CHAPTER IV. 



LETTUCE.* 



LETTUCE is the most popular and the most uniformly 

 profitable of all vegetable crops grown under glass in this 

 country. It grows rapidly, so that three crops can be 

 taken from a house between September and April, and 

 the demand for a choice product is always good. Lettuce 

 is generally considered to be an easy crop to grow under 

 glass, and yet it is a fact that few gardeners are entirely 

 successful with the crop, year by year, particularly if the 

 heading varieties are grown. It thrives best in late 

 winter, but if careful attention is given to watering and 

 ventilating, it thrives well in midwinter. Good head let- 

 tuces should bring 50 cents or 60 cents a dozen heads at 

 wholesale, and they often bring more. The loose types 

 generally bring somewhat less. 



Lettuce varies greatly in quality, and this variation is 

 due in very great measure to the immediate conditions 

 under which it is grown. If the plant is very rank, and 

 has dark green, thick leaves, the quality is low. A good 



*As stated in the preface, much of the discussion upon methods of 

 forcing of vegetables which is presented in this book is founded upon 

 bulletins of the Cornell Experiment Station. Some of these bulletins are 

 now out of print, and new notes and experiences are constantly ac- 

 cumulating, so that it seems to be necessary to revise the advice and 

 to extend it with the observations and experiences of others, and 

 thereby to present a consecutive manual. It should be added that 

 these same bulletins formed the basis of much of VVinkler's " Vegeta- 

 ble Forcing," and this fact may account for some similarities of lan- 

 guage in the two books. 



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