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