466 Report OF THE HorTICULTURIST OF THE 
inches to the nearest seeds in the adjoining rows. ‘The soil was 
then watered to compact it around the seeds. 
A few of the plants damped off or were excluded, from the 
experiment from some other disqualifying cause. All others 
formed marketable heads with the exception of one plant on Soil 3 
which did not form a good head. The averages of the records 
which are given in Table IV, page 47 6, show that there was no 
marked difference in the lettuce on the different soils, but it was 
very slightly earlier on Soil 2. It has already been stated that 
the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash which these soils con- 
tained in every case far exceeded the amount taken up by an 
ordinary crop of lettuce. Even in Soil 3 which stood lowest in 
the analyses there were found about 26 times as much nitrogen, 
7 times as much potash and 61 times as much phosphoric acid as 
are found in head lettuce, and an important part of these con- 
stitutents was supplied in the humus of the rotted sod and in the © 
stable manure. It is safe to assume that Soils 1, 2 and 3 were 
practically on the same footing so far as the character and needed 
amount of these food materials are concerned, and are, therefore, 
comparable as to the influence on the crop of loosening the texture 
of the soil by adding sand. In this test the loosening of the 
texture of the soil by increasing the proportion of sand from 26 
per cent in Soil 1 to 52 per cent in Soil 3 had no marked influence 
on the growth of the lettuce. 
CROP Il. FALL AND WINTER 1896-7. 
Crop II was started in the fall of 1896 for the purpose of ob- 
serving the effect on lettuce of including in the soil still greater 
proportions of sand than were used with Soils 1, 2 and 38. The 
lettuce in Crop I matured very slightly earlier on Soil 2 than it 
did on either Soil 1 or Soil 3, so a mixture having approximately 
the same proportions of loam, manure and sand as Soil 2 was pre- 
pared for Crop II and called Soil 4. Soil 5 was given twice as 
much sand as Soil 4, and Soil 6 was made entirely of sand and 
