338 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



will gradually extend this winter forcing southward. One of the leading 

 winter crops under glass in the North has for many years heen that of lettuce, 

 and the demand for winter lettuce is such that the business has extended 

 greatly, and the Arlington growers in the vicinity of Boston, have become 

 famous for their product. A number of years ago the writer conceived the 

 idea that lettuce could be grown with success southward by the aid of cold 

 frames, at far less expense than in the heated structures used in New Eng- 

 land. At that time we were located in Northern Maryland, and the markets 

 of Baltimore and Washington were then largely supplied with Boston lettuce. 

 With perfect faith in the feasibility of growing good winter lettuce in frames 

 I began the culture with 600 sashes 3x6 feet, and with the aid of straw mats 

 found no difficulty in producing there first-class lettuce, and in selling it 

 readily in the markets of Baltimore and Philadelphia 



Coming South in later years I urged upon our growers the great profit 

 that could be derived from frame culture in a mild climate,. and to show my 

 faith I put down 1,000 sashes at Old Point Comfort, Va., for the growing 

 of lettuce and cauliflower for the New York market and the supply of the 

 great Hygeia Hotel, and the culture was even more successful than in Mary- 

 land. Still later, in North Carolina, I urged the culture of winter crops in 

 simple frames on the attention of our growers. But as soon as a Southern 

 market gardener begins to contemplate anything like cold weather work he 

 thinks of some cheap substitute for glass, and has a notion that cotton cloth 

 will answer all purposes in his climate. Our growers took hold of the lettuce 

 idea, but could not get the nerve to invest in glass, hence the business in the 

 South has largely been developed under cloth in lieu of glass, and though the 

 cloth is a poor substitute for glass the great adaptability of the climate to the 

 purpose has enabled them to make large profits from the crop grown under 

 these crude conditions, and it will not be long before the more far sighted 

 will perceive the necessity and the profit of using glass. Then, with the be- 

 ginning of frame culture the transition will be easy to regular greenhouse 

 structures and artificial heat for regular winter forcing. 



The production of vegetables, fruits and flowers under glass in winter 

 even in the sections of the country where it has most developed, and where 

 acres are covered with houses for the business, is still in its evolutionary stage, 

 and with the rapid increase in population and wealth in the great cities, and 

 the perfection of the means for the rapid transport of the products, the busi- 

 ness will extend to sections where the growers have heretofore simply been 

 relying upon the advantage their climate gives them, and have been inclined 

 to be extensive rather than intensive cultivators. Our people, especially in 

 the South, have always been anxious to be large farmers, large truckers and 



