VEGETABLES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1973, 21 June 1880, Page 4

VEGETABLES.

The following article, taken from the " Sydney Mail " of a recent date, is worthy of careful perusal:— " We have seen it written that, as regards vegetables, the public are the slaves of gardeners and greengrocers. How much at the present time the dictum is applicable to Great Britain we are not prepared to state, but that it requires reversing in this colony is to all cultivators a matter of fact. Purchasers of vegetables have peculiar ideas concerning goodness, and, to offer them anything but what they are accustomed to simply means losing custom with the dealer, and getting (with the private gardener) into bad grace with the cook. We hayo been informed that in the cabbage line hardly anything else is acceptable with the public but a flat-headed cabbage and to offer them a pyramidal shaped one meets in most oases with a flat denial to purchase. The consequence is that the varieties of this useful article are limited chiefly to such kinds as colonial drumhead, St. John's Day, and the bastard varieties of flat Dutch, all of which (except the St. John's Day) are merely suitable for cattle-feeding. If we take up a dealer's list of cabbages, like everything else, the varieties contained therein are innumerable ; but it may happen that what it contains from many growers have been submitted for trial at the experimental gardens at Ohiswick, England, with the result of proof that some two-thirds are merely imaginary, and are only dealers' ideas of difference. Thus the well-established old varieties still continue to keep a foremost place. A large light-leaved variety, said to be of an enormous size, has lately been catalogued, viz, the Sweinfurt. This variety is said to be more suitable for cattle feeding than for table use ; as, although it is very large, yet from its coarseness and the lengthy period required to bring it to .perfection, it is undesirable, and, in fact, an unprofitable variety to cultivate. And we state, without much fear of contradiction, that two crops of other sorts may be grown for one of it. We have often directed attention to the fact that for private use the smaller the cabbage the more profitable. For instance, if a large cabbage is produced, the possibility is that it is too large for using at one meal consequently part of it has either to be kept for a future day or thrown away; and in the case of keeping in this oolony the less said of it the better. On the other hand if ■ small or medium sized varieties are grown, one or more as the case may be are out when required, in rolving no waste, and with these varieties the whole may be utilised except the mere outside leaves. Growers of cabbages should select from the following list a few for cultivating (the only exception being that for summer use we are ' and must be dependent on the St. John's Day and the Winningstadt, and in fairness to the last-named we should say that it is the better of the two, as taking up less ground, more solid and better in every respect than the former) :—lf a quick orop ib required plant out a good bed of York, and for later purposes the East Ham, Queen, Imperial, Nonpariel, Battersea, may be used. Size and goodness merely depends on the cultivation given, high manuring being very essential, and, as we have often recommended, supplies of guano while the plants are in a free growing state. Somehow the people of New South Wales have a great idea of big things, no matter whethor in the pumpkin or other lines; fa.e consequence is, that insteed of having what may be termed edible matter on the table, we get a washy preparation—a fact very noticeable now with our pumpkins, which have resolved themselves into squashes, and, to use a mild term, are rubbish in their way. We have been treated with monster cauliflowers lately, and as one seedsman does not like another to be the sole issuer of such, we have now plenty of giant cauliflowers under various names. _ What makes giant cauliflowers ? Why, simply the manner in which they are grown. Raise young healthy plants, put them into good land, sweet, well drained, and very highly manured, and the result will be giant_ cauliflowers. Again, treat the so-called giants in an cfF-hand manner and they will beget dwarfs. At one time about Sydney the brocoli used to be cultivated successfully, now we very seldom ever see it; as a hardy useful vegetable it demands the consideration of cultivators, the purple and sulphur-colored are tho best. For colder climates, such as Knight's Protecting, Chappell's Cream, and the Sprouting deserve attention. Like the cauliflower a high state of cultivation is necessary, but they will thrive where the cauliflower will only struggle for existence. We could also allude to the discredit Brussels Sprouts have obtained, and that the best varieties of carrots are not grown simply because they are not large ; and were dealers to put into the market oliveshaped radishes and others of a like nature, although far superior to the coarse long variety, they would find no favor with the buying public We have often advocated tho cultivation of the silver beet as being a valuable acquisition to the ordinary •took of vegetables. The seakale is also another illustration ; the like may be quoted of the scorzonera and salsify. Then

with saladiDg—a matter bo essential to health during the enmmer months—the supplies are merely tough colonial seeded lettuce, many growers not caring to even sow imported seed, but rest contented with inferiority as long as the public will buy the trash. What has become of the valuables endive, which, when blanched, is indispensable to the salad bowl ? To vary matters, we notice our British friends now grow the ordinary dandelion, the leaves of which blanched are highly spoken of for salad purposes. The New Zealand spinach appears tu have passed cut of cultivation in our private gardens ; why, we know not, as, during our dry hot summers, it affords 'a valuable addition to the scanty supply. We mention these matters chiefly to direct the attention of gardeners and arnateurß that there are other vegetables besides cabbages, turnip?, carrots, parsnips, peas, and beans, which, owing to the peculiarities of our climate, often fail, and leave us vegetableless.