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THE
CAULIFLOWER
BY
A. A. CROZIER.
THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
TIMES BUILDING,
NEW YORK.
Copyright, 1891,
BY A. A. CROZIER.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
[Illustration: EARLY ALABASTER.--(SEE PAGE 127).]
"There has undoubtedly been more money made by the cultivation
of the cauliflower per acre than by any other vegetable yet
discovered."
ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST,
_Pennsylvania._
"There is no vegetable, the cultivation of which is more
generally neglected than that of the cauliflower. This is not
because it is not considered a valuable addition to any garden,
but from a mistaken notion that it is a very difficult
vegetable to raise."
H. M. STRINGFELLOW,
_Texas._
"I incline to think that there is a fortune in store for the
energetic young man who finds a favorable locality for growing
this vegetable near any one of our large cities and who makes a
specialty of the work."
PROF. E. S. GOFF,
_Wisconsin._
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTION. 5
ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 9
THE CAULIFLOWER INDUSTRY.--In Europe. In the
United States. Importation of Cauliflowers. 19
MANAGEMENT OF THE CROP.--Soil. Fertilizers.
Planting. Cultivating. Harvesting. Keeping. Marketing. 25
THE EARLY CROP.--Caution against Planting it
largely. Special Directions. Buttoning. 53
CAULIFLOWER REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.--Upper
Atlantic Coast. Lake Region. Prairie Region. Cauliflowers
in the South. The Pacific Coast. 61
INSECT AND FUNGUS ENEMIES.--Flea Beetle. Cut
Worms. Cabbage Maggot. Cabbage Worm. Stem Rot. Damping
Off. Black Leg. 93
CAULIFLOWER SEED.--Importance of Careful
Selection. Where the Seed is Grown. Influence of
Climate. American Grown Seed. 107
VARIETIES.--Descriptive Catalogue. Order of
Earliness. Variety Tests. Best Varieties. 125
BROCCOLI.--Differences between Broccoli and
Cauliflower. Cultivation, Use, and Varieties of
Broccoli. 189
COOKING CAULIFLOWER.--Digestibility. Nutritive
Value. Chemical Composition. Receipts. 195
RECAPITULATION. 221
GLOSSARY. 223
REFERENCES. 226
INTRODUCTION.
The cauliflower is one of the minor vegetables which is now attracting
more than ordinary attention in this country, and being grown with
remarkable success and profit in a few localities which have been found
to be particularly adapted to it. With most of our gardeners, however,
it is still considered a very uncertain and unprofitable crop. This is
due not only to the peculiar requirements of the cauliflower as to soil
and climate, but also to the want of familiarity on the part of most
American gardeners with modern varieties and with methods of cultivation
adapted to our climate.
For a number of years, while engaged in market gardening and fruit
growing in Western Michigan, the writer made a specialty of raising
cauliflowers for the Grand Rapids and Chicago markets, planting from
three to five acres a year. During this time most of the varieties
offered by American seedsmen were tested, and the best methods of
cultivation sought. On the whole, the cauliflower crop was found more
profitable than any other, with the possible exception of peaches. There
were partial failures, but these were due to causes which might have
been foreseen and prevented. The experience gained at that time, and
subsequent observation, have convinced the author that there are many
parts of the country in which the climate and soil are adapted to this
vegetable, but where its cultivation is yet practically unknown. The
requirements for success with cauliflower will be found to be simple but
imperative. A few direct experiments may be needed after one has gained
the general information herein set forth, to enable one to determine
whether it is best to continue or abandon its cultivation in his own
locality.
I have endeavored to treat the subject in a manner adapted to the
diversity of conditions found within the limits of the United States.
With no vegetable is it more important to have fixed rules for one's
guidance than with the cauliflower; but these rules must of necessity be
of the most restricted application; in fact, they require to be adjusted
to almost each individual case. So, while I have not omitted to give
minute, practical directions where they seemed necessary, I have
endeavored to call attention to the circumstances under which they are
to be employed, and must here caution the grower against following them
too implicitly under different circumstances. This remark applies
particularly to the selection of varieties and the dates of planting.
Under the head of "Management of the Crop" will be found the most
important information of general application, while in the chapter on
"Cauliflower Regions" are given numerous records of experience from
growers in all parts of the country, which will be found of special
value for each locality.
Those who desire direct information on particular points will consult
the index and turn at once to the paragraphs which treat of soil,
culture, enemies, marketing, best varieties, etc. It is unfortunate that
confusion exists in regard to some of the varieties, but it seemed best
to make the list as complete as possible, even at the risk of
introducing a few errors. The confusion (which is more apparent than
real), arises, in part, from seeds of certain varieties having been sold
at times for those of others, and in part from the extreme liability of
the varieties of the cauliflower to deteriorate or change. Errors from
both these sources, when reduced to a minimum by the accumulation of
evidence, reveal the fact that there are varieties and groups of
varieties which have acquired well defined characters, and that the
differences between the varieties are increasing rather than otherwise
as time goes on. The selection of varieties for planting is a matter to
be determined largely by the locality where they are to be grown. The
differences between them lie mainly in their adaptation to particular
purposes. There are almost none but what are good somewhere.
I cannot omit to emphasize here the fact that the fall crop should be
mainly relied upon in this country. It is a waste of time to attempt to
have cauliflowers head in our hot summer months, and until our markets
are better supplied than they now are with this vegetable, it will not
often pay to do much with the spring crop. The time may come when, as in
England, we may expect to have cauliflower and broccoli the year round,
but it has not come yet.
The chapter on cooking cauliflower should not be overlooked. One reason
why there is such a limited demand for this vegetable in this country is
that so few here know how to cook it. The methods of cooking it are
simple enough, but there are many persons who always hesitate to try
anything new, and as cauliflowers do not appear regularly in the market
these people never learn how to use them.
Those interested in extending the market for this vegetable will do well
to devise special means for introducing it into families not familiar
with it. The writer found that foreigners who had been accustomed to the
use of cauliflower in the "Old Country" were his best customers.
THE CAULIFLOWER.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
On the sea-coasts of Great Britain and other countries of western
Europe, from Norway around to the northern shores of the Mediterranean
(where it is chiefly at home) grows a small biennial plant, looking
somewhat like a mustard or half-grown cabbage. This is the wild cabbage,
_Brassica oleracea_, from which our cultivated cabbages originated. It
is entirely destitute of a head, but has rather succulent stems and
leaves, and has been used more or less for food from the earliest
historic times. The cultivated plants which most resemble this wild
species, are our different sorts of kale. In fact this wild plant is the
original, not only of our headed cabbage in its different varieties, but
also of all forms of kale, the kohl-rabi, brussels-sprouts, broccolis
and cauliflowers. No more wonderful example than this exists of the
changes produced in a wild plant by cultivation. Just when the
improvement of the wild cabbage began is unknown, probably at least 4000
years ago. Of the cultivated forms of this species Theophrastus
distinguished three, Pliny, six; Tournefort, twenty; and De Candolle, in
1821, more than thirty. For a long time this plant was used for food in
a slightly improved state before heads of any kind were developed.
Sturtevant, quotes Oliver de Serres, as saying that, "White cabbages
came from the north, and the art of making them head was unknown in the
time of Charlemagne." He adds that the first unmistakable reference to
our headed cabbage that he finds is by Rullius, who in 1536 mentions
globular heads, a foot and a half in diameter. It was probably about
this time that the cauliflower, and several other forms of the species
made their appearance. There is difference of opinion as to whether our
cauliflowers or the broccolis were first to originate. London believed
that the broccolis, which Miller says first came to England from Italy
in 1719, were derived from the cauliflower. Phillips, in his "History of
Cultivated Vegetables," said, in 1822, that the broccoli appears to be
an accidental mixture of the common cabbage and the cauliflower, but of
this he gives no proof.
Sturtevant says: "It is certainly very curious that the early botanists
did not describe or figure the broccoli. The omission is only
explainable on the supposition that it was confounded with the
cauliflower, just as Linnaeus brought the cauliflower and the broccoli
into one botanical variety." When broccolis came to England from Italy,
they were at first known under the names "sprout-cauliflower," or
"Italian asparagus." This, however, is not sufficient reason for
believing that the broccolis are derived from the cauliflowers, as the
word broccoli was, and still is, applied in Italy to the tender shoots
of various kinds of cabbages and turnips.
Some recent authorities have believed, since the broccoli is coarser
than the cauliflower, more variable in character, more robust in habit,
and requires a longer season, that it is the original form, of which the
cauliflower is only an improvement. Thus, Vilmorin says: "The sprouting
or asparagus broccoli represents the first form exhibited by the new
vegetable when it ceased to be the earliest cabbage, and was grown with
an especial view to its shoots; after this, by continued selection and
successive improvements, varieties were obtained which produced a
compact white head, and some of these varieties were still further
improved into kinds which are sufficiently early to commence and
complete their entire growth in the course of the same year; these last
named kinds are now known by the name of cauliflowers."
At the Cirencester Agricultural College, England, about 1860, broccolis
were produced, with other variables, directly from seeds of the wild
cabbage. These, and other considerations, make it seem doubtful that our
broccolis have originated from our cauliflowers. Whatever the original
form of the cauliflower may have been, it seems more probable that the
broccolis now grown had a separate origin, either from the wild state or
from some form of kale. Nearly all our present varieties of broccoli
originated in England from a few sorts introduced from Italy.
Cauliflowers, in name at least, are older than the broccolis, and were
brought to a high state of development and widely distributed before the
latter are mentioned in history. They were grown in the Mediterranean
region long before they became known in other parts of Europe.
Sturtevant finds no mention of the cauliflower or broccoli in ancient
authors, the only indication of the kind being the use of the word
_cyma_ by Pliny for a form of the cabbage tribe, which he thinks may
have been the broccoli. Heuze states that three varieties of cauliflower
were known in Spain in the twelfth century. In 1565 the cauliflower is
reported as being extensively grown in Hayti in the New World.
In 1573-5, Rauwolf, while traveling in the East, found the cauliflower
cultivated at Aleppo, in Turkey. It seems to have been introduced into
England from the Island of Cyprus, and it is mentioned by Lyte, in 1586,
under the name of "Cyprus coleworts."
Alpinus, in his work on the "Plants of Egypt," published in 1591, states
that the only plants of the cabbage tribe which he saw in that country
were the cauliflower and kohl-rabi. Cauliflower was also well known in
Greece at an early day.
Gerard published a figure of it in England in 1597. In 1612 it is
reported as being cultivated in France, and in 1619 as being sold in the
London market. In 1694 Pompes, a French author, is quoted as saying
that, "It comes to us in Paris by way of Marseilles from the Isle of
Cyprus, which is the only place I know of where it seeds."
From this time on, its cultivation gradually extended throughout Europe.
In England, especially, the cauliflower, as well as the broccoli, became
a popular garden vegetable. Philip Miller, in his "Gardener's
Dictionary," published in 1741, gives a long description of the method
of growing this vegetable, though mentioning but one variety, while
several varieties of broccoli are described. He says, however, that
"cauliflowers have of late years been so far improved in England as to
far exceed in goodness and magnitude what are produced in most parts of
Europe." Prior to the French Revolution, (which began in 1778)
cauliflower had, in fact, come to be largely exported from England into
Holland, Germany and France; but soon after this it came to be more
generally grown in those countries and was no longer imported, though
English seed was still used.
The numerous varieties of cauliflower now cultivated are of
comparatively recent origin. Although some of the earliest writers on
this vegetable mention two or more varieties, these were in some cases
merely different crops produced by sowing the seed at different periods.
In 1796, Marshall, in his English work on gardening, says that
"cauliflower is sometimes distinguished into an early and late sort;
though in fact there is no difference, only as the seed of that called
'early' is saved from the foremost plants." Phillips, in 1822, said:
"Our gardeners furnish us with an early and a late variety, both of
which are much esteemed."
In 1831, Don, of England, in his work on botany and gardening ("History
of Dichlamydeous Plants") describes fifteen varieties of broccoli and
three of cauliflower. The latter were known as Early, Later or Large,
and Red, the last being the most hardy. These three kinds differed but
little in general character, and were all inclined to sport into
inferior varieties.
In 1832 there was still a discussion in England as to whether the early
and late cauliflowers were really distinct, or differed only in time of
sowing.
John Rogers, in his "Vegetable Cultivator" (London, 1843), said: "There
are two varieties of the cauliflower, the early and the late, which are
alike in their growth and size, only that the early kind, as the name
implies, comes in about a week before the other, provided the true sort
has been obtained. There is, however, no certainty of knowing this,
unless by sowing the seed from the earliest sorts, as is the practice of
the London kitchen gardeners. The early variety was grown for a number
of years in the grounds called the Meat-house Gardens, at Millbank, near
Chelsea, and was of a superior quality, and generally the first at
market. The late variety is supposed to have originated from a stock for
many years cultivated on a piece of ground called the Jamaica level,
near Deptford, and which produced uncommonly fine heads, but later than
those at Millbank. Both soils are nearly similar, being a deep rich
loam, on a moist subsoil, and continually enriched with dung. Both the
varieties are of a delicate nature, being generally too tender to resist
the cold of the winter season without the occasional aid of glasses or
other means; and the sight of many acres overspread with such glasses in
the vicinity of London gives a stranger a forcible idea of the riches
and luxury of the capital."
In France, in 1824, three varieties, differing mainly in earliness, were
recognized, _le dur_, _le_ _demi-dur_ and _le tendre_. These names are
still applied to well known French sorts.
Victor Paquet, in his _Plantes Potagers_, published at Paris in 1846,
says: "The greater number of varieties of cauliflower are white, but
some are green or reddish. They are cooked in water, and dressed with
oil or white sauce. We cultivate two distinct varieties, _tendre_ and
_demi-dur_. The sub-varieties _gros_ and _petit Solomon_ are sorts of
the _tendre_."
Thus we see that early in the present century there were sorts differing
at least in time of maturity which had originated by selection; and,
although history does not show it, we must infer that even then there
were distinct differences in the cauliflowers cultivated in different
parts of Europe. From this time on cauliflowers from various localities
were brought more into public notice and greater efforts were made
toward their improvement.
In 1845, C. M. Hovey, of Boston, said, that "the varieties of
cauliflower have been greatly improved within a few years, and now not
less than a dozen kinds are found in the catalogues." The most noted of
those mentioned by him are Walcheren and Large Asiatic--varieties still
in cultivation. Burr described ten sorts in 1863, and Vilmorin sixteen
sorts in 1883. There are recorded in the present work the names of one
hundred and forty varieties besides synonyms. Some of these varieties
are no longer cultivated, and a few are too near other sorts to be
considered worthy of a separate name; so that of the cauliflowers proper
there may be said to be now in cultivation about one hundred distinct
varieties.