46 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
ing or before heavy rains. The cloth 
will shed off a good deal of rain, as well 
as protect the lettuce from a beating 
rain. 
Lettuce should be kept until well 
headed and matured to insure good 
prices. 
Frame lettuce should be planted to 
come off in December, January and Feb¬ 
ruary, as it usually sells best during 
those months. Earlier or later than the 
above dates it generally does not bring 
as good prices. 
Big Boston variety is the favorite. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Phelps—It is unfortunate that the 
man who wrote the paper is not here 
to be questioned somewhat. We cannot 
ask questions on a paper that is simply 
read. One question I would ask him 
is, what is the necessity, in this climate, 
of raising lettuce under cover? And I 
would like to ask him, as it is contrary 
to what we have heard here, why organ¬ 
ic fertilizer should be used on lettuce. 
I have raised a considerable amount of 
lettuce in this climate myself, but I have 
always raised it outdoors. Last year I 
put out thirty-eight rods and I shipped 
in January a first-class lettuce. Some of 
the heads were sent to Jacksonville. I 
shipped five tons from that quarter of 
an acre. I don’t think I could have done 
any better under the great expense of 
cloth covering. This was raised entire¬ 
ly in the open, on land well drained, but 
with tile underneath so that it could be 
wet or drained at my choice. Lettuce 
does not require much moisture. It is 
always best on the highest points in the 
field. I differ with him on the point 
of Big Boston being the best. I am ex¬ 
perimenting with lettuce to know which 
will do the best in this climate. It is a 
plant that I think will yield as much ben¬ 
efit to Florida, if properly cultivated, as 
the celery is doing. The past season has 
been one that has been most affected by 
insects in any of the twenty-six that I 
have spent in Florida, on trees, orna¬ 
mentals and on vegetables. Usually I 
have grown with perfect impunity col- 
lards, but during this year I have been 
unable to grow collards. They have 
been entirely consumed by insects. But¬ 
terflies lay an egg that is very bad on 
lettuce and the cutworm is simply terri¬ 
ble, and the enemy that we have most 
to combat in raising lettuce is the cut¬ 
worm. I saw last year where the lettuce 
was left on the land. This year I saw 
that land where the lettuce had been left 
over, not shipped, and I turned over a 
lot of it, and I could scrape up the cut¬ 
worms by the quart. If that debris had 
been burned it would have been differ¬ 
ent. 
Mr. Waite—I think perhaps I can ex¬ 
plain why the people of Gainesville grow 
lettuce under cover. It is to protect it 
from frost. I have seen lettuce fields in¬ 
jured by frost to such an extent that at 
times it became unsaleable. At other 
times, after remaining in the field per¬ 
haps a week longer, one could brush 
away the leaves affected by the frost and 
ship it as second-grade. We have grown 
lettuce on Manatee plantations and sold 
it at $14 a crate. 
Mr. Embry—How much expense at¬ 
tends the culture of an acre of lettuce to 
put it on the market? How are the 
seed beds put in? Is it by turning or 
other methods; and how soon are the 
plants ready ? Do they have to be trans¬ 
planted, or are they put direct from the 
