144 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap 



four yards square is enough. Put the rows eight 

 inches asunder, and thin the plants to three inches 

 apart in the row. Hoe deeply and frequently be- 

 tween the plants till the middle of July, and then 

 take the plants up, cut their roots off to an inch 

 long, and cut off the leaves also a good way down. 

 Make trenches, like those for Celery (which see,) 

 only not more than half as deep, and half as wide 

 apart. Manure the trenches with rotten dung, or 

 other rich manure. Put in the plants as you do the 

 Celery plants, and plant about five inches asunder. 

 As the Leeks grow, earth them up by degrees like 

 Celery ; and, at last, you will have Leeks 18 inches 

 long under ground, and as thick as your wrist. 

 One of these is worth a dozen of poor little hard 

 things. If you have a row across one of the Plats 

 it will be plenty, perhaps. Such row will contain 

 about a hundred and sixty. One third may be used, 

 perhaps, before the winter sets in : another third 

 taken up and put by for winter, in precisely the 

 same way that Celery is ; the other third, covered 

 in the same way that Celery is, will be ready for 

 spring use. — See Celery.— Three Leeks planted out 

 for seed, will ripen their seed in August, and will 

 give you seed enough for the next year, and some 

 to give to five or six neighbours. 



230. LETTUCE.— This great article of the gar- 

 den is milky, refreshing, and pleasanter to a majority 

 of tastes than any other plant, the Asparagus hardly 

 excepted. So necessary is it as the principal ingre- 

 dient of a good salad, that it is, both in France and 

 England, called salad" by great numbers of peo- 

 ple. It is good in stews ; good boiled with green-' 

 peas ; and, even a dish boiled as cabbage is, it 

 is an excellent vegetable. Yet, I never saw a really 

 fine Lettuce in America. The obstacles are, the^ 



