frost; the floor
had better be of asphalt, cement or the like. Toward the end of autumn
the heads are cut with a piece of the stem three or four inches in
length, which is stuck into the sand. All the leaves are removed except
the inner course, which must be cut down pretty closely, and the heads
then covered with flower pots.

Still another method, employed where hard freezing is not anticipated,
is to take up the plants and set them out in a slanting position close
together out of doors with the heads to the north, as is done with
cabbages.

Pulling up the plants and throwing them on their sides will protect the
heads from a moderate degree of cold, and can be resorted to upon the
sudden approach of cold weather. Cutting the heads with plenty of leaves
and throwing them in long low heaps, faces downward, will preserve them
in the cool, damp weather of early winter for a considerable time, and
the heads, even in this condition, will increase somewhat in size.

It will sometimes happen, early in the season, that one desires to
retard the development of the head until a convenient time for
marketing. For this purpose the plants may be lifted, when the heads are
nearly mature, and set under a shed or elsewhere in the shade.

It may be well here to remind those who grow only a few plants in a
garden, and who wish to prolong the season, that several cuttings may be
taken from a single head if desired. A portion of the head should be
left each time. Occasionally, but not often, a stump will sprout and
form a second crop. A method of accelerating the formation of heads,
which is practiced in Ireland, may also be worth recording. It consists
in slitting the stalk from near the ground upward toward the heart, and
placing a stick in the slit to prevent the parts reuniting. The soil is
then drawn up around the cut, and the plant staked to prevent its
breaking off. It is said that plants so treated will form their heads
from six to eight days earlier than they otherwise would.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EARLY CROP.

I cannot do better in treating of this crop than to first quote the
following, by the late Peter Henderson, of New York City, from his work
on "Gardening for Pleasure":

"There is quite an ambition among amateur gardeners to raise early
cauliflower, but as the conditions necessary to success with this are
not quite so easy to command as with most other vegetables, probably not
one in three who try it succeed.