If Peas are being grown under glass,
a few plants of an early Cabbage variety may be put out between the
rows, or they may be pricked out on the borders of a Peach-house, in
either case spacing the plants nine inches apart. Successive sowings
made in February and March will be treated in the same way, and will
need less nursing. In planting out, it is important to have the
seedlings well hardened, for they are naturally susceptible to wind and
sunshine, and if suddenly exposed to either will be likely to perish.
Again, when first planted out their delicate leaves will attract all the
slugs and snails in the garden, and the discreet way of acting is to
regard a plantation of Lettuce as an extensive vermin trap, and thus,
knowing where the marauders are, to be ready to catch and kill, or to
destroy them by sprinklings of lime, salt, or soot, in all cases being
careful to keep these agents at a reasonable distance from the plants.

Sowings in the open ground from the end of March onwards should be
made, not on an ordinary seed-bed, but on a plot loaded with rich manure
at one spit deep, and the seed should be put in shallow drills one foot
apart. From the time the young plants are two inches high they must be
drawn freely for 'Cutting Lettuce,' or for planting out elsewhere; this
thinning to proceed until a sufficient crop remains to finish off on the
ground. The value of 'Cutting Lettuce' is better understood on the
Continent than in this country. The small tender plants are in daily
use, and appear in the salad bowl with Water Cress and Corn Salad,
delicately dressed with delicious flavourings. After this brief
digression it is necessary to add that a crowded Lettuce crop is an
encumbrance to the ground; and one of the evils of the best system, that
of sowing where the crop is to finish, is the tendency of the cultivator
to be timid in the thinning, which should be done with a bold hand, and
in good time.

==July and August Sowing==.--From sowings made during these months the
supply of Lettuce from the open ground may be extended throughout the
autumn, and even into December or January should the weather prove
favourable. The main conditions essential to success are, the use of
quick-growing varieties, sowing in good soil where the heads are to
mature, and early and severe thinning. The thinnings may be transplanted
if required.

==Winter Lettuces== are produced and provided for in various ways. In some
places Lettuc