90 TRUCK FARMING 



be enriched well, using not less than two tons of fertilizer* for this 

 purpose, one ton of which can be directly broadcasted over the 

 acre and the other added at later applications. The plants should 

 be placed about six or seven inches apart in the row. Thorough 

 cultivation must be given at all times and fertilizer applied weekly 

 as a side application. 



Lettuce should not be marketed until the head becomes com- 

 pact and solid. It is customary to pack two, three and four dozen 

 to the lettuce hamper. Care should be taken, in cutting, to see 

 that the heads are thoroughly dried; they should not be cut in 

 the middle of a warm day, as when the heads become hot they 

 are liable to decay in transit. I have found it best to cut them in 

 the afternoon after the sun is low, packing and shipping them 

 at once. 



There is more or less uncertainty connected with the growing 

 of lettuce. It frequently sells as low as $i per crate in the North- 

 ern market, and occasionally brings as much as $6 and $8 per 

 crate there. A great quantity, however, can be grown and sold 

 in our local markets, our hotels using many hundreds of dozen 

 per day on the East Coast of Florida alone. I have found that 

 it pays very well to grow lettuce at 50 cents per dozen F. O. B. 

 Frequently I have received as high as $1.25 per dozen, especially 

 when the crop was destroyed in the more northern lettuce sections 

 of our state by frost or inclement weather. 



* See last part of Chapter VI. 



