VEGETABLES LETTUCE. 219 



A pretty good profit, but deservedly earned, for to 

 attain this result the grower works early and late. It 

 must not be supposed that five acres could be cultivated 

 by one man with the above profit. The loss from inade- 

 quate hired labor, and the difficulties of selling large 

 quantities of a quickly perishable crop, would be likely 

 to make the attempt to largely increase the area culti- 

 vated a failure. Besides, Lettuce is only used to a lim- 

 ited extent in the summer and fall months, and if grown 

 in the quantities that it is in spring, could not be sold, 

 yet in all large cities it is used more or less at all seasons, 

 and commands, for limited quantities, usually a higher 

 price than in spring, the season of its greatest consump- 

 tion. No doubt the system of our New York City Let- 

 tuce growers might be successfully and profitably followed 

 in the neighborhood of many other cities and large towns. 



The varieties of Lettuce used for the different purposes 

 of forwarding and forcing, 

 and for out-door culture 

 in spring and summer, are 

 of more importance than 

 with most vegetables. I 

 once lost almost my entire 

 crop of Frame Lettuce, 

 from planting the Curled 

 India, a summer variety, 

 instead of the Curled Simp- Fi s- ^.-EARLY C.-RLED SIMPSON 



i T T i -i , LETTUCE. 



son, which I had got from 



a well-meaning but not very learned friend, whose 



hieroglyphics had got transposed. 



Early Curled Simpson. (See figure 54). This is still 

 the most generally useful variety for all purposes, and so 

 I place it at the head of the list. Properly speaking, it 

 doss not head, but forms a close, compact mass of leaves, 

 which are of a yellowish shade of green and much curled. 



