SALAD 
143 CROPS 
At any time lettuce does best in a soil that is 
loose and “ warm,” that is known to gardeners 
as “quick.” Heavy, clayey soils are not adapt- 
ed to lettuce, so see that your soil is pulverized 
and well fertilized before the seeds are sown. 
It has been found to pay well to treat the soil 
with nitrate of soda after the plants are set, 
because of the more rapid growth. The soda 
is applied dry, at the rate of two or three hundred 
pounds to the acre, and then raked or tilled in. 
Lettuce seed is sown thickly and the plants 
thinned, as they become edible, to about a foot 
apart. The thinnings make excellent “ greens.” 
The rows are usually 8 to 12 inches apart. 
When grown as a succession-crop, lettuce 
may be followed by cabbage, early cauliflower, 
celery and other things. Or, it may be grown 
between the cabbages and cauliflower as a 
companion-crop, since it matures before either, 
and leaves the land to those plants when they 
need all the space. Seed may be sown succes- 
sionally until warm weather, and you may 
count upon 1000 plants for each ounce of seed. 
There are three well-known tribes: head lettuce, 
cut or curly-leaved, and Cos, and a fourth 
variety little known, called narrow-leaved let- 
tuce. There are about 100 varieties. Field- 
grown lettuce has few enemies. 
