118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



the most of them were trenched the same as celery, so 

 as to be handy to get at anytime during- the winter. 

 The rest of the roots were planted under the green- 

 house benches, 4 inches apart each way, in good 

 soil. Six weeks from planting- they are ready for 

 market; are about a foot high, of a light green, 

 and the finest greens I ever saw, retailing here at 

 2ii cts. per lb. 1 have just planted roots for a second 

 crop. Eugene Davis. 



Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 21, 1889. 



Friend Davis was kind enough to send us 

 a sample basket of the dandelions. They 

 are not only beautifully white and hand- 

 some, but they are delicious when cooked 

 in winter time. Physicians have for years 

 past recommended the use of dandelions in 

 the spring. They are cut off a little below 

 the surface of the ground, so that some of 

 the dandelion root comes along with the 

 plant, and it is the root, I believe, that is 

 claimed to possess medical properties. In 

 selling dandelions you might mention this 

 latter point if you think best. 



If you have any turnips that have started 

 to grow before you have got ready to use 

 them, just plant them under the benches, 

 as you do pie-plant and dandelions, and 

 they will make an astonishing growth in a 

 very few days. The yellowish-white tops, 

 resembling the Golden Self-blanching celery 

 a good deal in appearance, will be found, 

 when cooked like asparagus, a most deli- 

 cious dish. 



Rhubarb, or pie-plant, can now be grown 

 under the shed described for celery. J ust 

 dig up some roots and bury them in rich 

 dirt, watering them occasionally ; and if 

 you have a temperature warm enough for 

 the other plants, you will get delicious stalks 

 of rhubarb. It seems to me the nicest pies 

 I ever tasted were made from rhubarb-stalks 

 grown in the greenhouse. If you have 

 raised benches for your plants, under the 

 benches is the place for the rhubarb. 



THE GRAND RAPIDS LETTUCE. 



As this is the season of the year when the 

 great bulk of the lettuce will be planted in 

 boxes or under glass, for the spring crop, we 

 take pleasure in copying from the American 

 Garden for February the following in regard 

 to the Grand Rapids lettuce : 



UPRIGHT LETTUCE IN THE GREENHOUSE. 



In December, 1887, my attention was called to the 

 culture of tall or open-head lettuce under glass and 

 in the greenhouse. The subject was of greater inter- 

 est, as I had heard and therefore assumed that it 

 was impossible to raise the tall kind of lettuce un- 

 der glass. The seeds used by the originator he calls 

 " Grand Rapids " lettuce, and the plant in growth 

 has the appearance of the Perpetual or the Hanson. 

 It is a light green, upright, wrinkled, soft-head let- 

 tuce. 



In correspondence with Mr. Eugene Davis, the 

 originator of this lettuce, I was enabled in Feb- 

 ruary last to receive by express from his houses 

 heads weighing three-quarters of a pound each of 

 as nice, tender lettuce as one would wish to see. 

 Through his kindness, also, I had a few seeds of the 

 lettuce sent me. Part of these I planted last March. 

 In May they were set in open ground and made 

 good growth; but from those saved for seed I se- 

 cured but a few pods of seed last August. I plant- 

 ed the rest of the seed received from Mr. Davis in 

 the spring, and the plants were set in the green- 

 house in September. In November they had made 

 a healthy growth, weighed about half a pound each, 

 and were sold at the full price of head lettuce 

 growing in the same house. Mr. Davis states that 



this lettuce has been raised in that locality for the 

 past ten years. There are about seventy-five green- 

 houses, 20x50 feet, in Grand Rapids, devoted to the 

 culture of this lettuce exclusively, the product go- 

 ing east to New York, also to Chicago, Cincinnati, 

 and Cleveland, shipped in paper-lined barrels, and 

 sold by the pound at about 19 cents net. The sell- 

 ing by the pound pleases both buyer and seller. 

 The average weight is about three-quarters of a 

 pound to the head, some heads weighing \\ pounds. 

 The business is remunerative in those markets that 

 receive a tall lettuce. Of course, where a head let- 

 tuce is demanded this would not sell. 



The houses face the south, running east and 

 west; the front is 3 feet high; the front rafters are 

 16 feet long, rising beyond the center to the ridge, 

 the highest point, which is 10 feet above the house 

 floor: the back rafters are 8 feet long, resting on a 

 wall 6 feet high on the north side. The width of the 

 houses is 20 feet and the length 50, 60, or 100 feet; 

 20x50 is safely heated by brick return flues and a 

 wood fire, burning about eight cords of 4-foot wood, 

 costing $3 a cord, and between September and May 

 yielding two or three crops of lettuce. 



The benches were not solid; the dirt is 7 inches 

 deep on boards resting on wcoden supports and 

 posts. The flue runs the whole length of the house, 

 and the chimney is over the furnace; temperature 

 can be maintained easily at 65°; the furnace filled 

 at 9 p. m. will last until morning, and is kept going 

 all day in the coldest weather. The 100-feet-long 

 houses have a furnace at each end, 50 feet in length, 

 being all one fire can easily heat. 



With me the " Grand Rapids" lettuce proves less 

 liable to rot, but less salable than head lettuce in 

 the winter. Mr. Davis says: "It stands shipping 

 better, and is not so liable to rot on the benches. 

 The trouble with head lettuce with us is, if it gets 

 to top rotting you can't stop it; this kind, the heads 

 being more open, you can stop it at once." He also 

 says: " I tried three kinds of head lettuce last win- 

 ter, and I find it can not be sold by the pound at a 

 profit to the grower; also when head lettuce gets its 

 growth it must be sold at once; grown by the side 

 of Grand Rapids lettuce it rotted and was not re- 

 liable. All who are trying the business here are 

 making a success of it. This lettuce will grow as 

 well in hot-beds as in hot-houses. In regard to 

 weight, profit, etc., I have just finished (March 6, 

 1888) cutting one house, 20x60. and got 1400 pounds, 

 which nets us 19 cents per pound. It gives better 

 satisfaction sold by the pound. In a good season 

 this lettuce is a heavy seeder. The past season my 

 crop was very light, on account of dry weather." 



Mr. Davis is a young man, probably thirty-seven 

 years old, who has devoted sixteen years of study 

 and experiment to the improvement of lettuce, 

 with a view of growing it under glass. He started 

 with the Black-seeded Simpson. He wanted lettuce 

 that would not rot, of rapid growth, light-colored, 

 handsome in appearance, crisp, tender, excellent in 

 flavor, and that could be kept ten days or more 

 without hurting, when ready for market, should 

 the weather be unfavorable for shipping or the 

 market dull. During this time the stock has not 

 got into the hands of seedsmen. 



In January, 1888, Mr. A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, 

 paid $50 for half a pound of seed, which is the only 

 case of sale outside of Grand Rapids, where Mr. 

 Davis supplies the seed to all who are in the busi- 

 ness in that section. He says he has no seed for 

 sale this year, but could have another season. His 

 experiments have been conducted in his own inter- 

 est, and not with a view to sell seeds or plants; but 

 the subject is of sufficient importance to warrant 

 continued investigation on the part of those engag- 

 ed in raising lettuce under glass. I have no per- 

 sonal interests to serve in speaking of the subject. 

 Mr. Davis has, by constant selection and improve- 

 ment, succeeded in keeping- the stock up to its pres- 

 ent capabilities, from which it would speedily de* 

 cline in the hands of a careless operator. 



Hampden Co., Mass. W. H. Bull. 



MORE ABOUT THE GRAND RAPIDS LETTUCE ; HOW 



TO CONSTRUCT A GREENHOUSE FOR LETTUCE ; 



HOW TO WARM IT, ETC. 



Friend Boot:— In your issue for Feb. 1, 1889, Mr. 

 Eugene Davis, of Grand Rapids, in answer to your 

 fourth question, as to best mode of heating lettuce- 

 houses, says: "Our houses are heated with flues 

 running under the middle benoh, constructed so as 



