THE CULTURE OF SALADS. 



493 



130ssible in winter. At present the produce is so inferior 

 and so dirty at that season, that it is generally avoided, and 

 rightly so ; for Lettuces when hard and wiry from alterna- 

 tions of frost, sleet, and rains — slug-eaten and half-covered 

 with the splashings of the ground, above which they hardly 

 rise — are not worth eating or buying. And though they 

 may be grown well in frames and pits, the method herein 

 described is better and simpler than that, and the Lettuces 

 thus produced are far finer than those 

 grown in English gardens in winter. 



My first acquaintance with this 

 mode of growing salad was made 

 early in 1867. Since then I have 

 had further opportunities of studying 

 the subject, and it now appears to 

 me that to discuss it in a general 

 way is not sufficient. To under- 

 stand the cloche and its use will 

 not suffice; we must observe the cul- 

 ture of the varieties suited for each 

 season, beginning with the Lettuce 

 Petite Noire, a distinct winter kind, 

 and requiring peculiar treatment. 



Culture of the Lettuce Petite 

 Noire. — This kind is grown to an 

 enormous extent. Before leaving Paris 

 in the first week of October last I saw 

 beautifnl crops of it growing, four j)lants 

 under each cloche, each about five inches 

 across, and without a speck of disease or 

 dust. These plants, sown in August, are fit for cutting about 

 the end of October, and prove very different to the rabbit food 

 that serves us for salad as soon as the cold rains of autumn 

 prevent its growing naturally to perfection. But this crop 

 was an exceptionally early one; few sow it before the first 

 days of September. It is sown on light, rich ground, well 

 and deeply stirred, and covered with an inch, or a little 

 more, of thoroughly decomposed and fine stable manure. 

 The surface is made level and a little firm, and the impres- 



Fre. 293. 



Diagram sliowing the seve- 

 ral stages of Lettuce Cul- 

 ture under the Cloclie. 

 The minute clots represent 

 the seedlings, which are 

 pricked off when very 

 small, as shown in the 

 circle with twenty-four 

 asterisks. The central 

 ring is the plan of a 

 Cloche with one Paris Cos 

 Lettuce in the middle, 

 and five Cabhage Lettuces 

 around it ; above it, one 

 with four plants of a 

 Winter Cabbage Lettuce ; 

 and beneath it, one with 

 three plants of the Cos. 



