Occupations > Abercrombie's improved practical gardener; with a monthly calendar for the flower garden

SEA-CALE.
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in a circle of about nine inches in diameter; or
three plants of the last summer’s growth may be
planted within the same space, inserting them
■with a dibble, leaving the crowns level with the
surface of the ground. If seeds are sown, when
they come up, they must be thinned out, leaving
only three of the best and strongest plants in
each' patch. In taking up plants for planting,
care must be taken not to break the tap roots,
which may be prevented by inserting the spade,
with which they are taken up, into the soil lower
than the root, and thus bearing the spade handle
down, they will be raised without injury. Atten¬
tion should be had to the regulating of the plants
standing, as they are to be covered, if for forcing,
with blanching-pots; as both the health and
beauty of the crop depends upon their standing
at equal distances. They must be kept clear
from weeds, and now and then watered, which is
all the care they will require until November,
when the leaves will be decayed, and must then
be cleared away, and the beds covered an inch
and a half or two inches thick, with fresh sandy
earth that has lain in a heap, and been well
pulverized during the preceding summer; after
which, about six inches thick of leaves, that have
just fallen from the trees, should be laid all over
the beds, upon which a little soil should be
thrown, out of the alleys, to prevent their blow¬
ing about. In default of leaves, light stable 4nng
will answer, and no more care will be require^
the first year.