: The Cauliflower by Crozier A A Arthur Alger - Cauliflower

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e 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referred to are the Dwarf Erfurt strains , the Algiers, and the Early and Half Early Paris--the latter two being now superceded by the former.

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: "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.

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