390 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



the region, and two parts of well-rotted manure. Such soil will 

 grow 20 bushels of wheat to the acre without fertilization." 



It is always essential to the best lettuce growing to avoid 

 " heavy " soils. These soils usually lose their water quickly, 

 necessitating frequent watering which keeps the surface wet and 

 increases danger from damping off and rot. These soils soon become 

 hard, compact and " dead," and the plants grow slowly, with thick 

 tough leaves. 



If the lettuce crop is to be taken off in early November, from 

 seven to ten weeks should be counted from the sowing of the seeds 

 to the delivery of the product. A midwinter crop may require two 

 to four weeks longer. The time may be shortened ten days to two 

 weeks by the use of the electric arc light hung directly above the 

 house. A single ordinary street lamp of 2,000 normal candle powe", 

 will be sufficient for a house twenty feet or more wide and seventy- 

 five feet long, if it is so hung that the house is uniformly lighted 

 throughout. Our experiments with the electric light, now extended 

 over a period of five years, have uniformly and unequivocally 

 given these beneficial results with lettuce.* 



The first sowing for house lettuce is usually made about the 

 first of September and the crop should be off in November. We 

 sow the seeds in flats or shallow boxes, preferably prick off the 

 young plants about four inches apart into other flats when they 

 are about two weeks old, and transplant them into the beds, about 

 eight to ten inches apart each way, when they are about five weeks- 

 from the seed. We often omit the pricking off into other flats 

 simply thinning out the plants where they stand and transferring 

 them from the original flat directly to the bed; but better and 

 quicker results are usually secured if the extra handling is given. 

 Four or six weeks after the first seed is sown another sowing is 

 made in flats for the purpose of taking the place of the first crop. 

 Following are some actual sample dates of good and bad lettuce 

 growing in our houses, in a climate which is unusually cloudy and 

 " slow " in winter : Landreth Forcing lettuce sown in flats Feb- 

 ruary 2-ith ; transplated to beds, March 17th ; first heads marketed 

 under normal conditions, May 10th ; first heads marketed from a 

 compartment receiving electric light at night (a total of 8-1 hours), 



*See our bulletins 30, 42 and 55. 



