==Preparation of the Soil==.—­The Lettuce requires a light, rich soil, but almost any kind of soil may be so prepared as to insure a fair supply, and in places where fine Cos Lettuces are not readily obtained, it may be possible to grow excellent Cabbage varieties in place of them.  A tolerably good garden soil will answer for both classes, and fat stable manure should be liberally used.  The best way to prepare ground for the summer crop is to select a piece that has been trenched, and go over it again, laying in a good body of rough green manure, one spade deep, so that the plant will be put on unmanured ground, but will reach the manure at the very period when it is needed, by which time contact with the earth will have rendered it sweet and mellow.  By this mode of procedure the finest growth is secured, and the plants stand well without bolting, as they, are saved from the distress consequent on continued dry weather.  As regards drought, it must be said that the red-leaved kinds stand remarkably well in a hot summer, and although they do not rank high as table Lettuces in this country, were we to experience a succession of roasting summers they would rise in repute and be in great demand.  Cabbage Lettuces bear drought fairly well, more especially the diminutive section; but where water is available Lettuces have as good a claim to a share of it in a dry, hot season, as any crop in the garden.

==Blanching==.—­A first-class strain of White Cos Lettuce will produce tender white hearts without being tied, and, as a rule, therefore, the labour of tying may be saved.  The section of which Sutton’s Superb White Cos is the type may be said to produce better samples without tying than with this imaginary aid to blanching.  The market grower is still accustomed to tie Lettuces because they are more easily packed and travel better when tied, but when tying is practised it need not be done until one or two days before the Lettuces are cut.  The coarser market kinds certainly are improved by tying, and in this case the operation must be performed when the plants are quite dry, and not more than ten days in advance of the day on which it is intended to pull them.  The Bath Cos must be tied always, and when well managed the heart is white, with a pretty touch of pink in the centre.

==Spring-sown Lettuces== may be forwarded under glass from January to March, from which time sowings may be made successively in the open ground.  In any and every case the finest Lettuces are obtained by sowing in the open ground, and leaving the plants to finish in the seed-bed without being transplanted.  It will, of course, occur to the practical cultivator that the two systems may be combined, so as to vary the time of turning in, and thus from a single sowing insuring a longer succession than is possible by one system only.  We will suppose small sowings made of three or four sorts in January or early in February, and put into a gentle heat to start them.  A very