1909. 
287 
A CROP OF LETTUCE. 
Growing in Frames. 
If vou have made and planted your 
frames carefully on a rich mellow piece 
of ground which is free from weed seed*, 
and use plenty of of well-rotted manure, 
no work will be required until the plants 
are about IV 2 inch tall, when you can 
give first working, and thin out to stand 
eight inches apart in the row. Check the 
plants, as this gives each plant rather 
more room. Iloe shallow, never more than 
one-half inch deep, and throw all weeds 
and surplus lettuce out of frame, as they 
will all take root again. A half worn-out 
half-moon hoe with the handle cut off is 
used for working in the frames. The first 
working is done during warm days in Win¬ 
ter. and if not completed before must be 
done before the last of February (in lati¬ 
tude of Philadelphia) as the plants grow 
rapidly and are apt to be injured by 
crowding. A second working is given in a 
few weeks, and sometimes a third, depend¬ 
ing on condition of soil. It requires from 
six to eight weeks after the plants begin 
to grow in the Spring until the lettuce is 
tit for market, which in this latitude 
(Philadelphia) is from March 25 to April 
10. The season is lengthened hy making 
one planting about October 10, another Oc¬ 
tober 20, while the main planting is al¬ 
ways made about October 25. If too late 
the' plants will not grow large enough in 
tlie Fail to winter well, and if too early 
are apt to be 100 large and to be injured 
by crowding. The early planting must be 
thinned and heed before severe Winter 
weather. This planting will cut ui 
March, however, if the Winter should be 
severe this planting will he likely to fail. 
In more favorable localities this early 
planting would grow all Winter and would 
he tit to cut very early. The season is 
further increased by transplanting to a 
frame in which a Fall crop has been 
grown. Some of the plants are thinned 
from the original frames in February or 
early in March. Tn this latitude it is in¬ 
advisable to transplant after March 3t), 
as the crop nearly always fails. One can, 
however, if a frame is empty and soil fit to 
work, plant a frame in seed about January 
15 , and get a very late frame of hotbed 
lettuce. Never transplant a lettuce plant 
deeper than it stood originally. It is better 
to leave a litle more stem exposed. Always 
leave at least one-half inch above ground. 
These are the various methods to secure a 
longer season. For very large lettuce plant 
in 12-inch rows; making six rows instead 
of seven rows to a frame and thin out to 
stand 19 to 12 inches apart in row in place 
of eight inches. The larger you can grow 
tlie lettuce the greater will he your profits. 
Do not increase the size of the plant at 
the expense of a hard head, however. 
Airing : This is the Secret. —As the 
Spring advances you will have to air a 
little. The rule is to air when the sash 
sweats. If you raise a sash and see steam, 
air. Never let the wind blow in the sash 
if possible to avoid it. Raise the sash 
away from the breeze, at least in the early 
part of the season. As it gets warmer 
give more air; first every third or fourth 
sash; then every second; then raise them 
higher and higher as the days gets warmer. 
1-ater raise the sash on edge and away 
from the sun. When undecided how much 
to air give enough. Remember that lettuce 
heads best in a temperature of 45 to 85 de¬ 
grees, and while it is practically impos¬ 
sible to keep the heat down to 85 de¬ 
grees on hot days, the nearer yon can come 
to it the harder your lettuce will be. Re¬ 
number you may spoil your whole crop in 
one hot day; always raise the sash in hot 
weather so the air will blow all the way 
through tlie sash, this will prevent tlie let¬ 
tuce from heartburning. During an ex¬ 
cessively hot sped try to raise nearly every 
sash. Few growers air much during the 
Winter months, hut if your sash are new 
or tight, a good airing every week or so 
will prove beneficial and may ward off dis¬ 
ease. Always raise the sash early in tlie 
,morning before they get too hot, and put 
fhem down early in the afternoon so as 
to save tlie heat for night, and thus keep 
the temperature as uniform as possible. 
When the nights stay warm, about 60 de¬ 
grees, you need not lower the sash at night. 
The larger the lettuce the more air; the 
smaller the lettuce the more heat it will 
stand. The price of success in growing 
fancy lettuce is eternal vigilance, and as 
tlie weather is so changeable at this period 
of the year it is well to be close at hand 
during the growing season, as it is some¬ 
times advisable to raise or lower the sash, 
giving more or less air three or four times 
a day, so as to keep the temperature uni¬ 
form. Some may tell you not to trouble 
so much about’ airing, remember many 
growers are raising liotbed lettuce; few 
are raising it fancy. 
Watering the Frames. —It will be 
necessary just before a rain to pack the 
sash up five to nine sash on top of each 
other and let the rain fall in tlie frame, 
once or twice during the growing season. 
One must be governed by the moisture in 
the frames. The soil should never ho al¬ 
lowed to dry out if you can avoid it. 
Neither must it be too wet. When you 
think enough water has fallen on bed put 
the sash on, and if it is still raining move 
the odd sashes. If not water them tlie 
next rain. It is not often necessary to 
water more than twice. Never water in 
Winter, as the soil in the bed will draw 
sufficient moisture from the subsoil. 
Gathering and Packing for Market.— 
One must learn from experience when a 
head of lettuce lias grown as large as it 
will. it must be cut before it starts to 
shoot to seed. Tlie heart whitens some¬ 
what and the plant takes on as a rule a 
lighter shade. Sash lettuce should he cut 
before the sun is up in the morning or 
shortly after sun-up, or just before dark 
in the evening, so tbe lettuce will be as 
crisp and cool as possible. Sash lettuce 
must never be_ cut during the heat of tlie 
day. In cutting leave on about one-half 
inch of stem to handle it by. trim off all 
decayed and yellow loaves, and take lettuce 
to a cool place as soon as possible. For 
nearby market it is carefully washed and 
packed in barrels or boxes. For shipping 
it must he kept dry, but packed so it will 
pot wilt in transit. Never press or bruise 
it, as it will turn black wherever broken. 
Ihe barrel will hold from 40 to 65 heads, 
the half barrel box from IS to 30 heads, 
lhe let t nee carries far better in 1 sixes, 
a ?. ** or slli l>Ping boxes or baskets should 
always be _ used, tlie smaller packages 
usually selling to better advantage. Keep 
and pack tbe lettuce as cool as possible and 
ship at once. Whatever method of selling 
THE RURAL 
is adopted, remember that you arc hand¬ 
ling a very tender crop, and get it into I 
the dealer's hands as fresh and in the best 
condition possible. 
Marketing the C’rof. —If you raise any ! 
quantity, it will be necessary for you to 
s ip to' one or two commission bouses in 
your nearest large city. Select houses that 
"have a good jobbing trade in green truck. 
Consult thorn as to the size and style of 
package, and days and time they want 
your lettuce to arrive, and ship accordingly. 
Never top your packages; while it may be 
permissible to have as good heads on top 
as can be found in the package, never put 
them all there; pack a good uniform 
straight package. Stencil your name and 
address on every package, and the com¬ 
mission dealer's ’ name and address. The 
commission house may object to your name 
appearing on tbe packages, but mark 1 hem, 
and if be refuses to handle with your name 
011 . ship to another house. If your are 
near a large town you may be able to 
arrange to supply several retail stores dur¬ 
ing the season. This is far preferable, and 
is more profitable than shipping, as you 
save commission expenses and you get 
what your lettuce sells for. If you are a 
market gardener supplying a regular retail 
or store trade by all means try a few sash, 
as lettuce is only one of several very 
profitable sash croj>s. 
The Returns in Cash. —Hotbed lettuce 
to-da.v comes into competition with the late 
outside southern product, and no longer 
brings the fancy prices of only a few years 
ngo. Yet it is still one of the most val¬ 
uable crops that the truckers around Phila¬ 
delphia grow. Sash men count on SI per 
sash net from lettuce, and returns of $1.50 
are not rare in favorable seasons. Tbe 
wholesale price varies from four to eight 
cents per head; there is never a sufficient 
supply of tbe best, which will always 
bring from $2.50 to $3.50 per barrel. How¬ 
ever. should the net returns fall as low as 
75 cents per sash, remember lettuce is 
usually raised in connection with other 
sash crops which help to swell the total 
receipts. $1.50 net per sash being often 
taken from 500 to 3.000 sash. By having 
sash an outside crop is usually secured 
from plants transplanted from the plants 
thinned out of the frames about March 15 
to April 10. This crop follows immediately 
after the frame lettuce, and can be sold 
through the same channels. It is usually 
very profitable: $200 was taken a year or 
two ago off less than half an acre. This 
crop cannot possibly be secured without 
sash. Hotbed lettuce is very tender, and 
one must learn how to grow it to perfec¬ 
tion ; do not be discouraged through one 
failure, but try and try again, remembering 
that sash culture is to-day the most profit¬ 
able -part of market gardening in the North. 
These directions are for latitude and cli¬ 
mate of Philadelphia. Lettuce plants to 
winter over well must not he too large, 
about one inch tall at opening of cold 
weather. Farther north and west seed 
should be planted a week or two earlier. 
Farther south the plants will grow more 
or less all Winter, and later planting will 
be advisable, except for very early frames. 
A. J. HODGSON. 
A Well-Fed Garden. 
II. T. JSicarthmore, Pa .—I live in the 
suburbs and have a garden of a quarter 
acre. I try to plant the vegetables in 
different portions of tbe garden each year, 
hut it is out of the question to rotate crops 
satisfactorily. What plan can 1 use as a 
substitute for rotation? As I double crop 
every part of the garden, growing legumes 
to turn under is out of the question. I 
have been putting on in the Fall and Win¬ 
ter all the manure (a mixture of horse# 
cow and hen dung) that a one-horse plow 
can turn under the following Spring. Then 
I broadcast 500 pounds acid phosphate and 
a half ton of wood ashes. After harrow- 
in this in. I put on 12 bushels (before 
being hydrated) of lime, harrowing this in 
also. The garden is now eight years old 
and I am afraid that a time may come 
when the soil will become “sick” from re¬ 
peated growing of the same vegetables on or 
near the same snot. I also use real guano 
or a complete fertilizer in the rows and 
hills and nitrate of soda also for some 
vegetables. At present this garden grows 
vegetables that are tbe “wonder of the 
neighborhood.” Tbe garden is irrigated 
when necessary by the overhead spray 
system. 
Ans.—Y ou are supplying large quan¬ 
tities of nitrogen and phosphoric acid,, 
but not enough potash to balance them 
properly. The half ton of wood ashes 
gives 50 pounds of potash, but we should 
add 100 pounds sulphate of potasli if 
we were trying to obtain the largest 
yield from quarter of an acre. The 
use of lime and ashes after that heavy 
dressing of manure will set free a large 
amount of nitrates, and we can well 
believe your vegetables grow. Sooner 
or later, if crops are grown continuously 
upon the same spot they will show the 
effect of it. Some of the scientists claim 
that crops throw off poisons in the soil, 
which, when they accumulate, affect 
similar crops when they follow close in 
the same soil. We all know that diseases 
and insects peculiar to any certain crop 
are worse when the same crop is grown 
year after year. The heavy use of 
lime will overcome much of this trou¬ 
ble, but changing the crops about is best. 
You may not be able to carry out a 
full rotation, but you can change. Our 
own garden is long and narrow and 
we have grown vegetables in it for seven 
years. Sweet corn can safely be grown 
for a number of years on the same 
spot. Peas and beans appear to do bet¬ 
ter when they follow, unless there has 
been serious trouble with disease. We 
like to put cabbage, roots and potatoes 
on fresh ground each year, and also 
vine plants. While the lime you are 
using will keep the soil sweet we.should 
change the plants about as much as pos¬ 
sible, and sow rye among all possible 
late crops, even as late as the middle 
of November. 
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