Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/72

 them. They should be planted out as early in Spring as the season will admit. The varieties of the Cos Lettuce can only be successfully grown by sowing late in September, protecting them in Winter, and transplanting them out early in Spring. The seed should always be sown thinly and evenly, on fresh-dug ground, in very shallow drills, nine inches apart. Rake it smoothly, and if in dry weather, press it gently with the back of the spade. When they have grown an inch high, thin them out to two inches apart. After they begin to touch each other, give another thinning, when they can be transplanted, if required, into other compartments for a crop. As it is an article of every-day demand, a few seeds should be sprinkled in with the more permanent crops, such as Beets, Onions, Carrots, &c. Lettuce are impatient of being transplanted during warm weather; the late Spring sowings and the early Fall sowings should therefore be made where they are intended to grow, and thinned out as they advance in growth. I need scarcely add that hoeing deep and frequent is indispensable to secure a good crop. In this vicinity there are hundreds of acres of this crop planted out in October and November, on the south side of deep drills, drawn by the hoe; after the ground has become hard, these drills have straw strewn lightly across them during Winter; early in Spring it is removed, when the plants grow rapidly, head early, and are off the ground in time to plant it with Egg plants and Tomatoes, thereby having two very profitable crops off the ground in one year.

Should it happen by accident or neglect, that there are no plants for Spring crops, recourse must be had to sowing on a slight hot-bed in February. When the plants are up, thinned out, and properly hardened, they are planted out about the end of March, or first of April, and treated as before directed. Lettuces may be had in perfection throughout the whole Winter, if planted in a-sunk pit (see p. 15) or frame, early in October, and protected from frost by glass sash and straw mats, giving plenty of air during sunshine, but never allowing a draft from