Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/71

 Brown or Bath Cos, a very hardy sort, can be cultivated under a wall or fence all Winter, when it will come to use very early in Spring.

Paris Cos, a fine variety, grows strong and upright, very crisp, and one of the best of the Cos. It is improved by tying up eight or ten days before it is cut.

Green Cos, a very hardy sort, rather coarse-growing; but when tied up a few days before being cut, it becomes much more tender.

.—The soil best adapted for the growth of Lettuce, is a light, deep, rich, sandy loam, well worked and manured. The roots are very fibrous, and go in search of food to a great depth and breadth. Where there are only a few sorts cultivated, they will require a continued succession of sowings, but where there is a proper variety, four or five sowings in the year will keep the table well supplied. It is one of the few vegetables that can be had in perfection throughout the year, by judicious management. It is a crop too that can be introduced between other crops, without any disadvantage, by transplanting from the seed-bed on every suitable occasion. For sorts that will be in use in June, July, and August, sow Early Cabbage, Royal Cabbage, Drumhead, Silesean, and Indian, on a bed of rich, light ground, as early in March as the season will admit. Sow a few of each again about the end of April. Sow Early Cabbage, Royal Cabbage, and Victoria, in August, and about the fifteenth of September a general sowing of all the sorts. The Brown Dutch, and other heading kinds for planting in drills, to stand out all Winter, as recommended for Early York Cabbage; the Early Cabbage Lettuce, for heading in frames during Winter; and the other sorts to be transplanted into boxes, very closely, about the middle or end of October, and protected with boards or shutters during Winter, giving plenty of air every mild day. See that they are not preyed upon by slugs; if so, a dusting of air-slacked lime or soot will destroy