GARDENING UNDER GLASS 341 



the culture of which cannot extend so far south as that of many other crops 

 of the- market garden. It is of such a perishable nature that the grower, to 

 make a regular profit, must be within twenty hours at furthest from his 

 market, and the grower in the farther South can never compete in this crop 

 on equal terms with his more Northern brother of the upper South; hence, 

 the culture has not progressed much further south than the vicinity of 

 Wilmington, N. C. There, and along the line of the railroad known as 

 the "CoastLine" in N. C., there has been the greatest development of the cul- 

 ture, and generally entirely under cloth. The growers build frames twelve 

 feet wide, with a ridge pole running through nearer the north than the south 

 side, so as to make a short span to the north and a long one to the south. The 

 ridge pole is about four feet high, and twilled cotton cloth is attached to 

 rollers, like an awing rolling up to the ridge pole to give air, and running 

 down and fastening to the sides of the frame with harness snaps. It costs 

 about $500 per acre to construct and prepare these frames for the growing 

 of the lettuce. A site is generally selected where the soil is of a sandy 

 nature, and large quantities of woods earth, which has been piled and sweet- 

 ened over one season, are dug into the soil. Commercial fertilizers contain- 

 ing 5 per cent, of nitrogen, 7 per cent, of phosphoric acid and QPD of potash 

 are used at the rate of one ton per acre. The large percentage of potash 

 needed on these soils makes it necessary that this part at least of the fertilizer 

 shall be applied some time before planting the crop, since it is always used 

 in the caustic form of a muriate, and if freshly applied to the crop at planting 

 time it will cause serious trouble and perhaps destroy the plants. Some time 

 since a grower in the eastern part of Xorth Carolina sent me specimens of 

 his young lettuce plants and wanted to know what disease had attacked them. 

 The edges of leaves were turning red, and examination showed that the tips 

 of the roots were destroyed. I wrote him that in my opinion they were burnt 

 by the fertilizer, and to test the matter I planted them in my own frames and 

 they grew finely and made good lettuce. He answered that he had just ap- 

 plied a large dressing of fertilizer containing 10 per cent, of potash, and set 

 the plants at once. The result was that he had to replant his entire crop 

 after exposing the frames to the rains for some time, and was thrown out of 

 the early winter crop entirely. Growers of frame lettuce in the South gener- 

 ally endeavor to get two crops during the season, the first during the early 

 part of December and up to Christmas, and then replant for the spring crop 

 in March. Some growers make no effort to produce the December crop, since 

 they claim that the replanting of the frames renders the lettuce liable to dis- 

 ease and damages the March crop which is of more value than the December 

 crop. 



