258 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



Pick the leaves as needed, but if the plants threaten 

 to bolt, cut the whole plant. Two or three pickings 

 may be had for the home table from the early and late 

 crops. 



Under glass. Very early sowings of Spinach may 

 be made under glass in March, the plants to be set out 

 when the ground is warm and the plants well hardened 

 off. In the fall plants may be taken to frames, or sown 

 in them, and can be kept growing well into the winter, 

 or else can be left dormant, to be forced into growth 

 by the use of glass as needed. 



Protection. Mulch the fall-sown crop with straw or 

 hay. 



Diseases. Anthracnose, leaf-blight, mildew, and 

 white smut may be checked by copper fungicides, which 

 are, however, too poisonous to be safe with a pot-herb 

 plant. Rotation, and burning all affected plants, are 

 advised, and the soil may be treated with flowers 

 of sulphur mixed with air-slaked lime. Try spraying 

 with "dilute solutions of clear fungicides." (Lode- 

 man.) 



Pests are chiefly the leaf-miner, which in places 

 makes much trouble. No remedy is as yet known ; deep 

 plowing in fall or early spring, to bury the pupae, and 

 clean cultivation of the field, and of all neighboring 

 spots to destroy pigweed, will be of use. 



SPINACH, FRENCH, or 



