Part 6 (1/2)
”When the flowers commence to bloom out or form heads, is the most particular time. A man who thoroughly understands what a perfect cauliflower is, must now go through the field every two or three days and examine every head, and if there is any sign of its growing in quarters, or if a leaf is growing through the head, or if there is any looseness in its growth, the heads are staked and cut for market. For, as like produces like, it will never do to get seed from an inferior head, especially in the case of cauliflowers; for the seeds from these are more apt to run wild than any seed I ever grew. We usually set a Fottler cabbage in the place from which the poor plant has been cut, and it makes a fine head by fall.
”By the middle of June we have the field clear of all inferior heads, and their places filled with late cabbages. About this time all the heads saved for seed are 'sponging out' preparing to throw their seed-stalks. Now is our time to help them. On the upper side of the field, we have wooden water tanks, each holding about 20,000 gallons of _warm_ water. The water is run into the tanks in the middle of the day through flat open troughs, which heat it up to about 70 Fah. It is taken through canvas hose over the field, and the soil is soaked to the subsoil. Now our underdrains come into play, for all of the surplus water is drained off in about three days, and we can start the cultivator. We cultivate close up to the plants. If we break the leaves off it doesn't matter, for they fall off anyway as soon as the seed stalks start. This watering gives the plants new life and they start off for a second crop, or become biennials the first year. The watering and cultivation are kept up once in 10 days until the seed-stalks are so large that they cannot be run through without breaking the plants. The seed ripens from the middle of September to the last of October, according to how good a start was made in the spring.
”The expense and trouble are not over yet. The seed is ripening about the time our rainy season sets in, and we don't see the sun once a week on an average, so that our seed must all be dried by fire heat. Our dry-houses are 30 x 20 feet, and 18 feet high with 2 x 6 inch joists running across the houses in tiers, on which we hang the seeds for drying. A brick furnace is built in the middle of the house, with the flue running through the roof.
”We usually make three cuttings. As soon as the pods on the center stalks begin to turn yellow, and the seed a light brown, we make our first cutting. From one to three plants are put in a pile and tied with binding twine. The bundles are taken to the dry-house on wheelbarrows, made with racks on purpose for carrying the seeds. A cloth is spread over the rack to catch any sh.e.l.ling seeds. A man carries about 100 bunches at a load and pa.s.ses them up to a man in the house who hangs them on nails driven for the purpose. The seed is allowed to hang a few days to thoroughly ripen before firing up. We aim to keep the heat in the top of the house at about 80 until the seed and stalks are dry.
”The bundles are now taken down and laid upon a cloth where they are crushed by walking on them. Grain sacks are then filled with the stalks and pods as full as they will tie up, and the contents are thrashed in the sacks with a flail. The seed is then sifted from the stalks and taken to the fanning-mill, and after putting it through the mill two or three times, we set the boys to rolling it. For this purpose we have a board two and a half feet long by one foot wide, with thin strips nailed on the sides to keep the seeds from rolling off. A boy sits down on a cloth with a pan of seed by his side, and holds one end of the board in his lap, while the other end rests on the cloth. He puts a handful of seed on the top end of the board and gently shakes it. All of the sound plump seeds run off on to the cloth, while the shriveled seeds, bits of stalk, dirt, weed seeds, etc., remain on the board. A smart Indian boy will clean ten pounds a day, at a cost of 50 cents and his board. Now the seed is sacked in double cotton sacks, holding about ten pounds each, and is ready for market.”
In a subsequent paper the same writer said, in answer to inquiries upon the subject, that the cauliflower and cabbage readily mixed, but that there was little danger of their doing so in his locality, as the cabbage was nearly out of flower before the cauliflower began to blossom. To make the matter certain, however, boys were sent to every neighboring cabbage patch to clip off all straggling late blossoms that remained. Only one variety of cauliflower, or strains of one variety, is grown by him for seed in any one year.
The following letter from the same writer explains itself:
”FIDALGO, Was.h.i.+ngton, April 3, 1891.
”MR. A. A. CROZIER, Ann Arbor, Mich.
”_Dear Sir_:--Your letter of inquiry received. In answer would say, I am the original cauliflower raiser in the Puget Sound country. In 1882 I discovered that by wintering the plants over in cold-frame, and keeping them growing all winter, those that were transplanted _without wilting_ would form heads, and then throw seed-stalks in time to form seed before frost, if they were continually wet with tepid water after heading. The first seed that was put on the market was sold by Francis Brill, Riverhead, L. I. Since then I have furnished some of the largest firms in the country with seed, and the seed has given perfect satisfaction.
There is a secret in raising good seed that I don't care to give away.
Several of my neighbors have tried to raise the seed, and I believe some of it has been put on the market, but it has proved inferior for the want of skill in knowing _which heads_ to seed from, as all heads will not do to seed from, even though they may appear perfect to an inexperienced eye. It's skilled labor that produces No. 1 seed.
”I enclose you my circular, with reports from growers and dealers, also quite a few from the experiment stations. I have a large number that I have not printed, as they came too late for this year. The business has grown from a few pounds in 1882 to nearly 300 pounds in 1890. I think in the near future, that Puget Sound will grow all of the cauliflower seed that will be grown in the country. Cabbage seed is also grown to a large extent. I raised about two tons last year, and there probably will be ten tons raised on Puget Sound the coming summer.
”Cabbage and cauliflower are grown to a considerable extent both in Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton, though California sends our first to this market.
”You ask me for an account of my Early Perfection or ”No. 9.” It was a _sport_ or a ”stray seed,” found among some Erfurt Earliest Dwarf imported seed, and being the first in the field to form a head by over a week, I naturally saved it for ”stock seed,” and as it propagated itself perfectly, and was perfection itself, I named it Early Perfection. I am not aware of another by the name of Perfection on the market--never saw it in the seedmen's catalogues. Early Padilla and Early Long Island Beauty, by Brill, are the same; they originated with me, are a selection from _Erfurt Large_, and are _early_ and _large_.
”All of Tillinghast's Puget Sound cauliflower seed has been grown by me.
I have also grown all that Francis Brill has put on the market.
”D. M. Ferry & Co.'s Early Puritan originated with me, from a sport of Henderson's s...o...b..ll. I sold them the stock for two years.
”Yours Truly,
H. A. MARCH.”
CHAPTER VIII.
VARIETIES.
The varieties of cauliflower differ among themselves less than those of most other vegetables, and their characters are less firmly fixed. Their tendency to degenerate, especially under unfavorable conditions, and the readiness with which they may be improved by selection, has given rise within recent years to numerous so called varieties, some of them but slightly differing from those from which they originated. These have frequently received the names of the seedsmen who first sent them out.
Many of these seedmen's varieties have dropped out of cultivation, as well as other varieties which have appeared from time to time, but which have not possessed sufficient distinctive merit. Some varieties, from not having been kept up to their original standard, have reverted to those from which they sprang, or become so like them that their names have come to be regarded as synonyms.
Nevertheless, all such names have been brought together in the following catalogue, and all the obtainable information given concerning the varieties which they represent. The testimony given is sometimes contradictory, either from want of proper observation on the part of the writers quoted, or from differences in the seeds sold under the same name. This is necessarily somewhat confusing to one who is looking up the merits of a variety, but it will form a better basis for judgment than would a mere descriptive list, without reference to dates or authorities. It is practically impossible to make a satisfactory cla.s.sification which will include all the varieties, and they have therefore been arranged here in alphabetical order, as being most convenient for reference. Nearly all of the most popular varieties have, however, characters sufficiently distinct so that they can be easily recognized. Some have short stems, others long; some are early, others late; some have upright leaves, others drooping; their color varies from gra.s.sy to bluish green; the heads vary from snow-white to cream-colored, and in two or three varieties cla.s.sed with the cauliflowers they are reddish or purple, as in some of the broccolis. The form of the head varies from flat to conical.
Most of our varieties have come from a few stocks whose characters, as well as those of their descendants, seem to have been largely determined by the locality in which they originated or have long been grown. The Algiers, Paris and Erfurt groups are examples. In each of these groups there is a series of varieties, differing mainly in size and earliness.
In the Erfurt group the production of early varieties has been carried farthest, owing doubtless to the character of the climate, as well as the greater skill employed in their selection. The early varieties, particularly of this group, are characterized by having comparatively small, narrow and upright leaves, and a rather short stem. A partial list of varieties, arranged in the order of earliness, follows the catalogue.