LETTUCE IN HOTBEDS. 195 



results were obtained. Even when forty feet away, the 

 plants were noticeably benefited, except those newly 

 transplanted, which were injured. Radishes, beets and 

 spinach were also benefited when the lights were placed 

 outside the houses, although the naked light inside the 

 house was detrimental to their growth. 



It has not been determined whether the effect of the 

 light is in increasing the hours of growth, or in hasten- 

 ing the rapidity at which they grow during the custom- 

 ary period. The effect upon tomatoes and cucumbers is, 

 if anything, injurious, and Mr. E. A. Lorentz of Orange 

 County, New York, reports that with a street light 325 

 feet from the house, and running every night, all night, 

 radishes were induced to run to seed, and the same effect 

 would have been produced upon the spinach had it been 

 given time. Upon lettuce, however, the effect was ben- 

 eficial, and the crop was marketed two weeks earlier 

 than that grown in another house, not exposed to 

 the light. 



LETTUCE IN HOTBEDS. 



When one has a forcing house, or can afford to build 

 one, it does not pay to grow lettuce in hotbeds in the 

 Northern States earlier than the fifteenth of February 

 or the first of March. If one has no forcing house, or 

 other place for starting the plants, a small hotbed can 

 be made for growing them as early as the middle of Jan- 

 uary, and they will be large enough to transplant by the 

 middle of February. If they are put in thickly at first, 

 and again thinned out, as recommended for growing 

 them in forcing houses, a large number of plants can be 

 started in a small bed, and besides saving labor in caring 

 for the large beds, it will admit of giving the plants a 

 fresh bed when finally transplanted. 



Hotbeds can be used to good advantage in connec- 

 tion with a greenhouse, as seeds planted about the first 

 of February will form plants large enough to place in the 



