Spinach 53 



when spinach is not grown. Neither the soil nor the seed are 

 considered as carriers or hibernating places for the contagium. 

 Control: The only recommendations possible are the elimina- 

 tion of the aphis. Experimental breeding for blight-resistant 

 spinach is being conducted and may later prove effective in 

 reducing the losses now caused by the disease. (See McClin- 

 tock, T. A. and L. B. Smith, True nature of spinach blight 

 and relation of insects to transmission. Jour. Agr. Research 

 14:1-60. 1918.) 



Spinach aphis (Myzus persicce) . — A pale yellowish green 

 plant-louse that infests the underside of the leaves, often ruin- 

 ing the crop. It also transmits the mosaic disease or blight 

 of spinach. Control: Spray with " Black Leaf 40" tobacco ex- 

 tract, 1 pint in 100 gals, water, in which 5 or 6 lbs. soap have 

 been dissolved, taking care to hit the underside of the leaves. 



Beet leaf-minee {Pegomyia hijoscyami) . — See under beet, 

 page 164. 



Spinach, or spinage, is the standard plant for spring 

 and fall greens. For home use it may be had in summer 

 by making successional sowings in rather cool and moist 

 ground ; but as a commercial crop, it is not grown in warm 

 weather. Formerly spinach was brought to early maturity 

 in the North under glass on a rather large, scale, but of 

 late years it is grown in such quantities about Norfolk 

 and other parts of the middle country and the South that 

 it is seldom grown in frames in the North except for home 

 use. From southern fields it comes both as a winter and 

 an early spring crop. Fig. 16 is a good spinach plant. 



The winter and early spring spinach is usually grown 

 from seeds sow^n in the field in September, or later than 

 this in the Central and Southern States. The land should 

 be rich; also well drained, that the plants may not 

 " heave " by frost. It is customary to plow the land into 



