'^™ 142 



GARDEN YARD ^^ 



and the loving order of the world — as well as 

 to fill our pockets. 



LETTUCE. 



The most popular salad crop is lettuce, a 

 hardy, short-season, companion- or succession- 

 crop requiring moist, rich, mellow soil, and 

 plant food in quickly available form. It is 

 easy of culture and is chiefly grown in the open, 

 though the demand for it has increased to such 

 an extent that it is started in hot-beds or forcing 

 houses that it may be earlier on the market. 

 You can get it in about five weeks. Coolness 

 and continuous growth are necessary to pre- 

 vent toughness and bitterness. It is little 

 grown in the summer, though the Cos variety 

 can stand the hot weather very well, if the soil 

 is moist and cool. Lettuce does better if trans- 

 planted and for that reason it is usually sown in 

 seed-beds; in transplanting, it is usual to cut 

 off the top third of the leaves, unless the seed- 

 lings are very stocky; but the mid-season and 

 later- crops may be sown where the plants are 

 to stand. Fall lettuce should be sown in late 

 August or early September, and, as it is easier 

 to control soil conditions and to get quick 

 sprouting in a seed-bed than in the field at that 

 dry time of year, it is better to use the seed-bed. 



