KOHLRABI — LEEK — LETTUCE 483 



Kohlrabi is little known in the United States. It looks like a leafy- 

 turnip growing above ground. 



If used when small (2 to 3 inches in diameter), and not allowed to 

 become hard and tough, it is of superior quahty. It should be more 

 generally grown. The culture is very simple. A succession of sowings 

 should be made from early spring until the middle of summer, in drills 

 18 inches to 2 feet apart, thinning the young plants to 6 or 8 inches in 

 the rows. It matures as quickly as turnips. One ounce of seed to 

 100 feet of drill. 



Leek. — The leek is little grown in this country except by persons 

 of foreign extraction. The plant is one of the onion family, and is 

 used mostly as flavoring for soups. Well-grown leeks have a very 

 agreeable and not very strong onion flavor. 



Leek is of the easiest culture, and is usually grown as a second crop, 

 to follow beets, early peas, and other early stuff. The seed should be 

 sown in a seed-bed in April or early May and the seedlings planted out 

 in the garden in July, in rows 2 feet apart, the plants being 6 inches 

 apart in the rows. The plants should be set deep if the neck or lower 

 part of the leaves is to be used in a blanched condition. The soil may 

 be drawn towards the plants in hoeing, to further the blanching. Being 

 very hardy, the plants may be dug in late fall, and stored the same as 

 celery, in trenches or in a cool root-cellar. One ounce of seed to 100 

 feet of drill. 



Lettuce is the most extensively grown salad vegetable. It is now in 

 demand, and is procurable, every month in the year. The winter and 

 early spring crops are grown in forcing-houses and coldframes, but a 

 supply from the garden may be had from April to November, by the 

 use of a cheap frame in which to grow the first and last crops, relying 

 on a succession of sowings for the intermediate supply. 



Seed for the first crop may be sown in a coldframe in March, grow- 

 ing the crop thick and having many plants which are small and tender; 

 or, by thinning out to the distance of 3 inches and allowing the 

 plants to make a larger growth, the plants pulled up may be set in the 

 open ground for the next crop. 



Sowings should be made in the garden from April to October, at 



