80 T HE @ A Rep BN NAG eAmy rl eNinE 
Marcu, 1916 
JUDGING STANDARD VARIETIES OF LETTUCE 
LOOSE-LEAF BUTTERHEAD 
EARLY SORTS 
§Prizehead *Boston Market h §C 
§Grand Rapids || t t *White Seed Tennis-ball 
;Bon Ton +May King || J 
yEarly Curled Silesia §Naumburger or 
{Morse Tenderheart 
*Harly Curled ae §Wayahead 
§Black Seeded Simpson 
7Salamander 
*Hubbard’s Market 
§Black Seed Big Boston 
;Unrivaled 
§Speckled Dutch Butter 
§Blaek Seed Tennisball|| l 
) 
l 
) 
SUMMER SORTS 
alifornia Cream| Siceberg 
Butter +Hanson 
jDeacon 
§ All Seasons 
§Brown Dutch 
CRISPHEAD COS OR ROMAINE 
os 
*Dwarf White Heart 
+Express or Eclipse 
§Paris White Cos 
7Denver Market 
{Brittle Ice 
*Giant Crystal Head 
*Drumhead or Malta 
§New York 
or Wonderful 
§Crisp-as-Ice 
{Varieties braced together are considered “‘too much alike” to be grown at the same time. 
Too much alike. }Superfiluous. *Obsolete. |/Forcing blood. §Merit or worth-while sorts which are basis of Table II. 
grow the extra early strains which have 
“forcing” blood in them, on poor clay 
soil. The Tennis-ball varieties, Big 
Boston and May King proved dismal 
failures on clay soil, but were at their 
best on rich loam. Again, Iceberg 
quickly formed loose, “flabby” heads on 
rich soil, but gained in solidity and 
standing qualities on poorer soil at the 
expense of size and time of maturity. 
There is “the law of compensation” at 
work. What you gain in size and earli- 
ness you lose in solidity and flavor and 
if you want the latter two, you have to 
be willing to work and wait a few days 
longer. 
In studying the accompanying dates, 
the climatic conditions deserve serious 
consideration. During the time of the 
trials, weather conditions were nearly 
ideal for lettuce: It was cool and there 
was an abundance of moisture. It 
stayed cool for weeks at a time which 
is responsible for the length of time 
from date when plants were first 
“ready” to the time 50 per cent. were in 
prime condition. And all stayed in 
prime condition much longer than 
usual. 
WHEN IS LETTUCE “READY”? 
So far as I am concerned (and I 
speak, I believe, for the majority), let- 
tuce is “ready” when the individual lit- 
tle plant first assumes its characteristic 
shape. In the case of head lettuces, this 
does not necessarily mean that there 
should be complete heads. But there 
must be a plant—not a loose bunch of 
oblong leaves four to five inches tall, 
which many people “pull” and imagine 
they eat lettuce! 
As a rule, two weeks after the first 
thinning process, the spaces between 
the seedlings are filled and the plants 
begin to crowd each other. Then is the 
time to enjoy your first lettuce and to 
give the balance of the crop more room 
for perfect development by removing 
every other plant. If you just “work” 
at the time the first and second thin- 
nings have to be done, the balance of 
the row will reward you in due time 
with “worth-while” heads, provided you 
use the hoe frequently on both sides of 
the row as well as between the plants. 
All the lettuces named in the table cf 
types do best when the individual plants 
or heads are given a foot or more space 
in the row. 
BED-ROCK DEPENDABILITY 
The process of elimination employed 
to reach the bedrock of dependability 
in lettuces is shown in the other table: 
Black Seeded Simpson makes both Early 
Curled Simpson and Curled Silesia su- 
perfluous. Practically the only reason 
why Prizehead is on the list is because 
its unique appearance makes it a favor- 
ite and it is long standing. Wayahead 
makes Mayking superfluous and Ten- 
derheart is just another name for 
Naumburger. 
Unrivalled is but a poor strain of Big 
Boston. Salamander may be consid- 
ered an early Hubbard Market and Hub- 
bard Market would do for an early 
strain of California Cream Butter 
which is a small type of Maximum or 
Immensity; but—the last named is far 
from being properly fixed in type so 
the thing to do is to hold on to good 
old reliable California Cream Butter 
and consider the rest superfluous. Rea- 
soning in this fashion, I arrived at the 
results shown in the table which I like 
to style The Survival of the Fittest. 
I venture to say that, among 400 dif- 
ferently named sorts, representing per- 
haps 100 more or less distinct varieties, 
it would be difficult to select another 
fifteen varieties which, point for point, 
would measure up to this remarkable 
assortment. I am dividing them logi- 
cally according to their chief character- 
The trial lettuce garden as it was on July 5th, from seed sown in rich soil April 25th: Row 1, Iceberg (Crisphead) ; 2, All Seasons (Summer Butterhead), not ready; 
3, Black Seeded Big Boston (Early Butterhead), 50 per cent. ready; 4, Black Seeded Tennis-ball (Early Butterhead), ready for use 
