1G2 THE GARDENER. [April 



be removed the same season it has been used, but allowed to remain, 

 and the Asi:)aragus will root into it and strengthen, and it shoidd be 

 allowed to rest for one year, except a little cutting in the natural way 

 in spring. Every alternate year the material may be removed, when 

 it will be found to be capital leaf-mould, rotten, and fit for any use 

 about a garden where a rich mellow material is wanted. The roots of 

 the Asparagus should be saved, and allowed to hang down by the 

 sides of the trenches, as they will still be of assistance to the plants 

 when forcing begins again. The space over the leaves need not be 

 left vacant throughout the summer, as, with a few inches of soil 

 thrown over them, crops of Radishes, Lettuces, Erench-beans, Vegetable 

 Marrows, New Zealand Spinach, or anything the gardener chooses to 

 grow, can be taken off the space. Much attention' has been called to 

 a new American Asparagus called Connover's colossal : it remains to be 

 proved whether it is really different from the common. If it proves a 

 large variety under ordinary culture, it will be a decided acquisition. 

 The old variety can be grown to very colossal dimensions, which may 

 be seen any day at this season by walking down the central avenue 

 in Covent Garden market. That there are different varieties of one 

 common sort is certain, as there is in everything grown from seed. 

 Crowns of a dark-reddish colour may be seen anywhere growing side 

 by side with others of a bright pea-green and also intermediate shades, 

 but we believe size entirely depends on culture. Here we find Aspara- 

 gus does best in a part of the garden where the soil is friable and open, 

 with a moist bottom ; where the subsoil is on the gravel, hot and dry, 

 it does not do nearly so well. The Squire's Gardener. 



VIISTE - GRAFTING. 



This subject has received considerable attention from cultivators of 

 late. Various modes have been tried to improve the Vine by grafting, 

 and the results, favourable and otherwise, have been reported in the 

 different Gardening periodicals from time to time. 



It has been proved that some Vines bear much better when grafted 

 on a different stock than when growing on their own roots ; that 

 grafting has been the means, to a certain extent, of preventing varie- 

 ties subject to cracking and shanking from doing so ; and that the 

 fruit is considerably improved in size and quality. 



My object in writing is not so much to speak of the results of graft- 

 ing as of the practice of grafting itself. Loudon in his ' Encyclopae- 

 dia of Gardening ' describes a great many methods of grafting the 

 Vine, and quotes his authors on the subject. Others have written 

 their experience on the subject since, but none of them differing much 



