LETTUCE
For the very earliest use plant seed in hotbed and transplant to open ground about the middle of May, setting the plants about a foot apart if head lettuce is desired and, of course, no one who is acquainted with the superior excellence of head lettuce over the leaf variety will care to grow the latter. There are so many excellent varieties of lettuce on the market that one hesitates to recommend any special sort but some are more reliable headers than others. One of the surest headers and an excellent sort to plant in summer as it is more resistant of heat than most sorts, is the Improved Hanson; this variety makes a large, globe-shaped head, so compact that the inner leaves are beautifully blanched and the quality is excellent. For those who like a brown-leaved lettuce and in my opinion this sort excels in flavor all others, the old May King is one of the best and should always find a place in the garden whatever other varieties are grown. It is not as large as lettuce and permits of closer planting than Hanson or All Season—another most excellent head lettuce—a sure header and slow to run to seed; it makes an immense head—almost as large as a Flat Dutch Cabbage, with beautifully blanched inner leaves and a fine, buttery flavor.
Gratifying evidences of your own care and industry
Of the loose-leaved lettuce the Grand Rapids Forcing Lettuce is the best known. This is a good sort to grow in the hotbed and may be allowed to remain after the other vegetables are removed, resetting to stand a few inches apart. The leaves are upright and loose, beautifully green and curled and the flavor crisp and delicious. It may be grown to use while the other sorts are heading.
Romaine or Coss Lettuce is the sort served in the big hotels as Romaine salad. It requires transplanting either from the hotbed to the open ground or from the seed row in the open ground to another row. It should stand about four inches apart in the row as the growth is upright, rather than spreading, and when of sufficient size the leaves must be tied together to blanch. It is very crisp and delicious lettuce when quickly grown by the aid of much fertilizer, good culture and moisture, but lacking these is rather tough and bitter. Nitrates may be used to advantage, applied along the rows after the plants are transplanted.
All lettuce is at best in spring and early summer. It is very difficult to grow good lettuce in hot weather. If a width of cheese cloth is stretched over the row and the soil kept moist much better results can be secured. Leaf lettuce is more easily managed in mid-summer than head lettuce and unless one can give special attention this is a better sort to sow for succession.
ONIONS
Are an all-the-year-round vegetable and belong to each season according to how they are handled. For green onions, early in spring, the White Potato, or Multiplier, Onions are deservedly popular; these are usually raised from sets planted in drills where they are to form a permanent bed and cultivated during summer; they form a clump of tender shoots which are ready for use in May. If, however, the bed is neglected and allowed to form sod or weeds the onions deteriorate and become tough and woody; their principal merit consists in their earliness. For first class bunching onions, however, onions with bottoms, one should sow seed in August in a fine, clean seed bed that has been heavily manured, scattering the seed thinly in drills one foot or fifteen inches apart and thin the plants to stand two inches apart in the rows. Onions are quite hardy and will usually winter without protection but in severe climates a light covering of straw or of evergreen boughs will be beneficial; this practice gives very fine green onions early in the spring.