SPINACH 193 



poorer the harvest of greens. Spinach must have 

 rich soil to feed on. The more luxuriant the 

 growth, the more delicious are the greens. Choose 

 the richest strip in the garden, perhaps where 

 the Champion of England peas were the season 

 before, or the lima beans. Make it richer by an 

 application of commercial fertilizer when the 

 strip is fitted for sowing. Then sow Long Sea- 

 son spinach while the ground is cool and moist. 

 After seeding, furnish still more of the necessary 

 foliage food in a sprinkle of nitrate along the 

 rows; continue this magical growth stimulant 

 every few days; and the gardener may be certain 

 of an early crop of the tenderest most appetizing 

 greens ever eaten. No other plant, not even let- 

 tuce, responds so surprisingly to nitrogen. 

 Nitrate of soda more than trebles the ordinary 

 size, producing great plants nearly a foot across, 

 just covering the surface with their big leaves. 



Spinach seed is less vigorous than lettuce. We 

 need to sow it more thickly. Otherwise, treat it 

 like lettuce. Put the rows a foot apart ; or sow it 

 in double rows, leaving 2 feet, anyway, between 

 the pairs of rows. Unless you decide to try New 

 Zealand spinach for the midsummer crop, put in 

 another sowing of Long Season, in two weeks or 

 more. Choose the dampest, coolest, shadiest spot, 

 maybe between the rows of tall beans or in the 

 shade of the corn. Then, in September, sow again 

 for the early spring greens. Do not use any more 



