SEPT.] THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 499 



not become too strong before winter, and consequently be subject 

 to start to seed early in spring, previously to their attaining due 

 perfection, nor be too weakly to endure the severities of the ensuing 

 winter. 



SPINAGE. 



Hoe and clean your advancing crops of spinage, and let the plants 

 be thinned out to proper distances in order to afford sufficient room 

 for the production of large succulent leaves. 



In the first week of this month prepare some good dry ground for 

 a full crop of spinage for winter and spring use. In the eastern 

 States, particularly, this work should not be delayed later, nor, in- 

 deed, in the middle States, if it can be well avoided ; but in a fa- 

 vorable season, and a warm soil and exposure, it may succeed very 

 well in the middle States if sown so late as the fifteenth or even the 

 twentieth of the month ; the more to the southward, the later it may 

 be sown. 



The best sort to endure cold is the prickly seeded kind, which is 

 what most people sow at this season, it being much hardier than 

 the round seeded sort ; of this there are two or three varieties, dif- 

 fering only in the size of their leaves; but the largest and most 

 profitable sort is what gardeners call the burdock spinage. A thin 

 sprinkling of the brown Dutch and hardy green cabbage lettuces may 

 be sown among the spinage, and if the winter is any way favorable 

 you may have some good plants from these to transplant early in 

 spring for heading. A few of the early short-top salmon and white 

 turnip-rooted radishes may also be sown among the spinage for use 

 in October and November. Sow the seed thinly in drills about twelve 

 inches distant from one another, or broadcast, and tread it in, then 

 rake the ground effectually so as to cover the seed well; or if it be 

 cultivated on a large scale it may be harrowed in with a light har- 

 row, wrong end foremost. 



When the plants are up, and have got leaves an inch broad or a 

 little better, they must be thinned, either by hand or hoe, to three or 

 four inches asunder, and the weeds effectually cleared away from 

 among them ; by this treatment the plants will get stalky, gather 

 strength, and be the better able to stand the winter frosts. 



LETTUCES. 



The various kinds of lettuces sown last month should be planted 

 out as early in this as they have attained to a proper size for that 

 purpose; let them be set in beds of good, well prepared ground, 

 about ten inches asunder, and watered immediately, which should be 

 frequently repeated if the weather proves dry. 



In the last week of the month prepare a dry, warm, well sheltered 

 south border, on which to plant the lettuces sown in the latter part of 

 August, for standing over wkater for spring use. Take up the best 

 plants from the seed-bed, pick off the decayed leaves, trim the ends 

 of their roots, and plant them in rows six inches asunder every way ; 



