I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 395 



the centre of which the shoot is placed, upon a little hillock 

 of earth, with its roots carefully spread out. The whole is 

 then carefully covered with earth and with a small quantity 

 of manure. The air must be allowed to penetrate the bed, 

 this being secured by stirring up the soil from time to time. 

 Care must be taken to destroy or remove snails, insects, 

 and other things injurious to the plant. In October, during 

 dry weather, the stems of the asparagus are to be cut at a 

 height of about six inches above the surface of the ground. 

 A small quantity of manure is then to be placed around the 

 plant and covered with a thin layer of light earth, so as to 

 form a little hillock around the shoot some inches in height. 

 The same precautions are to be taken each year; but it is 

 not until the fifth year that the asparagus can be collected 

 to advantage. 



CD 



The shoots should be gathered once or twice a day, pref- 

 erably in the morning, and should never be cut, but should 

 be bent a little downward and then slightly twisted, thus de- 

 taching the top readily from the stump. By taking all the 

 necessary precautions, especially in preventing too great ac- 

 tion of light upon the asparagus, plants of extraordinary di- 

 mensions and excellence can be obtained, varying in price in 

 Paris from one fourth of a franc to five francs each. A sin- 

 gle plant has been known to furnish five dollars' worth of 

 asparagus in a single year. "When it attains, as it sometimes 

 does, an excessive growth, the plant loses its original form 

 and becomes very much flattened, the edges curling round 

 in the form of a half-closed tube. This is technically termed 

 fasciation, and frequently occurs in other plants. 13 B^July 

 10,81. 



NEW DISCOVERY IX CONNECTION WITH THE POTATO DISEASE. 



There has been hitherto one "missing link" in our knowl- 

 edge of the life -history of the potato -blight Peronospora 

 iiifestans. The non-sexual mode of reproduction by gonidia, 

 or zoospores, has long been known; but the sexual mode of 

 reproduction has eluded observation. This link has now 

 1 been supplied through the researches of Mr. Worthington 

 Smith, who described his discovery in a paper read at the 

 last meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, and published at length in the Gardeners 



