340 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



Even now the crop in the dead of winter does not bring as large a price as 

 in the early spring months, when every one begins to crave salads, and while 

 the winter crop, if well grown, is a very profitable one and one that has never 

 known a glut, the experience of all growers is, we believe, that the crop of 

 March and April always brings the largest price by reason of the increased 

 demand. 



LETTUCE IN COLD FRAMES. 



The cultivation of the crop in cold frames must, of course, be confined, 

 in winter, to those sections of the country where either a simple sash suffices 

 for its protection and growth, or where the aid of a straw mat is sufficient; 

 in colder sections the frame is simply used to carry plants over the winter for 

 spring setting, to make an early crop in open ground. There, the winter cul- 

 ture must be in greenhouses, constructed for the purpose and properly fitted 

 with apparatus for heating. The manurial requirements of the lettuce crop 

 are mainly for nitrogen and potash, and the soils in which the crop is most 

 successful are usually deficient in just these elements; for the sandy lands 

 of the Atlantic coast are the best soils for the lettuce crop. In fact, in a clay 

 soil, no matter how fertile, the crop, especially of the heading sort, can never 

 compete with that grown in a sandy loam; so that growers in a different 

 soil are obliged to prepare an artificial soil to meet the needs of the crop. 



There are two general classes of lettuce grown, and innumerable varie- 

 ties. The commercial grower, however, rarely experiments with strange sorts, 

 but sticks to the one that has proved best for his purpose. The growers who 

 are supplying the markets of the eastern cities invariably grow a heading 

 lettuce, while those whose market is in the western cities invariably find that 

 the curled sorts are most called for. A large grower of plants, whose sales 

 extend to all parts of the country, recently said to me that he had not for 

 years sold any lettuce plants west except the curled variety, known as the 

 Grand Eapids, and that he never had a call for the Grand Eapids lettuce 

 from any eastern grower, for they always want either the Boston Market or 

 the Big Boston. People of critical taste, who have an opportunity to test 

 the difference between the curled lettuces and the heading (or cabbage) 

 sorts, invariably come to the conclusion that the loose, curled lettuces are of 

 far superior quality to the cabbage sorts. But the market gardener cannot 

 afford to do missionary work or to try to educate the public taste for what 

 they do not call for; he must take his market as he finds it, and cater to 

 what the people call for. Therefore, if the grower is sending his crop to a 

 western market he should grow the lettuce that the western market demands, 

 and so also with the grower for the eastern cities. The lettuce crop is one 



