THE 
GARDEN YARD 142 
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. 
