LETTUCE 139 



roots to feed while they are getting hold, they can 

 probably do it fairly well. The plant, as a whole, 

 will not be greatly retarded. 



In pulling the heads, take the largest first, here 

 and there in the row, leaving room for the others to 

 develop to their fuU size. 



Sowing in the Garden. — A most satisfactory 

 way for the amateur to provide the family with let- 

 tuce from the home or school garden, is to sow it 

 in drills as soon as the soil can be worked fine and 

 loose. For this purpose, Hanson lettuce surely 

 has no superior. Lettuce ' is hardy, and the seed 

 can be planted soon after the frost is out of the 

 ground. Do not take too much space. Twenty- 

 five feet in drills will provide amply for a family of 

 five. Make the soil soft and rich, with well-rotted 

 dressing of some kind. It is hardly possible to get 

 the soil too rich with stable or dairy dressing. Let- 

 tuce is largely water, and without a constant sup- 

 ply at the root, it cannot make fair growth. The 

 dressing sucks up water like a sponge, and holds it 

 where the roots can readily get it. If commercial 

 fertiHzer must be used, mix five or six pounds 

 thoroughly with the soil in the twenty-five-foot row, ■ 

 and use a pound along the row every two weeks or 

 so, after the plants are started. 



When the soil is worked fine and raked level, 

 make a crease along the row, not over half an inch 

 deep, by pressing a strip of scantHng or the rake 



