LETTUCE 225 



dener in the South will always plan for two crops during the winter, by re- 

 planting as rapidly as the early (or Christmas) crop is out. For the first 

 crop, to come off from the first of December to Christmas, seed of the Tennis 

 Ball or Boston Market should be sown the last week in August, and will be 

 ready for the frames a month later. These varieties can be planted six inches 

 apart when the frame is occupied by lettuce alone, but when a crop of cauli- 

 flower is also grown in the frames they will occupy the place of ten lettuce 

 plants and the sash will then hold 40 lettuce. Where the frames are to be 

 used for a succession crop of lettuce it will not be practicable to grow the 

 cauliflower and they must have room by themselves. But where practicable 

 it is not best to replant the same frame in lettuce, as the second crop is apt to 

 be more or less diseased. In fact, so much trouble has been had from this, 

 that some of the largest growers now do not try to have an early winter crop, 

 but plant entirely for the late winter and spring market, when the price is 

 usually highest. But where practicable it will be found best to have extra 

 frames for second crop of lettuce, and to leave cauliflower after the Christmas 

 lettuce is cut, with only protection of mats or cloth in cold snaps, and to re- 

 move the glass to the extra frames for the later lettuce. These frames being 

 prepared at the same time as the first will have gotten well sweetened by frost, 

 and will make the finest of crops. Seed for the late winter and spring crop 

 is sown late in September, in a sheltered spot, and a little later it is well to 

 mulch the plants lightly with strawy manure as a protection, though they will 

 usually winter fairly well here, unprotected. At the same time it is well 

 to sow some seed of the varieties that are not grown under protection, so as 

 to have them to set later in the field along between the rows of early cabbage, 

 to be cut in the spring before the cabbages need all the room. For this pur- 

 pose there is no better lettuce than the Improved Hanson. For the late win- 

 ter and spring crop in the frames we sow the Big Boston and the California 

 Cream Butter lettuce. The Big Boston is commonly used for both crops 

 by our market gardeners here, but for the Christmas crop we prefer the Bos- 

 ton Market, as it heads compactly at an earlier period. 



The growing of lettuce under glass in the North differs from that in 

 the South only in the place where the plants are set. There the crop is grown 

 in wide, flat-roofed greenhouses, in which a night temperature of 40 to 45 

 degrees is maintained, and free ventilation given in day time. The plants 

 are set in well prepared compost on the benches of the houses, and require 

 far more care and attention than the Southern frame crop, as the plants are 

 more liable to disease and the attacks of aphides and other insects; but the 

 crop is so generally profitable and the quality so fine that the area annually 

 devoted to lettuce is rapidly increasing. Near Boston, where, in winter, the 



