AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 149 



thin or transplant them to nine inches or a foot apart, and hoe 

 often. 



Time : at the very earliest moment in spring, whether North 

 or South, in the open ground or hot bed. They may be again 

 sown in early fall for use before winter ; and again, alone or 

 with spinach, later in the season to winter out, or for winter 

 lettuce under glass in a cold bed, which may be banked with 

 stable manure if necessary to forward them. 



Though there is a wide field for selection among the innu- 

 merable varieties of lettuce, yet the first three numbered above 

 will be found adequate to the supply of all reasonable demands, 

 and are decidedly superior to most others. 



There are unexplained peculiarities about the seed and plant 

 of the lettuce which afford valuable means of judging of its 

 character. Varieties that are so milky and bitter as to be al- 

 most valueless as salads, except to persons of a bitter fancy, are 

 almost invariably of a reddish or dark-brown color, and usual- 

 ly, if not always, have black seed. If the seed, therefore, be 

 black, you may infer that the lettuce is more or less bitter, 

 whatever its color may be ; and if the color be reddish or dark 

 brown, the same inference may be drawn, whatever the appear- 

 ance of the seed. This defect may, however, be overcome by 

 blanching the heads of such varieties, which is effected either 

 by gathering the leaves into an upright position, and tying 

 them up, or by covering them with pans as directed for endive, 

 page 142. 



There are two very distinct classes of lettuce : the soft or 

 tender-leaved, and the crisp or brittle. 



What are sometimes called coss lettuces, of which No. 1 is 

 the best known variety, belong to the latter class, and the Si- 

 lesian and white cabbage to the former. 



O 



The imperial ice-head, when of good stock, sometimes grows 

 larger than an ordinary summer cabbage, is of excellent flavor, 

 and of glass-like brittleness. 



The Silesian or yellow curled, and the curled India, with 

 high cultivation, will grow nearly as large, are of good quality, 

 handsomely curled, and very tender. 



