Cultural Directions. — 249 



boughs, or coarse litter, and will give a crop much in advance 

 of that planted out in spring. It should go without saying that 

 the stimulus given to plant growth by free use of the hoes 

 cannot be safely dispensed with in the lettuce patch. 



Growing for Home Use. — People who know lettuce only 

 as loose leaves (cut-lettuce, leaf-lettuce) grown in close rows or 

 masses, as usually found in American kitchen gardens, have not 

 yet learned to appreciate the possibilities of this vegetable as 

 salad material, nor all its inherent virtues. My method of 

 growing it for home use brings out all its best points. 



At the earliest possible date in spring I sow seed of various 

 varieties in drills 12 to 15 inches apart, and give clean and 

 thorough cultivation from the start by means of the hand wheel- 

 hoe, same as all the other closely planted vegetables in the patch. 



Hanson. 



Strictattention is given to early thinning, the most vigorous plants 

 being left, so they stand about 3 or 4 inches apart in the drills. 

 Rapid growth is forced by occasional light dressings of nitrate 

 of soda (a little saltpetre will give similar results); and as soon 

 as the heads have fairly begun to form, we commence using them 

 for the table, thinning the plants as we go along, until they stand 

 10 or 12 inches apart in the rows. By this time they have 

 developed into large heads, sometimes of mammoth size, and of 

 the delicious crispness and tenderness which only rapid growth 

 can give us. Thus we have always the very best quality of 

 salad, the little partly-developed heads at first, and later the hard, 

 solid, large ones. As we always have it in great abundance, the 

 crisp inner hearts alone are used, and the large outer leaves go 

 to the fowls. Thus grown, lettuce makes a most excellent salad, 

 indeed, above all comparison with the stuff usually found in the 

 markets, or in most people's kitchen garden. Repeated sowings 

 should be made for succession. 



