Secoi^d E,EPOitT IJpoii Electbo-Horticultuee. 201 



can no longer te any doubt as to the advantage of the electric 

 light in the forcing of lettuce. The light was started October 

 19, ISyi. At that time, Boston market lettuce four weeks old 

 was set on bench 4, and seedling plants of Landi-eth Forcing were 

 just showing on bench 8. The transplanted plants (bench 4} m 

 the light compartment soon began to excel those in the dark 

 compartment, and as eaiiy as October twenty-seventh, or a week 

 after the staiting of the light, they were perceptibly ahead of the 

 othera in this time forty hom-s of electric light had been 

 expended upon the plants. The plants dii-ectly under the light, 

 from seven to ten feet from the arc, were the first to improve. 

 iN'ovember hrst the lighted plants were a fomith larger than the 

 others, and they showed a mai-ked tendency to turn towards the 

 light. The plants, even to the farther extremity of the light com- 

 pai^tment gained steadily throughout the experiment, and they 

 were ready for maiket from a week to ten days earlier than in 

 the dark house, in quality and all other characters, this lettuce 

 was indistinguishable from that grown under normal conditions. 



The lettuce on bench 3 — which had been sown thei^e — 

 behaved differently. Fov the first week or ten days, the plants 

 under the light were stunted, notwithstanding the fact that they 

 were farther from the lamp than those on bench 4, which did so 

 well from the first. After some days of lingering, when the 

 plants began to acquire thi*ee or four leaves, these seedlings began 

 rapidly to recuperate and they finaUy overtook their companions 

 in the dark-house; but these plants never showed the superiority 

 which the transplanted ones on bench 4 exhibited. We were 

 prepared for this behavior, for we had observed it before, and 

 Deherain has reported similar results with other plants in his 

 experiments in Paris. The reason for this injuiy to very young 

 plants I shall not now attempt to discuss; it is sufiicient for our 

 present purpose to say that it appears to be better to sow lettuce 

 under common conditions, and when the plants are weU established 

 to transplant them under the light 



Letrt;uce was also transplanted into the uppei' bench, No. 1, in 

 Girder to determine how far the infiuence of the light extends. 



2t) 



