NOTES ON WINTER GARDENING. 99 



the winter markets, the seed for the first crop should be started 

 as early as September i, and other sowings should be made at 

 intervals of about two weeks to insure a constant supply. 



Our own practice is to sow the seed in light, rich soil in 

 flats — shallow boxes about 16x20 inches and two inches deep — 

 and place the flats in a moderately warm and well ventilated 

 room to induce rapid growth. A house kept at a night tem- 

 perature of about fifty degrees is preferred. When the first 

 true leaves are well started, the young plants are pricked out 

 about 2x2 inches in other flats or in shallow beds. Watering 

 is carefully attended to and the soil is stirred frequently. About 

 a month later the plants are transferred to permanent beds, 

 being placed about 6x6 or 8x8 inches — the distance varying 

 with the variety grown. Many successful growers practice 

 handling twice before the final transfer, placing the young 

 plants two inches apart at the first handling and four inches at 

 the second. With the second and third crops this is, doubtless, 

 a good practice as the main body of the house is thus more 

 fully utilized. 



The soil for lettuce should be very rich, light and porous. On 

 solid beds we also place a layer of fresh stable manure before 

 putting in the soil; thus having, in effect, a large hot bed in 

 the house. Before the second crop is put on the bed, the soil 

 is enriched by a liberal quantity of well rotted stable manure. 



The quality of lettuce is exceedingly variable, depending 

 largely on the conditions of growth. A good lettuce plant is 

 of rather a yellowish green color and the leaves are thin and 

 brittle. To be of the best quality lettuce must be grown rapidly. 

 The element most important in securing rapid growth of 

 foliage is nitrogen; this element we often apply in the form 

 of nitrate of soda. Place about three ounces — a small hand- 

 ful — of the nitrate of soda in a twelve quart can of water and 

 sprinkle the soil thoroughly. In order that the nitrate be 

 applied at the rate of 100 pounds per acre, each can of water 

 should be distributed over a space about nine feet square 

 (81.6 square feet). 



During the earlier stages of growth the plants may be 

 watered freely with a coarse spray; but as the heads begin to 

 form and the leaves cover the surface of the ground, we usually 



