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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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