' 



V. LETTUCE. 



bed made at the same time, to contain plants a fortnight 

 or three weeks younger. To have lettuces early in the 

 spring. You sow in August, or early in September, as 

 before, transplant the lettuces in October into the warmest 

 and best-sheltered spots that you have. In beds about 

 three feet wide with hoops and rods placed over the beds 

 soon enough, in order to cover with mats in severe 

 weather $ or, instead of hoops and mats, cover with a 

 glass frame, and, in very sharp weather, with mats over 

 that ; but, whatever the covering may be, take it off, the 

 moment the weather will permit you to do it with safety. 

 There are, indeed, sorts of lettuce that will generally 

 stand the winter without any covering, in a warm place, 

 and especially on the south side of a wall. But these are 

 the flat sorts that bring round heads, and are poor, soft, 

 slimy things compared with the coss lettuces ; though 

 even these are better than none. The coss lettuces grow 

 upright, fold in their leaves like a sugar-loaf cabbage, 

 have a crispness and sweetness which the others have not. 

 If any of these, or, indeed, of any other sort of lettuce, have 

 stood uncovered until any part of January or February, 

 they may be then moved into a hot-bed, and will be very 

 fine in March : if left to stand in the ground, and kept 

 clear of slugs, they will still be a good deal earlier than 

 lettuces sowed in the spring, even if sowed in a hot-bed. 

 But, with all these means, so few can generally be had 

 early in the spring, that, for general use -, that is to say, 

 for kitchen-gardeners to get them for tradesmen's 

 families pretty early in May, they must be first raised in a 

 hot-bed, sowed there early in March, or late in February, 

 or sowed under glass upon cold earth, in the fall of the 

 year, and preserved as mere plants to plant out, having 



