100 



Salad Crops 



plants the demand is imperative. A good salad cannot be 

 made from wilted or stale plants. For this reason the best 

 salads are practically prohibited to people who do not have 

 their own gardens. The plants should be freshly picked 

 within half an hour of meal time. Up to this time they 

 should have been rapidly and vigorously grown. A rich 

 spot of ground, plenty of water, clean and thorough cul- 

 ture with favorable weather, must combine for best results. 

 Dry, tough, wilted, weed-choked plants are not worth gath- 

 ering. Yet most of the true salad plants reach edible 

 maturity so quickly that any reasonable attention should 

 secure good returns. Here again it is not time and money 

 that are required for success, but a little thoughtful 

 promptness of action." 



In these days, when we begin to know something of the 

 value and office of vitamines, contained in the herbage of 

 plants, we should have a new appreciation of the impor- 

 tance of salads and potherbs to the welfare of mankind. 

 It is the result of long and tried experience that many 

 races of men have come to place great reliance on green 

 food. 



LETTUCE 



Lettuce is a liardy, cool-season, short-season succession- 

 or companion-crop, requiring mellow moist soil, quicMij 

 availaNe fertilizers and continuous growth from start to 

 finish. In tJiis country it is grown in the open ground 

 throughout the season, and it is also extensively forced 

 under glass. It is very easy of cultivation in rich and well- 

 prepared land. 



Lettuce is commonly grown in rows 8 to 14 in. apart, and 

 thinned eventually, as the young plants are taken out, to S to 12 



