158 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
head winter lettuce in September, mulch it for winter protec¬ 
tion, and as soon as the frost leaves the ground in the spring, 
transplant it one foot each way. A portion even of this hardy 
kind winter-kills, but we sow plentifully to provide for this. 
Early in the spring we begin selling the small heads, two or 
three for five cents. At this rate it is a fair crop, but only a 
small quantity can be sold. Taking the crop for four years, 
it has been to us a losing one. 
Melons constitute one of our most important, and for 
the labor and capital employed, one of our most profitable 
crops. Our early peas are usually sown thickly in rows, two 
and a half feet apart. If we intend to follow the crop with 
watermelons, we omit every third row, and if for muskmelons, 
w r e omit every other row, leaving a space wide enough to get 
through with a cart or wagon loaded with manure. About the 
middle of May, when warm enough to plant the melons, we 
open a furrow in the place of the third row omitted, spread in 
it well rotted manure, and cover a few inches deep with soil; 
at regular distances of eight feet for watermelons, and five for 
muskmelons, plant the seed. The culture and picking of the 
peas do not interfere with the culture of the melons, and as 
soon as the peas are marketed the pea vines are at once pulled, 
drawn off, and the ground kept well cultivated till the growth 
of vines interferes. In this way we grow, usually, six to eight 
acres of peas, returning about $60 gross and $35 net, per acre, 
four to six of watermelons, and one to two of muskmelons, on 
the same ground, returning, usually, $100 gross, and $80 net, 
per acre, or the two crops together, $115 net per acre. For the 
labor required this is a good return. 
Onions. —Our onion bed consists of tw T o acres, usually one 
acre of Large Red, two-thirds of an acre of Danvers Yellow, 
and one-third of an acre of Silver Skins. Our soil does not 
seem to be so well suited to this crop as to some others, and ‘ 
for two years past the yield has only been 250 bushels to the 
acre, costing us about $130 per acre. The price has ranged 
from twenty-five cents to a dollar per bushel, so that it has 
