jANiURY I, iS86,j THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



477 



LETTUCE GEOW'IXG : A THING WOBTH 

 KNOWING. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "' PIONEEJU." 



Sir, — In the Lucknow Horticultural Ganleii is 

 grown an aixlimntised cos lettuce, witL a selocteil 

 pi-iligree of ujiwarils of 15 years. No newly-import- 

 eil kiuils come up to it, as far as sulitability to this 

 climate is concerned, yet it is hardly known beyond 

 the sphere of official reports. It is a large and tall 

 cos variety; the tips of the leaves cabbage or fold 

 over each other, so as to blanch the inner leaves 

 ■without the bother of swathing. Tlease note what 

 those who have tried it have said about it. Some 

 years back a trial of the Lucknow cos lettuce seed 

 was made at the Saharunpore Botanic Garden, which 

 resulted iu the following report:— "A splendid variety; 

 three sowings were made, and all made heads 

 superior to any" imported variety we had. En<]uiries 

 were made by parties who received it in dixieC!', 

 where the seeds were obtained from." (!) In 1SS3 

 I sowed some seed of this superb cos lettuce iu 

 Etawah, and sent some heads of it lo fritnds. They 

 said they never saw anything like it for size, whiteness, 

 sweetjiess, and crispuess. Last year I grew it again. 

 I sent a few heads of it to a lady who had come 

 to Ktawah. She said she never saw anything so 

 good. On returning to Agra she asked me to send 

 her .some heads of this lettuce, that she might show 

 the residents of Agra what fine lettuce ought to be 

 like in India. Later on she did not forget to write 

 for some of its seed. Now there is a little secret 

 about growing lettuce for s'ed, which may not be 

 generally known, and which the sooner it is learnt 

 the more easily will the grower be able to improve 

 his seed for future sowings. First, always get hold 

 of the best acclimatized strain jiossible. Second, sow 

 the seed, not too thkkhj, in well-prepared beds of 

 rich soil, in October (iu the N. AV. P. and Oudh). 

 Third, when big enough to handle, prick out the 

 young plants carefully, 12 or 14 inches apart, in 

 rich soil of the beat quality, where they can get 

 plenty of air and sun. M'ater at once with a rose, 

 and then irrigate the beds regularly at intervals 

 and watch the result. The growing lettuce should 

 never want water, that is, it should never be checked 

 in growing ; being a leaf-vegetable, it should have 

 the richest possible soil. Of course weeding and 

 other ciUture must be attended to. Choola ashes 

 appear to suit lettuce, but of course it is possible to 

 give too much of a good thing. "When the heads 

 are coming on towards being fit for the table yon 

 will linil that most of them will fold the tips of their 

 inner leaves one over the other, that is. they cal'lia;/i: 

 TItes' are the ones you should select for seed. Do 

 not fancy for a moment, however, that you lose the 

 heads for the table by keeping seed from these plants. 

 Not a bit. AVIien the head is ready for use, cut it 

 off close to- the ground, leaving only three or four 

 leaves on the stump. Plunge the he.id iu clean 

 fresli water at once, and use it afterwards as required ■ 

 for salad. 'Within a week or so you will see little 

 sprout-') coming up from the stumj). These are the 

 tidt .-li'ioli of the lettuce, and it is fiom these vidy 

 that good seed for the next generation can be obtained, 

 that is, if you wish to have lettuce that will grow 

 slowly and cabbage, and will not " run off into /lower 

 like rocket'.'' Plea.sc note also the following: — Any 

 lettuce he.ids which do r\nt cabbage and remain open 

 like endive, take up scrupulously Inj the roots and do 

 what you like with them. This you must see done ' 

 your.self. as your mali will not do it, but wih leave 

 the stumps of the open-headed leltueos also in the 

 ground, the shoots of which would seed like the rest and 

 leaven and spoil your stock with lettuces fit only 

 for cow.'f and goats. The stumps with their flowering 

 stems should be irrigated regidarly as before until 

 you gather all the seed you want. Keniember the 

 seeils, when ripe, are attached to little tnfts of 

 cotton, and will b'- soon blown away anywhere 

 after expanding. They should therefore be collected 



daily, after the sun has dried off any dow. A second 

 selection may be made while the flower stems are, 

 growing. The fewer stems you leave on each stump, 

 the more nourishment will they get and the stronger 

 wi i the seed ultimately he. The stunqis of the 

 earliest heads taken off cutefis jiiiiihiis are likely 

 to give better seed than the latest. The former 

 will have a good bit of the cohl weather to grow 

 and perfect themselves iu, v/hile the In Iter will have 

 the beginning of the hot weather to do it in. Yet 

 a third t ! ctiou may be made. By winnowing the 

 seed, after c ' auing it, in a gentle breeze, over an 

 •xteuded sheet, you will be able to seijaratu the 

 |. uipe.st, and therefore the soundest and heaviest 

 seeds from the chalfy, light ones ; the former is what 

 you should keep for stock. If you follow this advice 

 strictly, aud see to it now and again yourself, you 

 will not Lo disappoiuted with your acclimatised seed. 

 Moreover, by growing already acclimatised seed and 

 keeping your own every year, this lettui:u will adapt 

 itself, with a little intelligent niodificatiou iu the 

 treatment, to all the climates of the N., S., E., W., 

 and centre of India. One word more about the seed. 

 As it would be useless to go to war without keeping 

 your powder dry, .'■o wouUl it be useless to take all 

 the foregoing trouble about nursing aud selecting if, 

 after all, you do not k(C/> your seed dry. Bottles 

 well corked or tin bo-ws with tightly fitting covers — 

 never too full — are the best for keeping seeds in. 

 Take advantage of dry bright sunny days to air and 

 sun your seeds on a blanket spread on a eharpoy (not 

 on the grouud), with' a boy to watch the .squirrels. 

 Now there is a reason for most things in this world, 

 and the reason why the side shoots of the lettuce 

 plant are better than the main shoots for keeping 

 seeds from in India is this: the main stem tends 

 to shoot up ijidck/i/, and its seeds will produce plants 

 with the same tendency. Therefore lettuces fi-om 

 the main stem seeds would disappoint you by Hying 

 off like rockets into flowering stems before you would 

 have time to consume them, and ou the slightest 

 provocation from warm weather and dryness at the 

 root, while your object should be to make them grow 

 .slowly, and have tlicm fit for the fcdile throughout 

 a longer period. This yon can bring about by keep- 

 ing .seeds fiom the side shoots only, which will give 

 plants that will grow more .slowly. Kemember that 

 the winter in ludia is very .short ; no sooner are you 

 rid of the raius and their liot-house atmosphere than 

 the coldest part of the winter is upon you (when 

 most vegetables are at their best), and the next 

 warm weather soon following up. Curiously enough, 

 natives do not care about lettuce, although they who 

 are fond of eating r.iw v<'get.ables might eat the raw 

 blanched and sweet leaves with :uh'antage, especiclly 

 if they first dipped them in lemon juice aud then 

 in salt. T use this fine ens lettuce, liowever, every 

 winter for prisoners, while I keep the stumps of the 

 prime ones for .seed. In the prison the lettuces are 

 chopped up and boiled as other vegetables, aud a 

 flue thing they make when properly done up. For 

 soldiers nothing could be better than this fine veget- 

 able. Last of all it is uot impossible that this 

 lettuce grown largely without much richness of soil 

 would yield an opium called lacttianiiim, ivhieh is 

 useful in medicine. It is collected from incisions 

 in the flower stalk, aud the root is said to yield an 

 extract which is stronger than that made from the 

 leaves. 'J'hc medicinal properties of Laclncaiium, or 

 fhe extract, are said to be sedative, narcoti(^ gently 

 laxative, and powerfully diuretic. Whether the cultiv- 

 ated kiud can be made to yield this aijparently 

 useful drug is, however, a matter for experiment. 



K. BO.NAVIA, M.D. 



THAT HUSBAND OF MINE 

 Is three times the itiaii he was before he began 

 using ^Vells' Health UenewcT." Druggists. 'W. IJ. .Smith 

 & Co., Jladras, Sole Agents. 



