CHAPTER XXI. 

 CULTURE OF LETTUCE. 



ETTUCE can frequently be grown as an auxil- 

 iary crop between other vegetables for in- 

 stance, between cabbage or between rows of 

 celery or other slow-growing vegetables. 



To properly raise a seed-bed of lettuce 

 plants in the semi-tropics usually requires con- 

 siderable care, as we have a variety of ants 

 which seem to have an appetite for lettuce seed 

 above everything else. I have never been able to bait them with 

 anything that would divert their attention when lettuce seed was 

 in the vicinity. I have been obliged occasionally to go to great 

 extremes to grow or protect the seed from ravages of these 

 injurious insects. Therefore, when growing lettuce plants, I have 

 found that it paid to make first a flat table similar to a bench in 

 a hot-house, and stand each leg of the table in a receptacle con- 

 taining oil or water. I have grown plants successfully in this 

 manner when it would have been otherwise impossible to grow 

 them. By using a seed drill and covering every individual seed 

 with soil, I often have managed to get the seed up before any 

 great number were carried off by these insects. They seem to 

 be unable to find or scent them if great care is taken in fining the 

 soil and pressing the seed firmly into it. Of course, great care 

 must be taken not to cover the seed too deep, as lettuce seed will 

 not grow if covered as much as one-fourth of an inch deep ; par- 

 ticularly is this true if the season is inclined to be rainy. 



I have not found a variety to equal the Big Boston for gen- 

 eral marketing purposes, as it will produce enormous heads which 

 invariably carry well, and the flavor cannot be surpassed. The 

 rows should be about 18 inches apart. The soil, of course, should 



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