OCTOBER: FOURTH WEEK 279 



throughout their growth. For quick results with lettuce 

 now you should buy plants from some neighboring florist or 

 market gardener, or they may be had by mail at very shght 

 expense. The plants are transplanted once before being 

 set where they are to mature, thus securing a saving of 

 space during more than half their period of growth. A 

 small flat of seeds or a couple of feet of drill along the edge 

 of a bench planted now will give you enough plants to follow 

 up the crop which you set out at this time. 



Cucumbers and Tomatoes Follow Lettuce 



December and January are the months in which cucum- 

 bers and tomatoes are generally sown, so they can be used to 

 follow the lettuce when the strengthening sunshine and the 

 warmer nights makes it more feasible to maintain the 60 or 

 70 degrees at night and the 80 to 90 degrees during the day 

 required for the best development of the plants. If the 

 greenhouse is so small that there is no separate warm section 

 in which these things can be started and brought on until 

 space is available in which they may be set out, a small 

 frame on the order of a cold-frame may be used in the house 

 so that the temperature in it may be carried a few degrees 

 higher than in the rest of the house. 



The tomatoes are started in the usual way, but at the 

 transplanting after the first (or at the first if the seed is 

 sown very thinly so that extra strong, large seedlings may 

 be attained) the young plants may be put into three or 

 four-inch pots, and after they have filled these, which will 

 be in the course of two or three weeks if the conditions are 

 right, they may be shifted into a size larger if bench room 

 is not yet available for setting them out. An abundance 

 of well-rotted manure and a little fine bone meal should be 

 mixed with the potting soil. If paper pots instead of clay 

 are used, it will be a much easier task to keep them from 

 drying out. As cucumbers are difficult to transplant unless 

 one has had experience with them, it is best to start a few 

 seeds, not more than four or five, in each of the required 



