by long calcination alone, and without any mixture, affords a fine blue or green colour for glass; but they have a method of calcining it also with powdered brimstone, so as to make it afford a red, a yellow, or a chalcedony colour, according to the quantity and other variations in the using it. The method of making the calcination is this: Cut thin plates of brass into small pieces with shears, and lay them stratum super stratum, with alternate beds of powdered sulphur, in a crucible; calcine this for 24 hours in a strong fire; then powder and sift the whole; and finally expose this powder upon tiles for 12 days to a reverberating furnace; at the end of this time powder it fine, and keep it for use. The glass-makers have also a method of procuring a red powder from brass, by a more simple calcination, which serves them for many colours. The method of preparing it is this: They put small and thin plates of brass into the arches of the glass furnaces, and leave them there till they are sufficiently calcined, which the heat in that place, not being enough to melt them, does in great perfection. The calcined matter, powdered, is of a dusky red, and requires no farther preparation.

**Brass-Colour**, one prepared by the braziers and colour-men to imitate brass. There are two sorts of it; the red brass or bronze, and the yellow or gilt brass; the latter is made only of copper-fillings, the smallest and brightest that can be found; with the former they mix some red ochre, finely pulverized; they are both used with varnish.—In order to make a fine brass that will not take any rust or verdigris, it must be dried with a chafing dish of coals as soon as it is applied.—The finest brass-colour is made with powder-brass imported from Germany, diluted into a varnish, made and used after the following manner: The varnish is composed of one pound four ounces of spirit of wine, two ounces of gum-lac, and two ounces of sandarac; these two last drugs are pulverized separately, and afterwards put to dissolve in spirit of wine, taking care to fill the bottle but half full. The varnish being made, you mix such quantity as you please of it with the pulverized brass, and apply it with a small brush to what you would brass over. But you must not mix too much at once, because the varnish being very apt to dry, you would not have time to employ it all soon enough; it is therefore better to make the mixture at several times. After this manner they brass over figures of plaster, which look as well as if they were of cast brass.

**Brass Leaf** is made of copper, beaten out into very thin plates, and afterwards rendered yellow. The German artists, particularly those of Nuremberg and Augsburg, are said to possess the best method of giving to these thin plates of copper a fine yellow colour like gold, by simply exposing them to the fumes of zinc, without any real mixture of it with the metal. These plates are cut into little pieces, and then beaten out fine like leaves of gold; after which they are put into books of coarse paper, and sold at a low price for the vulgar kinds of gilding. The parings or shreds of these very thin yellow leaves being well ground on a marble plate, are reduced to a powder similar to gold; which serves to cover, by means of gum-water, or some other glutinous fluid, the surface of various mouldings or pieces of curious workmanship, giving them the appearance of real bronze, and even of fine gold, at a very trifling expense, because the gold colour of this metallic powder may be easily raised and improved by stirring it on a wide earthen basin over a slow fire.

**Brass-Lumps**, a common name given by miners to the globular pyrites. See Pyrites, Mineralogy Index.

**Brassaw**, or Cronstadt, a strong town of Transilvania in Burezland; seated on the river Buxel, in E. Long. 22. 35. N. Lat. 46. 30.

**Brasse**, a species of perca. See Ichthyology Index.

**Brassica**, Cabbage, in Botany; for the classification of which see Botany Index. But as many of the species of this genus are of considerable importance as articles of food, we shall here lay before our readers a more particular account of their uses and mode of culture, under the names known to practical gardeners.

The species called *campestris* grows naturally on the seashore near Dover, has a perennial branching stalk, and in this it differs from all the other species. In very severe winters, when the other sorts are destroyed, this is a necessary plant, for the most severe frosts do not injure it. The flower-stalks grow from the end of the branches, and spread out horizontally; but those which arise from the centre of the plants grow erect, and seldom put out branches. The cauliflower has been much more improved in Britain than in any other part of Europe. In France they rarely have cauliflowers till Michaelmas, and Holland has been often supplied with them from Britain. In many parts of Germany there were none of them cultivated till within a few years past, and most parts of Europe are supplied with seeds from Britain. That which is generally known by the title of rape or cole seed is much cultivated in the isle of Ely, and some other parts of England, for its seed, from which rape-oil is drawn; and it hath also been cultivated of late years, in other places, for feeding of cattle, to great advantage. The cole-seed, when cultivated for feeding of cattle, should be sown about the middle of June. The ground for this should be prepared for it in the same manner as for turnips. The quantity of seeds for an acre of land is from six to eight pounds; and as the price of the seed is not great, so it is better to allow eight ght pounds; for if the plants are too close in any part they may be easily thinned when the ground is hoed, which must be performed in the same manner as is practised for turnips, with this difference only, of leaving these much nearer together; for as they have fibrous roots and slender stalks, so they do not require near so much room. These plants should have a second hoeing about five or six weeks after the first, which, if well performed in dry weather, will entirely destroy the weeds, so they will require no farther culture. Where there is not an immediate want of food, these plants had better be kept as a reserve for hard weather, or spring feed, when there may be a scarcity of other green food. If the heads are cut off, and the stalks left in the ground, they will shoot again early in the spring, and produce a good second crop in April; which may be either fed off, or permitted to run to seeds, as is the practice where this is cultivated for the seeds: but if the first is fed down, there should be care taken that the cattle do not destroy their stems, or pull them out of the ground. As this plant is so hardy as not to be destroyed by frost, so it is of great service in hard winters for feeding of ewes; for when the ground is so hard frozen as that turnips cannot be taken up, these plants may be cut off for a constant supply. This will afford late food after the turnips are run to seed; and if it is afterwards permitted to stand for seed, one acre will produce as much as, at a moderate computation, will sell for five pounds, clear of charges. Partridges, pheasants, turkeys, and most other fowl, are very fond of this plant; so that wherever it is cultivated, if there are any birds in the neighbourhood, they will constantly lie among these plants. The seeds of this plant are sown in gardens for winter and spring salads, this being one of the finest salad herbs.

The common white, red, flat, and long-sided cabbages, are chiefly cultivated for autumn and winter use. The seeds of these sorts must be sown the beginning or middle of April, in beds of good fresh earth; and when the young plants have about eight leaves, they should be pricked out into shady borders, about three or four inches square, that they may acquire strength, and to prevent their growing long flanked. About the middle of June you must transplant them out, where they are to remain. If they are planted for a full crop in a clear spot of ground, the distance from row to row should be three feet and a half, and in the rows two feet and a half aunder: if the season should prove dry when they are transplanted out, you must water them every other evening until they have taken fresh root; and afterwards, as the plants advance in height, you should draw the earth about the stems with a hoe, which will keep the earth moist about their roots, and greatly strengthen the plants. These cabbages will some of them be fit for use soon after Michaelmas, and will continue until the end of February, if they are not destroyed by bad weather; to prevent which, the gardeners near London pull up their cabbages in November, and trench their ground up in ridges, laying their cabbages against their ridges as close as possible on one side, burying their stems in the ground: in this manner they let them remain till after Christmas, when they cut them for the market; and although the outer part of the cabbage be decayed (as is often the case in very wet or hard winters), yet, if the cabbages were large and hard when laid, the inside will remain found.

The Russian cabbage was formerly in much greater esteem than at present, it being now only to be found in particular gentlemen's gardens, who cultivate it for their own use. This must be sown late in the spring of the year, and managed as those before directed, with this difference only, that these must be sooner planted out, and must have an open clear spot of ground, and require much less distance every way, for it is but a very small hard cabbage. This sort will not continue long before they will break and run up to seed.

The early and sugar loaf cabbages are commonly sown for summer use, and are what the gardeners about London commonly call Michaelmas cabbages. The season for sowing of these is about the end of July, or beginning of August, in an open spot of ground; and when the plants have got eight leaves, you must prick them into beds at about three or four inches distance every way, that the plants may grow strong and short flanked; and toward the end of October you should plant them out: the distance that these require is, three feet row from row, and two feet and a half aunder in the rows. The ground must be kept clean from weeds, and the earth drawn up about your cabbage plants. In May, if your plants were of the early kind, they will turn in their leaves for cabbaging; at which time, the gardeners near London, in order to obtain them a little sooner, tie in their leaves close with a slender offer-twig to blanch their middle; by which means, they have them at least a fortnight sooner than they could have if they were left untied.

The early cabbage being the first, we should choose to plant the fewer of them, and a greater quantity of the sugar-loaf kind, which comes after them: for the early kind will not supply the kitchen long, generally cabbaging apace when they begin, and as soon grow hard and burnt open; but the sugar-loaf kind is longer before it comes, and is as slow in its cabbaging; and being of a hollow kind, will continue for a good long time. The sugar-loaf kind may be planted out in February, and will succeed as well as if planted earlier; with this difference only, that they will be later before they cabbage. You should also reserve some plants of the early kind in some well sheltered spot of ground, to supply your plantation, in case of a defect; for in mild winters many of the plants are apt to run to seed, especially when their seeds are sown too early, and in severe winters they are often destroyed.

The Savoy cabbages are propagated for winter use, as being generally esteemed the better when pinched by the frost: these must be sown about the end of April, and treated after the manner as was directed for the common white cabbage: with this difference, that these may be planted at a closer distance than those; two feet and a half square will be sufficient. These are always much better when planted in an open situation, which is clear from trees and hedges; for in close places they are very subject to be eaten almost up by caterpillars and other vermin, especially if the autumn prove dry.

The broccoli may also be treated in the same manner, but need not be planted above one foot aunder in the rows, and the rows two feet distant; these are ne- ver eaten till the frost hath rendered them tender; for otherwise they are tough and bitter.

The seeds of the broccoli (of which there are several kinds, viz. the Roman or purple, the Neapolitan or white, and the black broccoli, with some others, but the Roman is preferred to them all), should be sown about the latter end of May, or beginning of June, and when the plants are grown to have eight leaves, transplant them into beds (as was directed for the common cabbage); and towards the latter end of July they will be fit to plant out, which should be done into some well-sheltered spot of ground, but not under the drip of trees: the distance there require is about a foot and a half in the rows, and two feet row from row. The soil in which they should be planted ought to be rather light than heavy: if your plants succeed well (as there will be little reason to doubt, unless the winter prove extremely hard), they will begin to show their small heads, which are somewhat like a cauliflower, but of a purple colour, about the end of December, and will continue eatable till the middle of April. The brown or black broccoli is by many persons greatly esteemed, though it doth not deserve a place in the kitchen garden where the Roman broccoli can be obtained, which is much sweeter, and will continue longer in season: indeed, the brown sort is much hardier, so that it will thrive in the coldest situations, where the Roman broccoli is sometimes destroyed in very hard winters. The brown sort should be sown in the middle of May, and managed as hath been directed for the common cabbage, and should be planted at the same distance, which is about two feet and a half aunder. This will grow very tall, so should have the earth drawn up to their stems as they advance in height. This doth not form heads so perfect as the Roman broccoli; the stems and hearts of the plants are the parts which are eaten. The Roman broccoli (if well managed) will have large heads, which appear in the centre of the plants like clutters of buds. These heads should be cut before they run up to feed, with about four or five inches of the stem; the skin of the stems should be stripped off before they are boiled. After the first heads are cut off, there will be a great number of side-shoots produced from the stems, which will have small heads to them, but are full as well flavoured as the large. The Naples broccoli hath white heads very like those of the cauliflower, and eats so like it as not to be distinguished from it.—Besides this first crop of broccoli (which is usually sown in the end of May), it will be proper to sow another crop the beginning of July, which will come in to supply the table the latter end of March and the beginning of April; and being very young, will be extremely tender and sweet.

In order to have good seeds of this kind of broccoli, you should reserve a few of the largest heads of the first crop, which should be let remain to run up to feed, and all the undershoots should be constantly stripped off, leaving only the main stem to flower and feed. If this be duly observed, and no other sort of cabbage permitted to feed near them, the seeds will be as good as those procured from abroad, and the sort may be preserved in perfection many years.

The turnip-rooted cabbage was formerly more cultivated in Britain than at present; for since other sorts have been introduced which are much better flavoured, this sort has been neglected. There are some persons who esteem this kind for soups, but it is too strong for most palates; and is seldom good but in hard winters, which will render it tender and less strong. At the end of June the plants should be transplanted out where they are to remain, allowing them two feet distance every way, observing to water them until they have taken root; and as their stems advance, the earth should be drawn up to them with a hoe, which will preserve a moisture about their roots, and prevent their stems from drying and growing woody, so that the plants will grow more freely; but it should not be drawn very high, for as it is the globular part of the stalk which is eaten, so that should not be covered. In winter they will be fit for use, when they should be cut off, and the stalks pulled out of the ground and thrown away, being good for nothing after the stems are cut off. As food for cattle, however, the cultivation of this species deserves particular attention. See Agriculture Index.

The curled colewort or Siberian broccoli is now more generally esteemed than the former, being extremely hardy, so is never injured by cold, but is always sweeter in severe winters than in mild seasons. This may be propagated by sowing of the seeds the beginning of July; and when the plants are strong enough for transplanting, they should be planted in rows about a foot and a half aunder, and ten inches distance in the rows. These will be fit for use after Christmas, and continue good until April, so that they are very useful in a family.

The musk cabbage. This may be propagated in the same manner as the common cabbage, and should be allowed the same distance: it will be fit for use in October, November, and December; but, if the winter proves hard, these will be destroyed much sooner than the common sort.

The common colewort, or Dorsetshire kale, is now almost lost near London, where their markets are usually supplied with cabbage plants instead of them. The best method to cultivate this plant in the fields is, to sow the seeds about the beginning of July, choosing a moist season, which will bring up the plants in about ten days or a fortnight; the quantity of seed for an acre of land is nine pounds: when the plants have got five or six leaves they should be hoed, as is practised for turnips, cutting down all the weeds from amongst the plants, and also thinning the plants where they are too thick; but they should be kept thicker than turnips, because they are more in danger of being destroyed by the fly: this work should be performed in dry weather, that the weeds may be killed. About six weeks after, the plants should have a second hoeing, which, if carefully performed in dry weather, will entirely destroy the weeds, and make the ground clean, so that they will require no farther culture: in the spring they may be either drawn up and carried out to feed the cattle, or they may be turned in to feed upon them as they stand; but the former method is to be preferred, because there will be little waste; whereas, when the cattle are turned in amongst the plants, they will tread down and destroy more than they eat, especially if they are not fenced off by hurdles.

The two last sorts of cabbages are varieties fit for a botanic garden, but are plants of no use. They are annual annual plants, and perish when they have perfected their seeds.

The best method to save the seeds of all the sorts of cabbages is, about the end of November you should make choice of some of your best cabbages, which you should pull up, and carry to some shed or other covered place, where you should hang them up for three or four days by their stalks, that the water may drain from between their leaves; then plant them in some border near a hedge or pale, quite down to the middle of the cabbage, leaving only the upper part of the cabbage above ground, observing to raise the earth about it, so that it may stand a little above the level of the ground; especially if the ground is wet, they will require to be raised pretty much above the surface. If the winter should prove very hard, you must lay a little straw or peat haulm lightly upon them, to secure them from the frost, taking it off as often as the weather proves mild, lest by keeping them too close they should rot. In the spring of the year these cabbages will shoot out strongly, and divide into a great number of small branches: you must therefore support their stems, to prevent their being broken off by the wind; and if the weather should be very hot and dry when they are in flower, you should refresh them with water once a week all over the branches, which will greatly promote their feeding, and preserve them from mildew. When the pods begin to change brown, you will do well to cut off the extreme parts of every shoot with the pods, which will strengthen your seeds; for it is generally observed, that those seeds which grow near the top of the shoots, are very subject to run to seed before they cabbage; so that by this there will be no loss, but a great advantage. When your seeds begin to ripen, you must be particularly careful that the birds do not destroy it, for they are very fond of these seeds. The best method to prevent this, is to get a quantity of birdlime, and daub over a parcel of slender twigs, which should be fastened at each end to stronger sticks, and placed near the upper part of the seed in different places, so that the birds may alight upon them, by which means they will be fattened thereto; where you must let them remain, if they cannot get off themselves: and although there should not be above two or three birds caught, yet it will sufficiently terrify the rest, that they will not come to that place again for a considerable time after.

When your seed is fully ripe, you must cut it off; and after drying, thrash it out, and preserve it in bags for use.

But in planting of cabbages for seed, it will be proper never to plant more than one sort in a place, or near one another: for example, never plant red and white cabbages near each other, nor Savoy with white or red cabbages; for they will, by the commixture of their effluvia, produce a mixture of kinds: and it is said to be owing to this neglect, that the gardeners rarely save any good red cabbage seed in Britain, but are obliged to procure fresh seeds from abroad; as supposing the soil or climate of Britain alters them from red to white, and of a mixed kind betwixt both; whereas, if they should plant red cabbages by themselves for seed, and not suffer any other to be near them, they might continue the kind as good in Britain as in any other part of the world.

Cauliflowers have of late years been so far improved in Britain, as to exceed in goodness and magnitude what are produced in most parts of Europe, and by the skill of the gardener are continued for several months together; but the most common season for the great crops is in May, June, and July. Having procured a parcel of good seeds, you must sow it about the 21st of August, upon an old cucumber or melon bed, sifting a little earth over the seeds, about a quarter of an inch thick; and if the weather should prove extremely hot and dry, you should shade the beds with mats, to prevent the earth from drying too fast, and give it gentle waterings as you may see occasion. In about a month's time after sowing, your plants will be fit to prick out: you should therefore put some fresh earth upon your cucumber or melon beds; or where these are not to be had, some beds should be made with a little new dung, which should be trodden down close, to prevent the worms from getting through it; but it should not be hot dung, which would be hurtful to the plants at this season, especially if it proves hot; into this bed you should prick your young plants at about two inches square, observing to shade and water them at first planting; but do not water them too much after they are growing, nor suffer them to receive too much rain if the season should prove wet, which would be apt to make them black blanched, as the gardeners term it; which is no less than a rottenness in their stems, and is the destruction of the plants so affected. In this bed they should continue till about the 30th of October, when they must be removed into the place where they are to remain during the winter season; which, for the first sowing, is commonly under bell or hand glases, to have early cauliflowers, and these should be of an early kind: but in order to have a succession during the season, you should be provided with another more late kind, which should be sown four or five days after the other, and managed as was directed for them. In order to have very early cauliflowers, you should make choice of a good rich spot of ground that is well defended from the north, east, and west winds, with hedges, pales, or walls; but the first are to be preferred, if made with reeds, because the winds will fall dead in these, and not reverberate as by pales or walls. This ground should be well trenched, burying therein a good quantity of rotten dung; then level your ground, and if it be naturally a wet soil, you should raise it up in beds about two feet and a half, or three feet broad, and four inches above the level of the ground; but if your ground is moderately dry, you need not raise it at all: then plant your plants, allowing about two feet six inches distance from glass to glass in the rows, always putting two good plants under each glass, which may be at about four inches from each other; and if you design them for a full crop, they may be three feet and a half row from row: but if you intend to make ridges for cucumbers between the rows of cauliflower plants (as is generally practised by the gardeners near London), you must then make your rows about eight feet asunder; and the ground between the rows of cauliflowers may be planted with cabbage plants, to be drawn off for coleworts in the spring. When you have planted your plants, if the ground is very dry, you should give them a little water, and then set your glasses over them, which may remain quite close down over them till BRA

Braffca. till they have taken root, which will be in about a week or ten days time, unless there should be a kindly shower of rain; in which case you may set off the glaisses, that the plants may receive the benefit of it; and in about ten days after planting, you should be provided with a parcel of forked sticks or bricks, with which you should raise your glaisses about three or four inches on the side toward the south, that your plants may have free air; in this manner your glaisses should remain over the plants night and day, unless in frothy weather, when you should set them down as close as possible; or if the weather should prove very warm, which many times happens in November, and sometimes in December, in this case you should keep your glaisses off in the day-time, and put them on only in the night, left, by keeping the glaisses over them too much, you should draw them into flower at that season; which is many times the case in mild winters, especially if unfailingly managed. Toward the latter end of February, if the weather proves mild, you should prepare another good spot of ground to remove some of the plants into, from under the glaisses, which should be well dunged and trenched (as before): then set off your glaisses; and, after making choice of one of the most promising plants under each glaiss, which should remain, take away the other plant, by raising it up with a trowel, &c. so as to preserve as much earth to the root as possible; but take care not to disturb or prejudice the roots of the plants which remain. Then plant the plants which you have taken out at the distance before directed, viz. if for a full crop, three feet and a half, row from row; but if for ridges of cucumbers between them, eight feet, and two feet four inches distance in the rows: then, with a small hoe, draw the earth up to the stems of the plants which were left under the glaisses, taking great care not to let the earth fall into their hearts; and let your glaisses over them again, raising your props an inch or two higher than before, to give them more air, observing to take them off whenever there may be some gentle showers, which will greatly refresh the plants.

In a little time after, if you find your plants grow so fast as to fill the glaisses with their leaves, you should then slightly dig about the plants, and raise the ground about them in a bed broad enough for the glaisses to stand, about four inches high, which will give your plants a great deal of room, by raising the glaisses so much higher when they are set over them; and by this means they might be kept covered until April, which otherwise they could not, without prejudice to the leaves of the plants; and this is a great advantage to them, for many times we have returns of severe frosts at the latter end of March, which prove very hurtful to these plants, if exposed thereto, especially after having been nursed up under glaisses.

After you have finished your beds, you may set your glaisses over your plants again, observing to raise your props pretty high, especially if the weather be mild, that they may have free air to strengthen them; and in mild soft weather set off your glaisses, as also in gentle showers of rain; and now you must begin to harden them by degrees to endure the open air; however, it is advisable to let your glaisses remain over them as long as possible, if the nights should be frothy, which will greatly forward your plants; but you must not let your glaisses remain upon them in very hot sunshine, especially if their leaves press against the sides of the glaisses; for it hath often been observed in such cases, that the moisture which hath risen from the ground, together with the perspiration of the plants, which by the glaisses remaining over them hath been detained upon the leaves of the plants, when the sun hath shone hot upon the sides of the glaisses, have acquired such a powerful heat from the beams thereof, as to scald all their larger leaves, to the no small prejudice of the plants: nay, sometimes large quantities of plants have been so affected therewith, as never to be worth anything after.

If your plants have succeeded well, toward the end of April some of them will begin to fruit: you must therefore look over them carefully every other day, and when you see the flower plainly appear, you must break down some of the inner leaves over it to guard it from the sun, which would make the flower yellow and unsightly if exposed thereto; and when you find your flower at its full bigness (which you may know by its outside parting as if it would run), you must then draw it out of the ground, and not cut them off, leaving the stalk in the ground, as is by some practised; and if they are designed for present use, you may cut them out of their leaves; but if designed to keep, you should preserve their leaves about them, and put them into a cool place; the best time for pulling them is in a morning, before the sun have exhale the moisture; for cauliflowers pulled in the heat of the day, lose that firmness which they naturally have, and become tough.

But to return to our second crop (the plants being raised and manured as was directed for the early crop, until the end of October), you must then prepare some beds, either to be covered with glaiss-frames, or arched over with hoops, to be covered with mats, &c. These beds should have some dung laid at the bottom, about six inches or a foot thick, according to the size of your plants; for if they are small, the bed should be thicker of dung to bring them forward, and to vice versa; this dung should be beat down close with a fork, in order to prevent the worms from finding their way through it; then lay some good fresh earth about four or five inches thick thereon, in which you should plant your plants about two inches and a half square, observing to shade and water them until they have taken new root: but you must not keep your coverings close, for the warmth of the dung will occasion a large damp in the bed, which, if pent in, will greatly injure the plants. When your plants have taken root, you must give them as much free open air as possible, by keeping the glaisses off in the day-time as much as the weather will permit; and in the night, or at such times as the glaisses require to be kept on, raise them up with props to let in fresh air, unless in frothy weather; at which time the glaisses should be covered with mats, straw, pease-haulm, &c. but this is not to be done but in very hard frosts; you must also observe to guard them against great rain, which in winter time is very hurtful to them, but in mild weather, if the glaisses are kept on, they should be propped to admit fresh air; and if the under leaves grow yellow and decay, be sure to pick them off: for if the weather should prove very bad in winter, so that you should be obliged to keep them close covered for two or three days together, as it sometimes happens, these decayed leaves will render the inclosed air very noxious; and the plants perspiring pretty much at that time, are often destroyed in vast quantities.

In the beginning of February, if the weather be mild, you must begin to harden your plants by degrees, that they may be prepared for transplantation: the ground where you intend to plant your cauliflowers out (which should be quite open from trees, &c. and rather moist than dry) having been well dugged and dug, should be sown with radishes a week or a fortnight before you intend to plant out your cauliflowers; the sowing of radishes is particularly mentioned, because if there are not some radishes among them, and the month of May should prove hot and dry, as it sometimes happens, the fly will seize your cauliflowers, and eat their leaves full of holes, to their prejudice, and sometimes their destruction; whereas, if there are radishes upon the spot, the flies will take to them, and never meddle with the cauliflowers so long as they last: indeed, the gardeners near London mix spinach with their radish-seed, and so have a double crop; which is an advantage where ground is dear, or where persons are straitened for room; otherwise it is very well to have only one crop amongst the cauliflowers, that the ground may be cleared in time.

Your ground being ready and the season good, about the middle of February you may begin to plant out your cauliflowers; the distance which is generally allowed by the gardeners near London (who plant other crops between their cauliflowers to succed them, as cucumbers for pickling, and winter cabbages) is every other row four feet and a half apart, and the intermediate rows two feet and a half, and two feet two inches distance in the rows; so that in the latter end of May or beginning of June (when the radishes and spinach are cleared off, they put in seeds of cucumbers for pickling, in the middle of the wide rows, at three feet and a half apart; and in the narrow rows plant cabbages for winter use, at two feet two inches distance, so that these stand each of them exactly in the middle of the square between four cauliflower plants; and these, after the cauliflowers are gone off, will have full room to grow, and the crop be hereby continued in a succession through the whole season.

There are many people who are very fond of watering cauliflower plants in summer; but the gardeners near London have almost wholly laid aside this practice, as finding a deal of trouble and charge to little purpose; for if the ground be so very dry as not to produce tolerable good cauliflowers without water, it seldom happens that watering of them makes them much better: and when once they have been watered, if it is not constantly continued, it had been much better for them if they never had any; as also, if it be given them in the middle of the day, it rather helps to scald them: so that, upon the whole, if care be taken to keep the earth drawn up to their stems, and clear them from every thing that grows near them, that they may have free open air, you will find that they will succeed better without than with water, where any of these cautions are not strictly observed.

But in order to have a third crop of cauliflowers, you should make a slender hot-bed in February, in which you should sow the seeds, covering them a quarter of an inch thick with light mould, and covering the bed with glass frames. When the plants are come up, and have gotten four or five leaves, you should prepare another hot-bed to prick them into, which may be about two inches square; and in the beginning of April harden them by degrees, to fit them for transplanting, which should be done the middle of that month, at the distance directed for the second crop, and must be managed accordingly: these, if the soil is moist where they are planted, or the season cool and moist, will produce good cauliflowers about a month after the second crop is gone, whereby their season will be greatly prolonged.

There is also a fourth crop of cauliflowers, which is raised by sowing the seeds about the 23d of May; and, being transplanted, as hath been before directed, will produce good cauliflowers in a kindly season and good soil after Michaelmas, and continue through October and November, and, if the season permit, often a great part of December.

All the species of cabbage are supposed to be hard of digestion, to afford little nourishment, and to produce flatulencies, though probably on no very good foundation. They tend strongly to putrefaction, and run into this state sooner than almost any other vegetable; when putrefied, their smell is likewise the most offensive, greatly resembling that of putrefied animal substances. A decoction of them is said to loosen the belly. Of all these plants cauliflower is reckoned the easiest of digestion. The white is the most fetid, and the red most emollient or laxative; a decoction of this last is recommended for softening acrimonious humours in some disorders of the breast, and in hoarseness. The red cabbage is chiefly used for pickling. In some countries they bury the white cabbage when full grown in the autumn, and thus preserve it all winter. The Germans cut them to pieces, and, along with some aromatic herbs and salt, press them close down in a tub, where they soon ferment, and are eaten under the name of Sour-crust. See that article.