. This comparison has therefore a
practical bearing. In forming a new garden, and in cases where it may
not be possible to grow both these esculents satisfactorily, Sea Kale
should have attention first, as a thing that will require but a small
investment, and that will surely pay its way, with quick returns, to the
general advantage of the household.

==Outdoor Culture.==--Sea Kale requires strong ground, fully exposed to
the sun, and enriched with any good manure, that from the stable being
undoubtedly the best. The most satisfactory way to begin is with
well-grown roots, as they make a return at once with the least
imaginable trouble. Let the ground be well dug two spits deep, and put
a coat of manure between; or if it is a good substantial loam, plant
without manure, and the results will be excellent. As the thriving plant
covers a considerable space, and there must be a certain amount of
traffic on the ground to manage it, there should be one row in the
centre of a four-feet bed, with a broad alley on one side; or, better
still, mark out a ten-feet space, with a three-feet alley on each side,
and in this space plant three rows two and a half feet apart, and the
roots one and a half to two feet apart. The planting may be done at any
time after the leaves have fallen, late in autumn, and during winter and
early spring. On warm, dry ground, winter planting answers perfectly,
and enables the gardener to complete the task, for there is always
enough to do in the spring months. But on damp ground and in exposed
situations the best time to plant is the month of March. Put down the
line, and open a trench one foot deep; plant the roots with their crowns
two inches below the surface, filling in and treading firmly as each
trench is planted. The precaution may be taken to pare off all the
pointed prominent buds on each crown, as this will prevent the rise of
flower-stems; but if this is neglected, the cultivator must take care to
cut out all the flowering-shoots that appear, for the production of
flowers will prove detrimental to the crop of Sea Kale in the following
season. Our custom, when a plantation has been thus made, is to grow
another crop with it the first season. The ground between the rows is
marked out in narrow strips, and lightly forked over, and if a coat of
rotten manure can be spared it is pricked in, and a neat seed-bed is
made of every strip, eighteen to twenty-four inches wide. On this
prepared bed sow Oni