334 How THE FARM PAYS. 



made in the open ground as early as the season opens, say 15th of April, 

 until July, and, as it is somewhat difficult to transplant in hot weather, 

 the best way is to sow it in drills twelve inches apart, and thin out 

 the plants in the rows so that they will stand eight or ten inches 

 apart. The crop in this way is exceedingly easy to handle; all that is 

 necessary to do is to hoe it once, so as to keep down the weeds. It 

 is a plant of comparatively tender growth, and unless care is taken to 

 promptly destroy all weeds it may be quickly choked up so as to be 

 worthless. The kinds best to use are those known as Black Seeded 



SALAMANDER LETTUCE. 



Simpson and Salamander; the one is a curled leaved variety, the 

 other is plain or smooth leaved, and forms a solid head. Many of 

 the German gardeners in the vicinity of New York make an excellent 

 living on half an acre of land by this process of sowing lettuce, which 

 they sell at not more than one cent per head; but as they get four 

 crops in a season, and the plants are set about one foot each way, half 

 an acre four times cropped will sell for upwards of $800, even at one 

 cent per head. "When lettuce is sold at retail direct to the consumer, 

 it is fair to presume that, in most places 3 it will bring two or three 

 times that amount. 



MELON (MUSK). 



I have often wondered that a delicious fruit, so easily grown, as 

 melons, is so little cultivated by farmers who have often acres upon 

 acres of land of which they make but little or no use. Melons will 

 thrive best in a rich, light soil, although there is no necessity for 

 heavy manuring on soils where a good crop of corn or potatoes, which 

 has been well manured, has been grown the previous year. Usually 

 a shovelful of rotted manure or compost is put in each hill, and the 

 best growers use also a small handful of guano or superphosphate in 



