150 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



These may be sown in hot bed before spring opens, and 

 transplanted as soon as practicable, or they may be sown in 

 shallow drills in the open ground as early as it is possible to 

 prepare it. . 



They should be sown or planted in rich soil, and be thinned 

 as they grow by cutting for use or hoeing out, until the plants 

 left to form the main crop stand from nine inches to a foot 

 apart each way. Let the hoeing be frequent and thorough, 

 and while the plants are small, sow ash compost upon them, or 

 water them with liquid manure, and early in the summer they 

 will yield you fine and excellent head lettuce. 



The white cabbage lettuce is chiefly valuable for its hardi- 

 ness. It may be sown in the fall in alternate rows with spin- 

 ach, and the same slight covering will protect them both through 

 the winter ; and in the spring, after the spinach is cut, it will 

 afford a lettuce crop of fair quality. Or the plants may be set 

 in a cold bed in the fall, and by the aid of glass and a lining 

 of stable manure in March they may be brought to perfection 

 still earlier. The tennis ball is not a large lettuce, but heads 

 firmly, and with some is a favorite. 



The green head, genuine, is a good though not first-class 

 lettuce, somewhat hardy, and heading freely if of good stock ; 

 but the name, being indefinite, is often applied to different kinds 

 of green lettuces. 



MELONS. 



MUSKMELON. 



French, Melon. German, Melone. Spanish, Melon. 



1. GREEN CITRON. PERSIAN. SKILLMAN'S. 2. NUTMEG. 3. 

 CANTALUPE. 



BRIEF DIRECTIONS. 



Plant in very rich warm soil, in hills four to six feet apart, 

 six or eight seeds in a hill, an inch deep. When well up, thin 

 to the three best plants. Hoe often till the vines touch. 



Time : throughout the time of planting the main crop of 

 corn both South and North. In regions so cool as to render it 

 a doubtful crop, the seeds should be planted in pots in a hot 



