ASPARAGUS. 71 
them all over the bed, and cover the whole with four or 
five inches of fine and good sandy soil, composed of one 
part maiden loam, one part old pulverised manure, and 
one part sea sand. The plants may be put on this bed 
in November or the beginning of December. 
Asparagus thus forced will be early and good and 
will pay perhaps better than anything else. At a fair 
computation full 20/. worth of good saleable Asparagus 
may be had from this bed by March if the roots are 
strong and good, well bedded in, and watered, as soon as 
the heads show up, with salt water. Do not shade them, 
and get the heads as green as possible. In bedding the 
roots in, first examine every crown and cut out all the 
weak buds which are found round the most prominent 
ones, as these will give only small spray stuff and will 
materially weaken the buds for fine Asparagus. 
As soon as the middle or end of March comes it 
will no doubt be so far over as not to be worth retain- 
ing, therefore remove all the roots, and off with the 
soil and one half of the leaves, which will be partially 
decayed. Then make up the deficiency with fresh 
stable manure, and fork the whole over, turning and 
well mixing both the old leaves and the fresh manure 
together, making a good firm bed for the summer 
Cucumbers. The plants for this batch should be strong 
ones struck from cuttings a week or two previous to 
making up the bed, and as soon as it has a little 
bottom heat, which will be in a day or two, put the 
plants out as for the winter batch. It will be necessary 
to keep a sharp look-out for the red spider and thrip 
at this time. Keep up a nice humid atmosphere 
in the house by syringing all the pipes every morning, 
and in the evening also during the fine sunny days as 
