Salad Plants — Lettuce 



357 



all vegetables ought to be fresh; but with salad 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 culture with favorable weather, must com- 

 bine for best results. Dry, tough, wilted, weed-choked 

 plants are not worth gathering. 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 suc- 

 cess, but a little thoughtful promptness of action.'^ 



LETTUCE 



Lettuce is a hardy, cool -season, short -season succes- 

 sion- or companion -crop, requiring mellow, moist soil, 

 quickly available fertilizers and continuous growth from 

 start to finish. In this country it is known in the open 

 mostly as an early spring crop. It is very easy of cul- 

 ture in rich and ivell-prepared soil. 



Lettuce is usually grown as a seed-bed crop. It 

 is always a succession- or companion -crop. In some 

 cases, particularly for the raidseason and later crops, 

 the seed may be sown where the plants are to stand. 

 Lettuce is little grown in America during the hot sum- 

 mer months. There are certain varieties, however, 

 which thrive in the hot weather, those of the Cos strain 



