Page:How and what to grow in a kitchen garden of one acre (IA howwhattogrowin00darl).pdf/104

 be made of the “Perpetual Lettuce,” and the plants, when large enough, should be transplanted and treated the same as the head lettuce; it will not form tight heads, but produces a fine bunch of broad, yellowish-green leaves, which are very crisp and delicate, not being strong and bitter, as most lettuces are in hot weather. This lettuce will stand from four to six weeks without running to seed, so that if plantings are made about once a month it can be had in perfection throughout the balance of the season. If the head lettuce is more particularly desired, a sowing should be made about the first of August, and another about the fifteenth; the young plants should be transplanted and treated in the same manner for heading as is followed in the spring; the first sowing will not produce heads unless the latter part of August and the first part of September be cool and moist; but you are almost sure to have fine heads from the second sowing. Personally, I prefer the Perpetual, both for its fine qualities and the ease of growing it.

Another way, and the easiest, to have a constant succession of lettuce for the table throughout the season, is to sow the seed thickly in drills and to cut the loose leaves close to the ground when it is three or four inches high; this produces rather narrow leaves, which are very tender and juicy, but which have not the substance of those grown as separate plants or heads, and are not so easily prepared for the table. These sowings can be made every few weeks, and a constant succession of young leaves be had for use throughout the entire season. It should