New York AcricutturaL Exprrtment Station. 469 
fine soil and watered so as to compact the ‘soil around the seed. 
When the seedlings began to appear those germinating each day 
were marked with small wooden pegs indicating the day on which 
the germination occurred. The seed was sown October 27, 1896. It 
germinated quite evenly on November 1 and 2, and only 
plants which germinated on these dates were allowed to grow. 
They were thinned November 2 and again November 4, so that 
vigorous plants, uniform in size, with fully expanded cotyledons 
stood about one inch apart in the row. From these seedlings the 
final selection of plants for the test was made November 20. 
The plan was to set each plat with seedlings which had germi- 
nated in that plat and at the same time use plants of uniform 
size for transplanting im all plats. It was found that this could 
not .be done because in Plats 10 of Soil 5, 12 of Soil 6 and 13 of 
Soil 4, which were located in the end of the house farthest from 
the boiler, the growth was slower so that smaller plants had to be 
used in setting those plats than were used in the rest of the house. 
_ Notwithstanding this the original plan of setting each plat with 
seedlings from that plat was followed. The height of each seed- 
ling when it was transplanted was 14 inches for all plats except 10, 
12 and 13. For Plat 10 plants 12 inches and for Plats 12 and 138 
14 inches in height were used. 
Some plants did not form marketable heads. These were cut 
and weighed when the last of the marketable heads were cut. 
The results as set forth in Table 4, page 476, show that there was 
but a difference of one day at the most in the average time re- 
quired for maturing the plants on the different soils. The percent- 
age of marketable heads was the same for all soils, being 96 per 
cent. The average weight of the mature plants was about alike on 
Soils 4 and 5, but noticeably greater on Soil 6. The heads which 
grew on Soil 6 were looser and the lettuce was more delicate in 
texture and would not be expected to stand handling as well as 
that which was grown on Soils 4 and 5. Soil 6, as has been stated, 
contained no loam but was made of sand and manure, while Soils 
4 and 5 contained different proportions of clay loam, 
