LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS I67 



harvested when the edible portion is from two to 

 three inches in diameter. The larger, slower-grown 

 specimens are very inferior in flavor and texture. 

 In marketing, the plants are tied in bunches like 

 early beets or sold in bulk, as desired. It is a profit- 

 able crop in the larger markets containing a con- 

 siderable foreign population. It may be success- 

 fully stored in the same manner as already 

 described for root crops. 



LETTUCE 



Lettuce is by far the most popular and widely 

 cultivated of the salad plants. It is found growing 

 everywhere in both commercial and home gardens 

 as well as in the hotbeds and greenhouses. It can 

 no longer be said to be a plant of any particular 

 season, because even in the North it is grown as a 

 field crop in the late spring and early fall and as a 

 forcing crop under glass throughout the entire win- 

 ter. Lettuce may be found for sale in almost every 

 market of the country every month in the year. 

 The crop requires cool weather for its best develop- 

 ment, and this fact, together with its short season 

 of growth, is largely responsible for its wide cultiva- 

 tion. It is by far the most extensively cultivated 

 of all crops under glass. 



There are three distinct types found in cultivation, 

 viz., the head, loose leaf and the cos. The head 

 lettuce is somewhat cabbage-like in its growth, the 

 plant becoming close and compact and the central 

 portions becoming well blanched, extremely brittle 

 and high in flavor. The head lettuce is almost en- 

 tirely grown for eastern markets and is in much 

 greater demand every year. The loose leaf types 



