Food for days, when grown to blanch. Lettuce requires good 

 lants ground, enriched with thoroughly rotted manure and 

 1 60 well pulverized. The after-culture should be close and 

 careful, to secure the best results. 



Mangolds. 



Nitrate of Soda pays well for roots if applied at the 

 rate of 200 pounds per acre. Use in two applications 

 about ten days apart, the first not earlier than July. 

 The Essex Agricultural Society found by experiment 

 that 12 tons of farmyard manure and 300 pounds 

 superphosphate gave a crop of nearly 



Directions*" ^ en anc ^ one ~ nan? tons per acre, but 



when 200 pounds of Nitrate of Soda 

 were added, the yield was increased to over 15 tons. 

 The season was very unfavorable. 



Melons, Cucumbers and Squash. 



The remarks following upon the profitable fertiliz- 

 ing of melons, applies also to cucumbers, cantaloupes, 

 squash and similar crops. All these crops do best on a 

 rather light loam, or if heavier soils are used the 

 drainage should be of the best. The method of growing 

 these crops is too well known to require mention here. 

 They should generally follow a clean culture crop, such 

 as corn, as most of these plants cover the ground 

 between rows so quickly that cultivation is limited to 

 the first few weeks of growth. This is also an argument 

 for a thorough preparation of the soil, deep plowing and 

 deep working in preparing the hills. 



As soon as the plants are well started, work into 

 the soil about the hills a few ounces of a Nitrated ammo- 

 mate (Nitrate of Soda), a quantity per hill correspond- 

 ing to 250 to 350 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre. 



The best way is to scatter the fertilizer for two feet 

 around the hills and rake it into the soil with a steel 

 garden rake. This not only mixes the fertilizer with 

 the soil, but it loosens the ground and kills all small 

 weeds that are coming up. 



