The usual planting distance is from 4-1/2 to 6 feet, in hills containing rotted manure. Compost, made of hen manure, is sometimes used in the hill, well mixed with the soil. Good cantaloupes are always in active demand. MUSK MELONS.--Early sorts for shipping--McCleary's Improved Jenny Lind, Netted Beauty, The Captain, Champion Market, Improved Netted Gem, Anne Arundel. Late sorts--The Princess, Johnson & Stokes' Superb, etc. See "Garden and Farm Manual" for descriptions. [Illustration: McCleary's Improved Early Jenny Lind Muskmelon.] =Enemies.=--In addition to the fungous diseases of the watermelon and cantaloupe, which are best treated with Bordeaux mixture, all melons are sometimes badly troubled with an aphis called the melon louse. The remedy is whale-oil soap--a pound in six gallons of water; or kerosene emulsion. The latter is made by dissolving half a pound of soft soap in one gallon of water; then adding two gallons of kerosene, churning violently; then diluting with ten or twelve gallons of water. This emulsion is put upon the melon vines in the form of a spray, and is one of the best insecticides known. It is to be used on all sucking insects, like lice and squash bugs. Biting insects are easily killed with Paris green--one pound in 100 pounds of flour or plaster, or in 150 gallons of water. [Illustration: Improved Early Netted Gem Muskmelon (Rose Gem Strain).] Where the land is suited to melon culture, in any part of the country, the farm gardener will find no more satisfactory or remunerative crop. MUSHROOMS. Under certain favored circumstances the mushroom may be grown as a farm gardener's crop. The requisites are horse manure and a dark cellar, cave or vault. If the manure be available and a suitable apartment at hand, the growing of mushrooms may be taken up for winter work. [Illustration: A Bed of Mushrooms from English Milltrack Spawn.] There are many ways of growing mushrooms, and they can be produced in any situation where a steady temperature of 60° can be maintained. A simple method is to prepare a bed consisting of horse manure and loam, three parts by measure of the former and one of the latter, the manure having been somewhat fermented and sweetened by allowing it to heat and turning it several times. A compact bed a foot deep is made. This bed will first heat and then cool. As it cools, when at 80° or 85° an inch below the surface, bits of brick spawn the size of a hen's egg are inserted about 9 inches apart. The bed must not be immediately covered, or the temperature will rise sufficiently to kill the spawn. In ten days, more or less, as shown by a thermometer, this danger will be past, and the bed should receive a coating of good loam an inch deep. No water is to be applied until after the bed is in full bearing.