600 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



before it is used. This treatment kills all diseased germs and weed 

 seeds and thus renders it ideal lor a plant bed. On heavy soils it 

 is necessary to allow the soil to stand untouched at least one week 

 and two weeks is better after sterilizing, before any planting is done. 

 To sterilize with formalin use 1-^- to 2 quarts of formaldehyde 

 to fifty gallons of water applying one gallon of the solution to each 

 square foot of surface. This solution may be applied through the 

 overhead watering system if such a system is in use. Formalin has 

 given fairly good results as a means of overcoming the disease known 

 as Lettuce Eozette but is not effective in controlling lettuce rot. 



CROPS GROWN 



The general practice in Ohio is to grow three crops of lettuce fol- 

 lowed by one of cucumbers or tomatoes. This is varied somewhat 

 by different growers and different years. Tomatoes are grown as a 

 fall crop in a few cases. A very few growers force cucumbers in 

 the fall. Kadishes, beans, caulillower, beets, parsley, etc. are all 

 grown more or less. In a few instances chrysanthemums are forced 

 instead of lettuce in the fall. 



LETTUCE 



Grand Kapids lettuce is grown almost exclusively in Ohio. One 

 of the difficulties which confronts the grower right at the start is 

 that pure seed is hard to get at any price. I have yet to see a crop 

 grown from seed purchased from a seedhouse that did not show 

 some tendency to revert to the coarse dark colored type. The Ohio 

 Station has secured seed by selection which is very nearly pure. 

 This shows that it is possible to produce pure seeds and the growers 

 should let the seedsmen know that they want pure seed and are 

 willing to pay for it. It is not necessary, however, to depend on 

 the seedsmen for lettuce seed as it can be grown quite easily and 

 the greenhouse who secures satisfactorry strain by purchase or by 

 selection should grow his own seed. 



At Ashtabula the seeds are sown in solid beds which have been 

 covered to a depth of four to six inches with sterilized muck. The 

 seeds are covered with moist brown paper. As soon as the plants 

 are large enough to handle they are pricked out in other muck 

 filled beds being spaced about two inches apart each way. The root 

 development of the plants in this soil is remarkable. The plants 

 are allowed to grow to a height of three or four inches when they 

 are removed and transplanted in the permanent beds. 



The Toledo growers use flats in which to sow the seed and grow 

 the young plants. These flats are about one and one-half by two 

 feet in size and the bottoms are made of closely woven galvanized 

 wire. One of the chief advantages of the flat method over the 

 ground bed is that the flats may be carried to where the planting 

 is done and the plants removed and set with much more dirt in con- 

 tact with the roots than is usually the case where the plants are 

 removed from the beds, carried some distance and handled a second 

 time before they are set. There is hoAvever, a large amount of work 

 connected Avith the handling of the flats which offsets much of the 

 gain. Another advantage of the flats is that the roots are more 



