At Duluth, Minnesota, near the western end of Lake Superior, I have seen as fine cauliflowers growing as I ever saw anywhere. The soil was black loamy, upland.
Mr. J. S. Brocklehurst, of Oneota, in the same county, considers his locality unsurpassed for the cauliflower.
In Northern Wisconsin there is considerable territory which is excellent for cauliflower. In 1890, the first, second and third prizes offered by James Vick, for the best heads of Vick's Ideal were all awarded to growers in Eau Clare County, Wisconsin.
The recent introduction of very early varieties is likely to have an important result in extending the cultivation of the cauliflower, in the extreme Northern States and Canada, where the soil and climate are in many places peculiarly adapted to it, but where the seasons are so short that it has not heretofore been successfully grown.
Around Chicago much of the soil is unsurpassed for this vegetable, and large quantities of it are grown, but not enough to supply its local demand.
The most successful cultivators of this vegetable near Chicago are the market gardeners in the Holland settlement south of the city, and the Germans on the north. All are more successful with the late crop than with the early. One of the most successful of these growers sometimes sets his plants as late as the first of August, using seed direct from friends in Holland.
In Mahoning County, Ohio, which may be included, for convenience, in the Lake Region, Mr. Milton, who makes a specialty of the cauliflower, states that it is a good paying crop, but requires high cultivation, and if possible a moist soil. He states that he has tried all the varieties in cultivation, and finds a great difference in seed of the same variety from different growers. For the early crop he one year planted Henderson's Snowball, extra selected Early Erfurt, and Vick's Ideal, and found, owing to a drouth which set in just as the heads began to form, that the last variety was the only one which gave paying heads. For a late crop he generally uses Half-Early Paris, but has had good success with Algiers in a warm season. This variety must be started very early, however, in order to head before winter.
THE PRAIRIE REGION.
Prairie soil is usually well adapted to the cauliflower, and in favorable seasons a good crop is obtained, but such seasons are so little to be depended on in this region that cauliflower culture on a large scale is only profitable here under irrigation, or in restricted localities where the soil is naturally moist.
The gardeners around St. Louis have good success in growing cauliflower on the bottom land. Professor L. R. Taft says, "During two of the years I lived in Missouri it was very hot and dry and on the heavy clay soil of most of the state cauliflower, as a field crop, was a failure. I had good success, however, by planting one foot apart in cold frames from which lettuce had been taken; they were watered as required and during the hottest weather were protected to some extent by means of lath screens."