In England, and most places on the
Continent of Europe, it is the most valued of all vegetables, and is
grown there nearly as easily as early cabbages. But it must be
remembered that the temperature there is on the average ten degrees
lower at the time it matures (June) than with us; besides, their
atmosphere is much more humid, two conditions essential to its proper
development. I will briefly state how early cauliflowers can be most
successfully grown here. First, the soil must be well broken, and
pulverized by spading to at least a foot in depth, mixing through it a
layer of three or four inches of strong well-rotted stable manure. The
plants may be either those from seed sown last fall and wintered over
in cold frames, or else started from seeds sown in January or February
in a hot-bed or green-house, and planted in small pots or boxes, so as
to make plants strong enough to be set out as soon as the soil is fit to
work, which, in this latitude, is usually the first week in April. We
are often applied to for cauliflower plants as late as May, but the
chances of their forming heads when planted in May are slim indeed. The
surest way to secure the heading of cauliflowers is to use what are
called hand-glasses. These are usually made about two feet square, which
gives room enough for three or four plants of cauliflower until they are
so far forwarded that the glass can be taken off. When the hand-glass is
used the cauliflowers may be planted out in any warm border early in
March and covered by them. This covering protects them from frost at
night, and gives the necessary increase of temperature for growth during
the cold weeks of March and April; so that by the first week in May, if
the cauliflower has been properly hardened off by ventilating (by
tilting up the hand-glasses on one side) they may be taken off
altogether and then used to forward tomatoes, melons or cucumbers. If
the weather is dry the cauliflowers will be much benefitted by being
thoroughly soaked with water twice or thrice a week. * * * The two best
varieties of cauliflower we have found as yet [1875] are the Dwarf
Erfurt and Early Paris."

Notwithstanding the care required for the early crop, the same writer
states in his earlier work on "Gardening for Profit," (published in
1867, during a period of high prices,) that "for the past four or five
years cauliflowers [early] have been one of my most profitable crops. I
have, during that time, grown about