predatory small boy.  Choose rich, warm, but not dry ground for musk-melons, make the hills six feet apart each way, and treat them like cucumbers, employing an abundance of seed.  As soon as the plants are ready to run, thin out so as to leave only four to fruit.  Henderson recommends Montreal Market, Hackensack, and Netted Gem.  Gregory:  Netted Gem, Boston Pet, Bay View, Sill’s Hybrid, Casaba, and Ward’s Nectar.  He also advocates a remarkable novelty known as the “Banana.”  Harris:  Early Christiana and Montreal Market.

Water-melons should be planted eight feet apart; but if one has not a warm, sandy soil, I do not advise their culture.  The time of planting and management do not vary materially from those of the musk variety.  The following kinds will scarcely fail to give satisfaction where they can be grown:  Phinney’s Early, Black Spanish, Mammoth Ironclad, Mountain Sprout, Scaly Bark, and Cuban Queen.

The tomato has a curious history.  Native of South America like the potato, it is said to have been introduced into England as early as 1596.  Many years elapsed before it was used as food, and the botanical name given to it was significant of the estimation in which it was held by our forefathers.  It was called Lycopersicum—­ a compound term meaning wolf and peach; indicating that, notwithstanding its beauty, it was regarded as a sort of “Dead Sea fruit.”  The Italians first dared to use it freely; the French followed; and after eying it askance as a novelty for unknown years, John Bull ventured to taste, and having survived, began to eat with increasing gusto.  To our grandmothers in this land the ruby fruit was given as “love-apples,” which, adorning quaint old bureaus, were devoured by dreamy eyes long before canning factories were within the ken of even a Yankee’s vision.  Now, tomatoes vie with the potato as a general article of food, and one can scarcely visit a quarter of the globe so remote but he will find that the tomato-can has been there before him.  Culture of the tomato is so easy that one year I had bushels of the finest fruit from plants that grew here and there by chance.  Skill is required only in producing an early crop; and to secure this end the earlier the plants are started in spring, the better.  Those who have glass will experience no difficulty whatever.  The seed may be sown in a greenhouse as early as January, and the plants potted when three inches high, transferred to larger pots from time to time as they grow, and by the middle of May put into the open ground full of blossoms and immature fruit.  Indeed, plants started early in the fall will give in a greenhouse a good supply all winter.  Tomatoes also grow readily in hot-beds, cold-frames, or sunny windows.  We can usually buy well-forwarded plants from those who raise them for sale.  If these are set out early in May on a sunny slope, they mature rapidly, and give an early yield.  The tomato is very sensitive to frost, and should not be in the open ground before danger