MARKETING LETTUCE 
WASHINGTON 
Most of the lettuce grown for commercial purposes in the State of 
Washington is produced near Puget Sound between Seattle and 
Tacoma. A small quantity comes from Walla Walla County. 
TYPES AND VARIETIES 
Lettuce is one of the most varied of our cultivated vegetables. 
More than 100 distinct varieties are grown in this country, although 
not more than 10 or 12 of these are important commercially. 
With respect to market requirements, these varieties may be classi- 
fied into two main groups — those which form more or less compact 
heads, known as head lettuce, and those which do not form heads, 
known as leaf lettuce. From the standpoint of car-lot distribution, 
the latter type is relatively unimportant. Although production in 
some sections is large, leaf lettuce is grown mainly as a greenhouse 
crop in areas near the large cities, and the greater part of it goes into 
consumption locally. Shipments are made principally by trucks 
and express. 1 Most of the leaf lettuce grown in greenhouses is of the 
Grand Rapids variet} 7 . 
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Fig. 2. — Big Boston lettuce 
Head lettuce, on the other hand, is a field crop of great commer- 
cial importance. The principal varieties included in this group are 
of the Big Boston and New York types. The latter type includes 
such varieties as Iceberg, New York, Los Angeles, Wonderful, Han- 
son, and others, but in commercial transactions little distinction is 
made between the varieties. In many markets they are all known as 
Iceberg. Some confusion has developed in recent years from the 
fact that lettuce growers in southern California call their lettuce 
" Imperial Valley Iceberg," that Seattle growers call theirs " Wash- 
ington Iceberg," and that Colorado and Idaho growers call theirs 
" Mountain Iceberg," and so on. In reality, they are nearly all the 
New York type. Cos lettuce, or Romaine, is included within the 
head-lettuce group, although the long slender heads developed by 
this type are loosely formed. 
Big Boston, until recent years, was the most widely known variety 
under cultivation in the United States. It forms a brittle cabbage 
head, medium large, and globular in shape (fig. 2). The outer 
leaves are a medium light-green color, with a slight tinge of brown 
1 For a more complete discussion of greenhouse lettuce see United States Department 
of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin No. 1418, Lettuce Growing in Greenhouses, by J. H. 
Beattie, 1924. 
