The Glenwood post., 1922-04-06

Failure to produce solid heads may
result from thin soil, poor seed, insult
ficient moisture, over-inigation or
climatic conditions. These may BIO
overcome largely by selecting good
soil, thorough cultivation, using only
high grade seed, and maintaining prop
er soil moisture while the plant is.
heading.
Common Diseases
Stem rot and sun scald are the two
diseases most commonly found in let
tuce. Stem rot is a fungus disease,
generally resulting from excessive
moisture, as it is more prevalent on
heavy soils where the drainage is poor.
Good drainage, thorough cultivation,
and proper moisture control are the
best remedies. Severe losses frequently
occur from seald or sunburn, especial
ly in the crop maturing during late
spring or early summer. This is char
acterized by a blackening of the
edges Of the leaves inside the heads.
The cause is usually. a period Of ex-
cessive hot weather from the time the
plant begins to head until matured.
1t is often impossible to detect this
condition without cutting into the
head. If the weather is very hot and
dry, frequent irrigations should be
applied.
Harvesting
Harvesting is the most important,
tedious and expensive portion of the
crop and where failure is most liable
to occur. The average grower gener-
ally seeds his entire acreage at one
time, without considering the amount
of time, labor and expense required
to harvest, as at least three-fourths
of the expense of the crop is in the
harvesting. Ordinarily it requires
three cuttings to harvest crop-the
first cutting usually taking sixty to
seventy per cent and the other two
cuttings the remainder. During the
late spring and summer, when the
weather is hot, the crop should be
harvested Immediately after the heads
are matured, otherwise they will shoot
to seed. During warm weather, the
lettuce should, if possible, be cut in
the morning, but never when the
heads are wet, as in that condition
they quickly heat and rot. The time
required to produce crop of lettuce
varies with the season, character of
the soil, and care given the crop. The
leaf and loose headed varieties, with
proper care, under seasonable eondi-
tions, should be ready to harvest in
six to eight weeks from time of seed
ing; the cabbage, or head varieties,
such as the New York Wonderful or
Mountain Iceberg, ten to twelve weeks.
Under favorable conditions, 1000
dozen heads of the cabbage head va
rieties may be grown to the acre, but
1000 dozen to the acre would proba-
bly, be more nearly the average.
Caution
wish to caution growers, especial
ly those having large acreage, against
planting more than they can properly
handle. Better have one acre prop
erly handled that 10 acres poorly han
died. I also wish to caution them
against seeding their entire acreage
at one time; when they do, it all
comes in at one time when many are
not prepared to harvest it before it
goes to seed. 1t does not require
much time or help to seed 10 acres of
ground, but it does require considera-
BILE help to harvest that much in proper
time. Therefore, I recommend plant
ing only what you are sure you can
handle properly and that be seeded
at regular intervals beginning as soon
as weather conditions permit in the
spring and seed at intervals of, say
six to eight days apart until the seed
ing season is over; this will distribute
the work throughout the entire season
and enable them to handle the crop
much more easily and safer than when