52 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



dripping around tiie plant from the glass, seems to be one of the 

 causes of this rotting ; also too cold a stream of air dropping 

 suddenly upon the plants seems to be another condition. But 

 after several cloudy days in succession, when lettuce is nearly 

 headed up, this disease prevails most destructively. There is 

 still another cause of many of these diseases to which lettuce is 

 subject, which I have never seen mentioned in any book, nor 

 heard any of these old lettuce-growers refer to as a possible 

 cause, viz. : the transmission of these diseases in the seed. My 

 son first suggested this as a possible, yea, as a probable cause, 

 some years ago, when the mildew and rot seemed to threaten the 

 utter destruction of the lettuce business throughout New Eng- 

 land. Acting at once upon that suggestion, I procured some of 

 my seed from a part of the country (Northern Illinois) where 

 the disease had never prevailed, and we became fully persuaded 

 that had we used that seed wholly in the next planting in my 

 house, we should have made a saving of at least one hundred 

 dollars on that single crop. 



Remedies. 



To check the mildew, evaporated sulphur is often used. When 

 I have used it, I have placed the sulphur in small tin cups, and 

 heated them over kerosene lamps, by a simple nursing lamp 

 attachment to the lamp chimneys. At the Hatch Experiment 

 Station I see their arrangement is similar, but perhaps more con- 

 venient — a small kettle heated over an oil stove lamp. Great 

 care is needed to prevent the brimstone taking fire, for, if com- 

 bustion takes place, all plant life in the house will be destroyed 

 in a very few minutes. 



But Sunlight is Nature's greatest remedy for this, and perhaps 

 nearly all the diseases that attack lettuce when confined under 

 glass. It is because we have so little sunshine during the short 

 days of early winter that makes the forcing of lettuce so diflicult 

 a business, for when this small amount of sunlight is still further 

 diminished to any considerable extent by cloudy weather, as it 

 frequently is, it is sure to bring disaster to the lettuce crop. 



Aktificial Light. 

 But it is right at this point where, I am confident, the next 

 most important advance in lettuce-growing is destined to be 



