208 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



ranges low; but these vegetables sometimes sell as high 

 as eight dollars per barrel. In case of very warm weather, 

 a lump of ice is of late years sometimes packed in the 

 centre of the barrel. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 



SPINACH (Spinacia oleracea). 



Epinard, French ; Spinat, German ; Spinagie, Dutch ; Spinaci, Italian ; 

 Espinaca, Spanish. 



The common Spinach is an annual plant, supposed to 

 be a native of Western Asia and to have been introduced 

 into England about the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century. Spinach is very extensively used at the North, 

 and when the supply of other green vegetables has been 

 short, that grown at Norfolk has sold for eight dollars 

 per barrel; but the price is very variable. I have never 

 heard of its being grown for the Northern markets, as far 

 south as Charleston. The variety raised at Norfolk is 

 the "Improved Curled American Savoy." The seed is 

 sown from September 10th until October 15th, in drills 

 thirty inches apart, requiring from ten to twelve pounds 

 to the acre. The land must be warm and strong, and 

 the plant requires exceedingly rich manuring. The gar- 

 deners at Norfolk supplement their stable manure with 

 Peruvian guano. Some of them add to the heavy ma- 

 nuring given in the fall a top-dressing of a ton to the acre 

 of the best guano. The crop occasionally pays well, but 

 costs the best growers one hundred and fifty dollars per 



