LETTUCE. 14?7 



lettuce to supply most families, a bed thirty feet 

 long and four broad will generally produce a suf- 

 ficient supply while they are good, in the early part 

 of summer ; besides, what may be raised by scat- 

 tering a few seeds among the more permanent crops, 

 as onions, carrots, &c., will give a full supply. 



About the first or second week in March a piece 

 of ground should be prepared to sow the seed, 

 either in beds or broad cast (beds are the most 

 convenient). If the ground has been previously 

 ridged up, which is quickly done by throwing a 

 right and left spit of earth together, it should be 

 regularly laid down, and properly levelled : should 

 it require to be dug up, the same attention must 

 be given. When the ground is ready, the sooner 

 the seed is sown the better. A fine day should 

 be selected for this purpose ; and, if the ground is 

 dry, it may be lightly trod in, or otherwise beateti 

 down with the head of the rake, and afterwards 

 regularly raked over. A little earth thrown over 

 the seed from out of the alleys will cause the plants 

 to come the stronger. 



When the plants are fully up, they must be 

 thinned out with a two-inch hoe; and after they are 

 observed to touch each other, a final thinning should 

 be given, of three inches or more apart, according 

 to the sort grown : and here the author has to re- 

 mark, that if the plants from the second thinning, 

 according to the quantity likely to be wanted, are 

 planted out in drill, the same distance as those in 

 the seed-bed, this proceeding will cause a continued 

 succession ; and should the same be done with the 

 different sowings throughout the summer (such 

 L 2 



