258 SPINACH. 



sown as soon as the ground can be got ready, in shallow drills, 

 about half an inch deep and nine inches apart. Sowing should 

 be repeated at intervals of a fortnight, in order to keep up a suc- 

 cession for use. The seed retains its vitality for several years^ 

 and may be safely used when three years old. 



It does not require any special cultivation, other than stirring 

 the soil and keeping the weeds down, and the crop is usually fit 

 for use in five or six weeks. The young plants should be thinned 

 out so that they will stand about nine inches apart, and the later 

 thinnings may be used as greens. Unless the individual plants 

 have plenty of room they will run up at once to seed. 



The earliest crops are obtained by sowing seed in September, 

 in rich soil well prepared, thinning out the plants to six or nine 

 inches apart, and, on the approach of winter, covering them 

 thinly with straw, so that they may have a slight protection. 

 This covering will not be needed where the snow falls before 

 the ground is frozen and remains until spring. In the spring the 

 covering is removed, and the plants thinned out as they increase 

 in size, until the whole crop "is used or marketed, which will 

 usually be early in May, quite in time to use the ground for some 

 other crop, such as Cabbage, Cauliflower, &c. When well 

 grown, the leaves of Winter Spinach will measure two feet in 

 circumference. 



The leaves are the part that is used. These are rinsed in 

 clean water, and boiled in the least possible amount of water, 

 which has been seasoned with salt. They will be cooked in 

 about fifteen or twenty minutes, when they should be placed in 

 a colander, the water drained carefully oflF, and then seasoned 

 with butter and pepper. Some, however, prefer it dressed with 

 vinegar and hard-boiled egg. 



Round-leaved. — This is the favorite sort with market- 

 gardeners, and their main dependence both for spring and fall 

 sowing. The leaves are large and fleshy, and rounded in form. 

 It is very hardy, suffering but little from the severity of winter. 

 In dry and warm weather it is very apt to run to seed. 



