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 p