1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



205 



the cabbages do quite as well as when they have 

 the whole ground to themselves ; but of course 

 a double crop could not be expected to be quite 

 so fine. 



Preparations for the celery crop is one of the 

 chief matters in this department at this season. 

 No plant, perhaps, requires a richer soil than 

 this, and of all manures, well decayed cow dung 

 is found to be the best. After so many trials 

 with different ways of growing them, those who 

 have their own gardens, — amateui's, for whom 

 we write, — find that the old plan of sinking the 

 plants in shallow pits is about the best. Trenches 

 are dug about six inches deep, and three or four 

 inches of manure then dug in, of which cow ma- 

 nure is the best. They can be watered better 

 this way in dry weather, when in these trenches, 

 and it is so much easier to fill the earth about 

 them for blanching purposes than when grown 

 on the level surface. Salt in moderate doses is 

 usually a wonderful special fertilizer for the 

 celery plant. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



ASPARAGUS. 



BY GEN. W. H. NOBLE, BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 



A few years since, I repeated in j'our journal 

 a new way that had been told me of growing 

 asparagus. It was based on the idea that as- 

 paragus yearly made new roots from its annual 

 stalk, and a new crown. That the roots from 

 these stalks year by year, fed higher vip, need- 

 ing "fresh fields and pastures new." That 

 therefore, if you top-dressed the bed with a 

 thick layer of loamy enrichment you furnished 

 the necessary food for these roots. The bed 

 would thus year by year, shape itself into an 

 oval mound. In the trial which I named I think 

 the plantation thus swelling to a little hill was 

 thoroughly salted to keep down weeds, and well 

 dosed with the kitchen slop from a hotel. I 

 should think the trouble with such a bed would 

 be lack of moisture in a dry time. Perhaps the 

 hotel slop remedied that trouble. 



An accidental trial of the method, and some 

 study of the plant, led me to think the new way 

 worthy of further test. Some other of your 

 correspondents at the time endorsed the idea as 

 within the range of their observation. The 

 method calls for so little care beyond that an- 

 nual dressing that it should incite thorough trial 



by some who have charge of our agricultural 

 colleges and experimental gardens. 



That the gardener has not yet proved this 

 method and reported its trial, is not a very 

 heavy fault. Those who garden for profit, and 

 those who cultivate solely for the table, can 

 spare neither time nor space for experiments. 

 Their business is with the dollars or the dish. 

 To them and the future of the plants there are 

 other sure ways for better crops and large 

 growths. From the varieties we have, big or 

 little cuttings hang on the question of manure. 

 Asparagus demands rich and heavy food, and 

 plenty of drink. No matter in what way we 

 pile on the manure it will take all that it can 

 push its stalks up through. The trouble is we 

 do not half satiate its craving. It is a perfect 

 glutton of enrichment. We starve the plant 

 and then talk about our asparagus bed running 

 out. It is our feeding which runs out. It gives 

 us return for all food within reach of its roots ; 

 when that is used up of course it dwindles. 

 Asparagus no more runs out than an oak or an 

 elm, but then it cannot send its roots on so 

 wide a forage. It is severely cropped, often 

 choked with weeds which steal its scanty food ; 

 and yet, helped by the rest of a winter, its melt- 

 ing snows, and the spring rains, in spite of our 

 stingy feeding, it does pretty well. Try it, with 

 a big, deep, full covering of well rotted and fat 

 plant food and see how its stout succulent stalks 

 will delight your purse and palate. 



FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 



BY MR. JOHN PAGET, 



GARDENER TO HON. J. DONALD CAMERON, 



HARRISBURG, PA. 



I noticed in the January number of the Gar- 

 deners' Monthly page 18, a notice of an 

 article I suppose written to the New York Tri- 

 Ume^ condemning Mr. Meehan's views on Sti-aw- 

 berry growing under glass, and I suppose pity- 

 ing every one else who tries it. That " fruit 

 o-rower and farmer'' says he has seen the attempt 

 made, but never with success. I have also seen 

 it tried every year for this last eighteen years, 

 and I never saw a complete failure. I have seen 

 them do better on some occasions than on others. 



I always force from 200 to 300 pots of Straw- 

 berries. This year I had 250 pots, from 

 which I picked fifty-five quarts and one pint of 

 berries, first class in every respect. I picked the 



