392 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. [MAY 



for seed ; or, if necessity requires, you may transplant them ; in that 

 case, plant the bulbs or roots entirely in the earth, leaving the tops 

 free, and then water them. 



SPINAGE. 



When spinage is required in continuation, some of the round leaved 

 sort may be sown in a cool moist loamy soil, every eight or ten days ; 

 for during the summer months it starts to seed immediately. 



Weed and thin the spinage sown last month, especially what had 

 been sowed in the broadcast way ; and of your early crops, both of 

 the round-leaved and pricklyseeded kinds, leave a sufficiency of the 

 best plants for seed. 



NEW ZELAND SPINAGE (TETRAGONIA EXPANSA). 



This is a delightful vegetable for greens : it has a large luxuriant 

 leaf, which it produces in great quantities in the dryest summers. 

 Two or three dozen plants are sufficient for a family : the seeds re- 

 quire to be planted the beginning of this month, and covered about 

 one inch deep. On the approach of frost if the plants are taken up 

 and planted in a box and placed where they will be secure from it, 

 and have light and air occasionally, they will continue to yield plenty 

 of leaves. 



SOWING CARROTS. 



Carrots may yet be sown, especially in the eastern States, with a 

 good prospect of success, if done in the first week of this month, 

 and even in the middle States, if the season is any way backward. 

 (For the proper soil and method of sowing them, &c., see pages 199 

 and 336.) 



CLEANING AND THINNING CARROTS AND PARSNEPS. 



Carrots and parsneps will now be advancing fast in their growth 

 and should be properly encouraged. Clear them from weeds, and 

 thin the plants out to due distances. 



This work may be done either by hand or hoe, but for extensive 

 crops particularly small hoeing is the preferable method, as being 

 the most expeditious, and by loosening the surface of the ground with 

 the hoe it will greatly promote the free growth of the plants. 



Whatever method is pursued, it will be necessary to free the 

 plants from weeds, and to thin them to proper distances, that they 

 may have full liberty to grow and enlarge their roots. The general 

 crops of carrots should be thinned to about six or seven inches, plant 

 from plant, and the parsneps from eight to ten, in order that each 

 kind should attain its utmost perfection. 



Such crops of carrots, however, as are intended to be drawn gra- 

 dually for the table, while young, need not be thinned at first to 

 more than four or five inches distance, as the frequent pulling up of 

 some for table use will in a little time afford the others sufficient 



