178 AGRICULTURE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 



There are a number of vegetables which are called salad 

 plants. A salad plant is one the leaves of which are used 

 green on the table, usually with a dressing of some kind over 

 them. The leaves of some plants are wilted or cooked before 

 serving; then they become pot-herbs. Pot-herbs are often 

 called "greens." 



Lettuce is our most common salad plant. It is grown very 

 extensively in greenhouses for winter market. The seed is 

 sown in small boxes and the young plants transplanted about 

 twelve inches apart in beds. For early spring use, plants are 

 started in boxes, hardened in cold-frames, and transplanted to 

 the open. For family use most farmers sow broadcast a small 

 bed in the open, as early in spring as possible. It is usually 

 grown without cultivation, but if the plants are transplanted 

 to rows twelve inches apart and cultivated, the heads are 

 much nicer. 



Other salad plants are cress, endive, chicory, and parsley. 

 Some of the common pot-herbs are Swiss chard — a kind of 

 beet, mustard, spinach, dandelion, and sour dock. The last 

 two are usually not cultivated, but gathered from waste 

 places where they grow in abundance. The package in which 

 the seed is purchased usually gives directions for the culti- 

 vation of any of the above. 



Sweet Corn when grown for table use or for canneries is to 

 be considered a vegetable. Its cultivation does not differ 

 from that of field corn already described, except that more 

 stalks are allowed to grow in a hill. Planting may be made 

 at intervals as late as July in order to furnish a succession of 

 crops. Early Minnesota and Crosby Early are good early 

 varieties, while StowelFs Evergreen and Country Gentleman 

 are standard late sorts. To keep the seed of sweet corn re- 



