214 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



It is a vegetable used mostly in winter and spring, and 

 requires to be dug up, in this vicinity, in November, as 

 otherwise it would be injured by our severe winters, but 

 in milder sections, it is better left standing where it grew. 

 It is quite a hardy vegetable, so that 

 twenty or twenty-five degrees below 

 freezing will not injure it. It is 

 preserved by the market gardeners 

 here in trenches, exactly as Celery is 

 preserved (see Chapter on Celery.) 

 Large quantities are sold in our 

 Northern markets at fairly remunera- 

 tive rates, although, from the nature 

 of the plant, it requires perhaps more 

 labor than any other vegetable to 

 prepare it for market. Figure 53 

 represents the Musselburgh Leek, 

 trimmed previous to being bunched 

 up for market. From six to eight 

 roots are tied in each bunch, which 

 bring in the market upon an average, 

 throughout the season, about fifty cents per dozen 

 bunches. We plant about 85,000 plants on an acre. 



The two varieties used are known as Musselburgh and 

 London Flag. The former is rather preferred in market, 

 being usually larger, but there is but little choice be- 

 tween them. 



Fig. 53. MUSSELBURGH 

 LEEK. 



LETTUCE. {Lactuca sativa.) 



Perhaps there is no plant of the garden that we could 

 so ill afford to dispense with as Lettuce. Its cultivation 

 is universal by all classes, and from its tractable nature 

 and freedom from nearly all insects and diseases, it is 

 manageable in the hands of every one. In a well-ap- 



