CHAPTER Xin. 



LETTUCE FORCING. 



Within the last ten or fifteen years, the growing 

 of crops of winter lettuce, in houses especially erected for 

 the purpose, has become quite an important industry in 

 many localities. Owing to improper methods of han- 

 dling the crop, it was for a long time thought that hot- 

 beds were preferable to forcing houses for lettuce grow- 

 ing, when large perfect heads were desired, but except 

 for late fall and early spring, they are but little used 

 to-day. 



While every large city has one or more persons en- 

 gaged in lettuce forcing, the industry seems to have 

 reached its largest dimensions in the vicinity of Arling- 

 ton, Mass., and Grand Eapids, Mich. Owing to the 

 perfection of their methods, the lettuce growers of 

 Arlington and Belmont have been able to compete with 

 local growers, in the New York market. The industry 

 is a comparatively new one in Grand Rapids, as 

 it is but little more than ten years since Eugene Davis 

 engaged in the business upon a small scale. So success- 

 ful has he been that hundreds have gone into it, and the 

 glass ar^ea used for the purpose has doubled each year 

 since 1888, until in 1891 several hundred thousand 

 square feet of glass were used in the erection of houses 

 for lettuce forcing. The markets of Detroit, Cleveland, 

 Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee and, in fact 

 nearly all of the large cities within a radius of from 300 

 to 500 miles, are supplied with Grand Rapids lettuce, 

 and it has been sent nearly one thousand miles to New 



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