CHAPTER XVII. 
POT-HERB CROPS. 
OT-HERB crops are “ greens,”’ grown for 
their leaves. Unless the growth be quick 
and continuous, the leaves will not be 
crisp and tender. Quick and continuous growth 
can be secured only by having the soil in good 
condition and giving the crop careful tillage. 
Furthermore, greens are mostly surface feeders, 
so that the surface soil must be in excellent 
tilth, and contain much plant food. They 
demand cool weather and are usually grown as 
succession- or companion-crops, because they 
do not require the whole season to mature. 
SPINACH. 
Spinach is a spring crop and a fall crop, be- 
cause spring and fall give the cool, moist tem- 
perature it needs to come to perfection. Spin- 
ach belongs to the pigweed family and is a 
cousin to the beet. There are two varieties, the 
prickly seeded and the round seeded. The 
prickly seeded is the hardiest, and is most 
commonly used for fall sowing. 
Farmers in the North used to grow spinach 
extensively under glass, but of late years the 
large out-door crops grown around Norfolk, 
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