134 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap. 



191. SPINAGE. — Every one knows the use of this excellent 

 plant. Pigs, who are excellent judges of the relative qualities of 

 vegetables, will leave cabbages for lettuces, and lettuces for spi- 

 nage. Gardeners make two sorts of spinage, though I really be- 

 lieve there is but one. One sort they call round spinage, and the 

 other prickly spmage, the former they call summer spinage, and 

 the latter winter : but I have sowed them indiscriminately, and 

 have never perceived any difference in their fitness to the two sea- 

 sons of the year. The spinage is an annual plant, produces its 

 seed and ripens it well even if sowed so late as the month of May. 

 It may be as well to sow the round spinage for summer, and the 

 prickly spinage for winter, but the time of sowing and the man- 

 ner of cultivating are the only things of importance ; and great 

 attention should be paid to these, this being a most valuable plant 

 all the year round, but particularly in the winter and the spring. 

 It has something delightfully refreshing in *ts taste, and is to be 

 had at a time when nothing but mere greens or brocoli is to be 

 had. It far surpasses them both, in my opinion, the use of it rievei 

 being attended with any of those inconveniences as to bodily health 

 which is the case wdth both the others. In the summer there are 

 plenty of other things ; but for the winter crop, due provision should 

 always be made. The time for sowing for the winter crop, if the 

 ground be good, is the last week in August, and if the ground be 

 poor, a fortnight earlier. Sow in shallow drills, eight inches apart, 

 and thin the plants to six inches apart in the row : keep them 

 clear of weeds, hoe about them before winter sets in, and draw the 

 earth close up to the stems of the plants, taking care that the dirt 

 do not fail into the hearts. The ground should be rather of the 

 drier description ; for if wet, and the winter be severe, the plants 

 will be killed. They will have fine leaves in the month of Novem- 

 ber, or before : for use, the outside leaves should be taken off first, 

 or rather, these only should be taken off, leaving all the rest, and 

 they should be pinched off with the finger and the thumb close to 

 the stem of the plant. The plant will keep growing, more or less, 

 all the winter, except in very hard weather, and wall keep on yield- 

 ing a supply from the beginning of November to the latter end of 

 May, when the seed stalks will begin to rise, and when the sum- 

 mer spinage , sowed in the latter end of February, and cultivated in 

 the same way as the former, will be ready to supply their place. 

 About the first of May, another sowing oi summer spinage should 



