VoL. LX. No. 2693. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 7, 1901. 
$1 PER YEAR 
LETTUCE AND CUCUMBERS UNDER GLASS. 
A big7business to the square foot. 
How the Work Is Done. 
liettuce and cucnmbers make a very attractive com¬ 
bination for the owner of forcing houses in these 
days of high-priced coal. There is a vast difference 
in fuel expenditure between the average of 45 degrees 
sufficient for the well-being of let¬ 
tuce in Winter and the 60 to 75 de¬ 
grees needed for most other glass¬ 
house products. By good manage- 
agement two and even three crops 
may be grown during the period of 
coal consumption, from November 
to April in the latitude of New 
York, and when well done Winter 
lettuce is conceded by practical 
growers to be the most profitable 
of all crops for the space occupied. 
For the best heads $1 a dozen was 
received during last Winter in the 
wholesale market, and the price for 
the season did not average much 
below 65 cents per dozen for those 
of good quality. When it is con¬ 
sidered that greenhouse lettuce is 
planted eight to 10 inches apart, 
making it possible to get ?1 for the 
product of about 10 square feet, and 
repeat the crop three times in a 
season, the possibilities appear 
vast. As in other horticultural op¬ 
erations, however, theoretical and 
actual results seldom tally. There 
is the usual gauntlet of destructive 
fungous diseases, depreciated mar¬ 
kets and incidental defects to run, 
as well as the expense of a costly 
equipment. The warm-blooded cu¬ 
cumber comes in during the Sum¬ 
mer months, when the solar neat is 
too much for lettuce. A great spe¬ 
cialty is made of glass-grown let¬ 
tuce and cucumbers in eastern New 
England, and the expert growers 
near Boston so monopolize the 
market that the outdoor southern 
product finds only a scant welcome. 
The output about New York is pro¬ 
portionately much less, and compe¬ 
tition with southern growers is 
more keenly felt on account of 
cheaper transportation; neverthe¬ 
less some of the finest lettuce and 
cucumbers known to the trade are 
produced in near-by establishments. 
One of the most successful grow¬ 
ers shipping to this great market 
is J. H. Becker, Morganville, N. J. 
He knows how to grow these ac¬ 
ceptable esculents, and usually gets 
top prices for his products. Mr. 
Becker came seven years ago from 
Long Island, where he had grown 
market vegetables many years on 
land whose value per acre was ex¬ 
pressed in four figures. He bought 
a run-down farm near the railroad, where transporta¬ 
tion facilities are excellent, and built two forcing 
houses 40x315 feet each. His products proved so ac¬ 
ceptable in the city markets that six more houses of 
the same width, but 350 feet in length, were soon 
added, making an extensive and complete plant. 
Meanwhile a most comfortable dwelling was erected, 
and the land brought into condition for satisfactory 
cropping. While fruits in abundance and garden 
vegetables are produced, lettuce and cucumbers in the 
big glass houses remain the special crop, and well 
fill the business year. 
Lettuce planting begins about September 1, and an 
average of 25,000 plants are set in each of the longer 
houses. They are grown on the soil surface, no 
benches being used, the soil is carefully worked up, 
several tons of fine manure being used in each house. 
THE MAMMOTH DEWBERRY^ Fig. 26.5. 
SeeDRwralisms, 'Page 598. 
The after care, aside from frequent cultivation, con¬ 
sists of judicious watering and ventilation, as well as 
proper management of temperature. The object is 
to maintain a good growing moisture in the soil, but 
to keep the surface and the plants as dry as possible. 
The deadly “drop” and other fungi spread slowly on 
a dry surface, but with most malignant rapidity when 
sodden with moisture. The water is, of course, ap¬ 
plied by overhead sprinkling, the effort being made 
to saturate the soil when the conditions of air and 
sunlight favor rapid surface drying. The necessary 
heat is maintained by hot water supplied by two bat¬ 
teries of three 3xl2-foot tubular boilers, the coal con¬ 
sumption being probably the most serious item in 
the business. One house is planted each week until 
all are filled and the crops consequently mature in the 
same order. Cutting begins in the first-planted house 
about November 25. When cleared 
it is immediately replanted, get¬ 
ting, of course, another heavy ap¬ 
plication of fertilizer. This crop 
should be ready in January and the 
third in April. As the houses are 
noit planted at the same time, only 
two crops are expected from the 
later ones. The varieties used are 
selected strains of the Boston Mar¬ 
ket type, generally named from the 
the seed grower, but Mr. Becker is 
now depending chiefly on seeds of 
his own saving. Glass-house let¬ 
tuce must form a head if to be 
shipped, though the loose Grand 
Rapids type is all right for near-by 
consumption. The qualities sought 
are vigorous, rapid growth, resist¬ 
ance to disease, large, showy, stiff, 
dark green outer foliage, which 
may be crumpled or smooth, and a 
compact white head, as large and 
heavy as possible. This lettuce is 
packed for shipment in barrels of 
about 100 heads each, which are 
well lined with heavy paper in 
frosty weatner. The quality of 
stiffness in the outer leaves thus 
determines to a great extent how 
full and attractive the barrel shall 
appear when opened at its destina¬ 
tion. Lettuce is all right when in¬ 
telligently grown with the proper 
equipment, as long as fungous 
troubles can be dodged. Mr. Becker 
has had little trouble so far, which 
he attributes as much to new soil 
and buildings as to his scrupulous 
care in management, but he looks 
for the day of reckoning when in¬ 
fection is so general that his soil 
must be sterilized, and is anxiously 
seeking information on the subject. 
Infection is so prevalent in the 
older New England houses that a 
practical steam sterilizer, to be 
moved over the beds before plant¬ 
ing, has been evolved. It is said 
quickly to raise the soil tempera¬ 
ture to 200 degrees to a foot In 
depth, and thus effectually cook all 
disease germs, and to be operated 
at a moderate expense. Sometimes 
soil is sterilized before filling beds. 
As the April crop of lettuce Is 
harvested the house is made ready 
for cucumbers, seeds of which are 
planted in March. They are set at 
intervals of four feet in rows the 
same distance apart. They are raised in plant boxes 
so arranged that the soil blocks may be cut apart 
without much disturbing the roots of individual 
plants. About 2,600 plants are needed for each house. 
A framework of cedar poles reaching to the glass 
roof, connected by transverse wires, is erected along 
each row of cucumbers to form a trellis, and the vines 
carefully tied on as they run. A hive of bees is placed 
in each house to pollinate the blooms. The first cu- 
