220 GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



CORN SALAD. (Fedto oh'toria.) 



Corn Salad, Fetticus, or Lamb's Lettuce, is a small an- 

 nual plant, a native of English wheat-fields. It has long, 

 narrow leaves of a pale glaucous hue, and very small, pale 

 blue flowers. It has long been cultivated in English gar- 

 dens as a winter and spring salad. There is also a round- 

 leaved variety with leaves thicker, and of a darker green. 



Culture. Corn salad likes a loam of moderate fertility, 

 not too heavy. It is raised from seed, one quarter of an 

 ounce of which will sow a bed four feet by fifteen. Sow 

 seed of the preceding year's growth, at intervals from 

 August until frost, in drills six inches apart. Thin the 

 plants as wanted for consumption to four inches in the 

 drills, and keep free from weeds by frequent hoeing. 

 Gather the leaves to eat while young, taking the outer 

 ones, as with spinach. It will be fit for use all winter, 

 where the ground keeps open. A spring sowing may 

 be made among the earliest crops, put in for later use 

 when desired. Allow some of the plants to shoot up to 

 seed, which, as they shed easily, is shaken out upon a 

 cloth spread under the plants. It keeps six years. 



Use. It is used during winter and early spring, to in- 

 crease the variety of small salads, and as a substitute for 

 lettuce. In France it is boiled like spinach. There is a 

 species ( V. eriocarpd) with larger leaves, cultivated solely 

 to use in this way. 



COW-PEA. (Dolichos.) 



Several species of Dolichos are largely cultivated in 

 most southern climates, the vines of which are used for 

 forage, and the seeds employed not only for stock feeding, 

 but the finer kinds are used largely as substitutes for kid- 

 ney beans as food for man. 



