DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 47 
one of the twelve months of the year. It is necessary to grow 
different kinds of lettuce at different seasons, but otherwise 
the succession of seed time and harvest is unbroken. The 
tribe is a hardy one throughout, and yet there are kinds which 
bear more freezing than others, while, on the contrary, there 
are varieties which are quite able to withstand the scorching 
effects of summer heat. The request for crisp, well-grown 
lettuce is now answered in the markets from January to Jan- 
uary. 
There are at least five distinct methods of lettuce cul- 
ture practiced by market gardeners, which will be briefly 
described. These five methods may be called ridge culture, 
cold frame culture, hot bed culture, forcing house culture 
and open air culture. 
RIDGE CULTURE. Ridge culture begins with the sowing 
of the seed in the open ground in September. The broad- 
cast method is commonly employed, and no great care is 
exercised, since the object is merely to obtain strong plants 
in October or early November. ‘The precaution must be 
taken to ‘‘firm’’ the seed in the soil at planting time, as the 
weather in September is often dry, and if the soil is not 
pressed closely about the seeds there may be delay in germi- 
nation. Lettuce seed as a rule starts quickly into growth. 
Late in October the young plants are ready for the 
ridges, which are made by running a plow in both directions 
in furrows twenty inches or two feet apart. The top of the 
intervening furrow is smoothed with a hand rake, and a row 
of lettuce plants, eight inches apart, is set on the south side 
of the ridge. Sometimes another row is set on the north side 
of the ridge also. It is as the gardener may determine by 
experience. The single southern row, as a rule, seems to be 
more satisfactory. 
The hardy nature of the lettuce plant enables it to strike 
root before the coming of severe freezing weather, and after 
