46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



instead of three can be grown during the winter season and, while 

 as a rule, it does not command as high a price per plant as does 

 the well-grown head sorts, it can be planted closer on the bench, 

 and the fact that another crop can be harvested in practically the 

 same period makes it a more profitable crop than the one now 

 chiefly handled by the Boston growers. But you will say, "we 

 are confronted by market conditions of long standing which have 

 been built up after many years of careful work on the part of our 

 growers. It will be a difficult and very expensive operation to 

 bring the market to substitute this loose grass for the type which 

 it has grown to consider as of highest quality." I appreciate all 

 this, but I believe that in the long run the forcing house industry 

 will be better off to gradually make the change. 



I wish to tell you something of our own experience in this work. 

 Three years ago when we first offered the loose lettuce to the 

 Washington market, all dealers and marketmen said that they 

 could not handle this type of lettuce. They could not handle it 

 because they had never had any of it to handle, they knew nothing 

 of it. They were making assertions without any evidence. We 

 induced one man to take our product and offer it to the trade. We 

 did not do as I would advise you to do, make a specialty of the new 

 type of lettuce with some of the leading restaurants or hotels of the city. 

 Our hotel and restaurant people, however, were not long in finding 

 this product and only a few experiences demonstrated to them 

 that the general public would eat the loose lettuce quite as readily 

 as any other, that it was quite as satisfactory for garnishing as the 

 head lettuce, and, that it is very much more economical for them 

 to use. The statement that I am going to make is not a very 

 elegant one, but it emphasizes what I wish to impress upon you. 

 I believe the loose lettuce of the Grand Rapids type is more profit- 

 able to the consumer, particularly the boarding house and restau- 

 rant keeper than any type of lettuce grown. He can make more 

 show for his money with this lettuce than with any other type 

 produced. You will at once realize that this is a great factor with 

 people who have the problem of garnishing their table and at the 

 same time placing before their patrons an attractive and acceptable 

 menu. The result is that while it was difficult for us to move this 

 type of lettuce in the Washington markets in the beginning, after 



