POT-HERB CROPS 



The Pot-herb Crops include the various plants grown 

 for '' greens." Spinach, Chard, Dandelion, and Mustard 

 are the most important of these. They all require for 

 their best development a moist, rich soil that promotes 

 quick growth of leaves and stalks, the parts used. To 

 insure such growth, light applications of nitrate of soda 

 or sulphate of ammonia are often made to the growing 

 crops. 



Spinach 



Spinach, pronounced and often spelled Spinage, is 

 commercially the most important Pot-herb. It is suffi- 

 ciently tender to make good greens and sufficiently tough 

 to bear shipping long distances. Consequently it is 

 raised in nearly all trucking regions and sent to near or 

 distant markets. It is a cool-season crop, thriving in 

 early spring and late autumn and hardy enough to live 

 through mild winters. In the north it may be wintered 

 over in cold frames, but in Virginia and other southern 

 regions it requires no protection. In the latitude of New 

 York a covering of litter or straw is often given. 



The culture of Spinach is simple. For home use at 

 the north the seed should be sown in spring as soon as 

 the ground can be worked to advantage, being scattered 

 sparingly in drills and covered with half an inch of soil. 

 When the seedlings have five or six leaves they should 

 be thinned to four inches apart, the plants pulled up 



