There is no occasion to say much about lettuce.  It is a vegetable which any one can raise who will sow the seed a quarter of an inch deep.  I have sowed the seed in September, wintered the plants over in cold-frames, and by giving a little heat, I had an abundance of heads to sell in February and March.  For ordinary home uses it is necessary only to sow the seed on a warm, rich spot as soon as the frost is out, and you will quickly have plenty of tender foliage.  This we may begin to thin out as soon as the plants are three or four inches high, until a foot of space is left between the plants, which, if of a cabbage variety, will speedily make a large, crisp head.  To maintain a supply, sowings can be made every two weeks till the middle of August.  Hardy plants, which may be set out like cabbages, are to be obtained in March and April from nurserymen.  Henderson recommends the following varieties:  Henderson’s New York, Black-seeded Simpson, Salamander, and All the Year Round.  I would also add the Black-seeded Butter Lettuce.

We have now, as far as our space permits, treated of those vegetables which should be planted in the home garden as early in spring as possible.  It is true the reader will think of other sorts, as cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, etc.  To the professional gardener these are all-the-year-round vegetables.  If the amateur becomes so interested in his garden as to have cold-frames and hot-beds, he will learn from more extended works how to manage these.  He will winter over the cabbage and kindred vegetables for his earliest supply, having first sown the seed in September.  I do not take the trouble to do this, and others need not, unless it is a source of enjoyment to them.  As soon as the ground is fit to work in spring, I merely write to some trust-worthy dealer in plants and obtain twenty-five very early cabbage, and twenty-five second early, also a hundred early cauliflower.  They cost little, and are set out in half an hour as soon as the ground is fit to work in spring.  I usually purchase my tomato, late cabbage, and cauliflower, celery and egg-plants, from the same sources.  Cabbages and cauliflowers should be set out in rich warm soils, free from shade, as soon as the frost is out.  After that they need only frequent and clean culture and vigilant watchfulness, or else many will fall victims to a dirty brown worm which usually cuts the stem, and leaves the plant lying on the ground.  The worm can easily be found near the surface the moment it begins its ravages, and the only remedy I know is to catch and kill it at once.  In this latitude winter cabbage is set out about the fourth of July.  I pinch off half the leaves before setting.  Good seed, deep plowing or spading, rich soil, and clean culture are usually the only requisites for success.  Experience and consultation of the books and catalogues enable me to recommend the Jersey Wakefield for first early, and Henderson’s Summer Cabbage and Winningstadt as second early.  As a late root I ask for nothing better than Premium Flat Dutch.  The Savoy is the best flavored of the cabbage tribe.  Henderson recommends the Netted Savoy, which may be treated like other late cabbage.