492 



THE CULTURE OF SALADS. 



supply is planted in October on a bed of light soil, witli a 

 surfacing of an inch, or so of tborougUy rotten manure or 

 leaf mould. These little plants are allowed to remain all 

 through the winter unprotected ; and when in spring the most 

 forward Cloche Lettuces are cut, the glasses are immediately 

 placed over the most advanced and promising of the little 

 ones that have remained exposed. By that time they have 

 begun to start up, encouraged by the early spring sun, and 

 from the moment they receive the additional warmth and 

 steady temperature of the cloche they commence to unfold 

 the freshest and most juicy of leaves, and finish by becoming 

 those great-hearted and tender products which one may 

 see in such fine condition in the Paris markets in early 

 spring. In the first instance three or five little plants may 

 be put under each glass, and these thinned out and used as 

 they grow, so that eventually but one is left, and that, 

 without exaggeration, often grows nearly as big as the glass 

 itself. Happily, no water is required, as the ground 

 possesses sufficient moisture in winter and spring, and eva- 

 poration is prevented by the glasses and the protecting 

 litter that covers the space between them. Thus a genial, 

 agreeable moisture is kept up at all times, and the very 

 conditions that suit Lettuces are preserved by the simplest 

 means. 



With the same glasses the various small saladings may 

 be grown to perfection, or receive a desirable start. Thus, 

 for instance, if Corn Salad be desired perfectly clean and 

 fresh in mid-winter, it may be obtained by sowing it between 

 the smaller Lettuces grown under these glasses ; and so with 

 any other small salad or seedling that may be gathered or 

 removed without loss before or at the time the more im- 

 portant crop requires all the room. These bell glasses will 

 be found of quite as much advantage in the British garden 

 as they are in the French ; they will render possible the 

 production of as fine wdnter salads in our gardens as ever 

 the French grew ; they will enable us to supply our own 

 markets with an important commodity, for which a good 

 deal of money now goes out of the country ; and, not least, 

 their judicious use will make fresh and excellent salads 



