France_
for 1857 is a report of a committee of that society upon this variety as
grown on the grounds of M. Lenormand near Paris, it having been
introduced by that gentleman in 1852 from Halle, in Central Germany,
where it was then largely cultivated. The committee made a very
flattering report, finding the Lenormand much finer than the other
varieties, Half Early Paris, Erfurt, and Alma, growing in the same
field.
In this country the Lenormand was formerly a popular variety, being
frequently mentioned, as long ago as 1858, with the Early Paris as one
of the two best varieties. Since then it has been displaced by the
following:
LENORMAND SHORT-STEM.--This variety, derived from the
Lenormand, is described by Vilmorin in 1883 as follows: "The aspect of
this variety is very characteristic, and enables it to be distinguished
easily from all others when it is well grown. The stem, extremely short,
strong and stocky, is furnished down to the level of the earth with
short, large, rounded leaves, slightly undulated except on the borders,
very firm and stiff, and more spreading than upright; color deep green,
slightly glaucous; head very large and solid, beautifully white, and
keeping in condition a long time. This variety is early, productive,
hardy against cold and drouth, and requires comparatively little room.
Its rapid extention in cultivation within the last few years is not
therefore surprising."
[Illustration]
To this it may be added that the variety is sold by nearly all our
American seedmen and is a popular variety for a fall crop, especially at
the South. Its large, solid, cream-colored heads are not however as well
protected by the leaves as those of most other medium early or late
sorts.
LENORMAND'S SHORT-STEMMED MAMMOTH (_Lenormand's Extra Large
Short-Stemmed_).--This appears to be a selection from the Lenormand
Short-stem. It is offered under the second of the above names by
Vilmorin, and under the first by Gregory and other American seedsmen.
LONG ISLAND BEAUTY (Brill), see _Early Padilla_. At the
Colorado station, in 1888, seeds of Long Island Beauty obtained from Low
appeared to be an inferior stock, and gave heads which were loose and
yellowish. For the origin of this variety see Early Padilla.
MALTA GIANT (Burpee), see _Giant Malta_.
MARTIN'S PRESIDENT.--As grown by Mr. R. Gilbert at Burghley,
England, in 1885, this variety stood the exceptionally dry season better
than Best of All, Snowball, Early Erfurt, or Veitch's Autumn
Giant.--(_Gardening Illustrated_, 1885, p. 438).
MAULE'S PRIZE EARLIEST, see _Prize_.
MITCHELL'S HARDY EARLY.--Said by F. Burr, in 1866, to be "a new
variety, bouquet not large, but handsome and compact. It is so firm that
it remains an unusual length of time without running to seed or becoming
pithy."
MODEL.--The Northrup, Braslan & Goodwin Co., of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, the introducers of this variety, say in 1891: "The history
of our Model cauliflower we can give you in a few words: We have for
several years been testing cauliflower seed from as many growers as
possible, in order to secure a variety which we could identify with our
name. We have never been fully satisfied until two years ago, when we
received from a foreign grower a sample for trial. Upon testing this
seed in our experimental grounds we found it so desirable that we
arranged for the stock we are now selling, and which gives excellent
satisfaction wherever grown. There are other varieties which produce as
good heads and as early, but in our growths of this sort we have found a
larger proportion of large, white, perfect heads than in any other
strains we have tested."
MOHAWK WHITE CAP (Nellis).--"Rather larger and later than Early
[Extra Early] Erfurt and seems to be identical with Snowball from the
same firm."--(Ohio Exp. Station, 1889)
MT. BLANC.--Said by Buist, in 1890, to be one of the largest
and finest for forcing, or the general crop. Stem medium; heads large,
snow-white, well protected by the leaves, and of delicate flavor.
At the Oregon experiment station, in 1890, Carter's Mt. Blanc resembled
Perfection in growth, but had somewhat larger heads.
NAPLES, GIANT, see _Veitch's Autumn Giant_.
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/27862