XXII 



LETTUCE; ALSO ENDIVE, WITLOOF AND 

 CORN-SALAD 



WITH no variety of vegetable is the result more 

 dependent on the special kind of seed than with 

 lettuce. The proper care and food will change 

 the flavor and texture, almost the very nature of 

 many vegetables. Plenty of potash fertilizer will 

 produce firm-textured, thick-meated, golden sweet- 

 pickle cucumbers out of the succulent salad fruit. 

 Excluding the sunlight changes the tough acrid 

 green celery to a fine-flavored, brittle-textured, 

 white appetizer. To produce head lettuce of fine 

 quality the gardener must sow head lettuce seed. 

 Head lettuce (Plate VI) is one of the prizes of 

 the garden. 



Varieties should be chosen with reference to the 

 season. Any loose-leaved quick-growing lettuce 

 is especially suited to the early spring. Curly- 

 leaved or some other early sort like Grand 

 Rapids may be started in window-boxes or in 

 the hotbed. Frost does not kill lettuce, and for 

 that reason the first sowing may be made in the 

 open ground ; but growth is sure to be slow in the 

 cold weather of early spring; and slow growth 



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