200 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



grown in the open air. It is to be expected that as population in- 

 creases there will be a better opportunity for local forcing enter- 

 prises which can be conducted with slight structures and a minimum 

 of artificial heat. 



GARDEN CULTURE. 



Lettuce can be sown on moist ground the year round. It is 

 exceedingly rapid in development (from seed to head in fourteen 

 weeks, perhaps) and can be grown as a catch crop among slower 

 growing vegetables at all times of the year. It starts readily from 

 the seed, and the most common practice is to sow a thin drill of it 

 here or there, as interspace is to be for a short time unoccupied, 

 thinning the plants at the first weeding and allowing them to head 

 in the thinned row. This is the simplest practice, and will be most 

 generally followed in the farm garden. And yet it is so easy to 

 imitate the market gardeners and put in transplanted lettuce here 

 and there, wherever an unoccupied corner appears, that this prac- 

 tice must be urged even for the simplest gardening. 



It is possible to grow about thirty thousand heads to the acre 

 by proper laying off and culture. Plants 14 inches apart in rows 

 16 inches apart is a good lay-out for hand cultivation. Transplant- 

 ing should be done when the ground is moist and irrigation should 

 soon follow planting unless rain comes. 



Wherever a winter or early spring vegetable is cleared away a 

 due share of lettuce should go in. Wherever a summer vegetable 

 yields the ground, the soil should be well soaked and cultivated 

 and the lettuce should not be overlooked. As soon as the fall rains 

 sufficiently wet the ground, lettuce should be among the first sow- 

 ings. And before the winter comes on, with its heavy rains, a 

 warm ridge or raised bed should have its lettuce covering under- 

 way so that midwinter shall not lack its supply of salad. And in 

 February, as the ground is again suited for flat culture, new sow- 

 ings of lettuce should be among the first things done. Thus it is 

 seen that lettuce is to be sown all the year and plucked all the year 

 in California. 



It is not necessary, perhaps, to sow lettuce so often if seed- 

 beds are prepared so that they will readily drain away winter water 

 and have slight protection from cold winds in the winter and burn- 

 ing sun in summer. From these beds plants can be taken at dif- 

 ferent times as land is available for planting out, just as cabbages 

 are transplanted, and even though the plants have attained consid- 

 erable size in the seed-bed, the long roots can be shortened a little 

 and, if not too large, they can still be transplanted to good moist 

 soil, and will go on with heading all the better for the freer space. 

 Seed-beds should not have much heating material in this climate. 

 It is better for the plants to grow slowly at first, and after the 

 rains a raised bed with enough fibrous material and well-spent ma- 

 nure will furnish a long succession for transplanting. But whether 



